14U C team to HS. Preparing for velocity.

[Basic5280]

Hello,

Our young lady has been playing for almost 3 years and is almost done with her first comp team (14U). She really wants to play at the HS and is interested in college ball as she likes the comradery and chemistry that builds with being on the same team. She is a smart hitter, coach currently has her 6th, who is very fast on base. She has been working with a hitting coach to work on aiming for the top of the ball to prevent her popping up so often.

The question is how can I help her outside of practice and hitting instruction? At practice they usually just have the pitchers pitch to the ladies and none of them have the velocity she will see in HS and 16U +. We have gone to batting cages, but she fouls a lot off to the right and gets peeved.

Her main goal this season is engaging her lower half more readily and not being all hands (as she is a slighter framed young lady) to use as much power as possible. She usually hits singles or doubles. She has a tendency to do a little front foot slide action and sometimes does two twists of her back leg and either hits beauties over second or nicks the top and it dribbles to the infield. I just want her to be as confident in her abilities and believe in herself when she sees faster pitchers.

 

[cnardone]

get 2 dozen balls, buckets to hold them at Home Depot. you don't get the balls at home depot.
A bownet "big mouth" (or some similar brand) and Tanner T for her to practice what she learned in hitting lesson.
Get a cheap home plate to make sure she understands where she is standing. You can cut out of cardboard or even just draw / paint one where she will be hitting off the T.
I do a lot of front toss with my dd. So you might want something like a bownet (or some other brand) "pitch through" or an L screen for your own protection. I just use the same bownet for both. I do weight down the "sock" of the bownet so the balls right back at you don't hit you in the face. When you do front toss you can adjust how far away you are to help with timing.

 

[Rolling Hard]

You need to go to a batting cage with a good pitching machine (Juggs). Not one of those places that have miniature golf and trampolines. When feeding the machine hold one one in the shoot and mimic the windmill motion with your other arm. Trying to replicate a pitcher and giving her something to time up. When your arm starts moving, she should start loading. 52-55 mph from 35 feet should get her prepared for HS.
Always do some tee work prior to machine work.
One more tip: turn machine up as fast as it can go (70) and just have her stand in the box and track the ball with her eyes for 5 or 10 pitches. When you turn it down to 52 it won't seem so fast.

 

[angispeds]

Depending on your area high school ball could be very mediocre similar to 14UC to near collegiate level. I agree with the poster who talked about the bow net and tee and also with the one regarding machine work. You have described many things that need hundreds of hours of tee work to correct regarding her feet and swing etc but you can’t do that alone because timing is important as well. Good luck and don’t let anyone tell you she’s too late but she does have to realize she is behind and it’s going to take a LOT of work to catch up.


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[Strike2]

As mentioned, much depends on the quality of the HS program. If it's higher quality, there's probably someone there who gives hitting lessons. At DD's HS, it was an assistant BB/SB coach. He was a former college player, and he was outstanding. Hopefully, you can find something similar. In addition to everything else mentioned, seek that person out and get on their schedule. Go to the lessons and observe what happens. You and your DD may learn a LOT that can be applied to individual practice, and you'll become known to the coaches.

 

[DryHeat]

We end up with a fair amount of backyard practice for this. We have a half-dozen TCB 74s (the baseball sized ones). I pitch to them slingshot from about 20 feet and Hard. Like hard as I can throw it and still locate it sort of.

The TCBs mostly stay in the yard and dont kill me on comebackers. I did buy an old Rocketech for them to hit these with. Plus at that speed/distance the trajectory is still relatively flat unlike whiffles.

DD1 is used to facing D1 commits and I cant get it past her very often. DD2 is 2nd year 14u and I can get her on pitches up but she now squares up pitches in the zone.

 

[Shawn]

Why is everyone always mentioning a D1 player. Men’s D1 is only a step above HS.
Most D1 players can’t play beyond.

Look at Aaron Judge, struggled with the swing where they taught down out front.

 

[PJR202]

Don't overcomplicate it. After each lesson, ask her instructor (if you don't already) what to work on before next week. Work on that, then throw her some pitches from behind a screen. If the instructor has specific warmups or drills done in every single lesson, learn to oversee them and do them every time you work with her. Just support whatever the instructor has going. Anything else you do could conflict.

I know quite a bit more about pitching than the average bucket parent. I've gone through training, and am obsessed with mechanics. I took over instruction of my daughter after I determined that her first instructor's methods weren't ideal for our situation.

But I don't have a ton of experience teaching pitchers other than her. I'm still learning the small things...different cues, drills, and different ways to say the same thing because each kid responds differently. With my own daughter, I realized that her progression would be considerably faster if I got her back in lessons. So after a year and a half on my own, I recently looked around and found an instructor that I thought may be a good fit. It's been a great experience thus far. She's responding well, going full blast, and I'm learning a lot from an instructor standpoint. But I reinforce exactly what he's doing. I would be doing her a disservice (and wasting money) if I was taking it upon myself to do anything differently than what he's teaching. I ask him what to work on after each lesson, and that's all we do. I'm even going to incorporate the same warmups the next time we work. I want our at-home experience to mimick what he's doing. Even if there's something I disagree with at some point (so far, there isn't), I'll still do it his way.

 

[softballphreak]

Hello,

Our young lady has been playing for almost 3 years and is almost done with her first comp team (14U). She really wants to play at the HS and is interested in college ball as she likes the comradery and chemistry that builds with being on the same team. She is a smart hitter, coach currently has her 6th, who is very fast on base. She has been working with a hitting coach to work on aiming for the top of the ball to prevent her popping up so often.

The question is how can I help her outside of practice and hitting instruction? At practice they usually just have the pitchers pitch to the ladies and none of them have the velocity she will see in HS and 16U +. We have gone to batting cages, but she fouls a lot off to the right and gets peeved.

Her main goal this season is engaging her lower half more readily and not being all hands (as she is a slighter framed young lady) to use as much power as possible. She usually hits singles or doubles. She has a tendency to do a little front foot slide action and sometimes does two twists of her back leg and either hits beauties over second or nicks the top and it dribbles to the infield. I just want her to be as confident in her abilities and believe in herself when she sees faster pitchers.

Given the priority that you want her to be more confident facing faster pitchers, the most important thing for you to focus on is timing. Timing is very easy to learn how to do. Many videos on YouTube. Josh Cathcart, Matt Antonelli, I.e. Simply put, start your stride early enough that you don’t rush, get to toe touch (launch position), swing. Of course, there are other things that go with that. But timing itself is easy to learn and the most critical element for hitting faster pitches.
PS: Getting peeved or giving in when failing is counterproductive. Failing is a necessary component of learning. If you’re not failing you’re not learning. Like learning to ride a bike, or handwriting, or playing an instrument, etc. And makes great memories—the ultimate reward!

 

[inumpire]

Hello,

Our young lady has been playing for almost 3 years and is almost done with her first comp team (14U). She really wants to play at the HS and is interested in college ball as she likes the comradery and chemistry that builds with being on the same team. She is a smart hitter, coach currently has her 6th, who is very fast on base. She has been working with a hitting coach to work on aiming for the top of the ball to prevent her popping up so often.

The question is how can I help her outside of practice and hitting instruction? At practice they usually just have the pitchers pitch to the ladies and none of them have the velocity she will see in HS and 16U +. We have gone to batting cages, but she fouls a lot off to the right and gets peeved.

Her main goal this season is engaging her lower half more readily and not being all hands (as she is a slighter framed young lady) to use as much power as possible. She usually hits singles or doubles. She has a tendency to do a little front foot slide action and sometimes does two twists of her back leg and either hits beauties over second or nicks the top and it dribbles to the infield. I just want her to be as confident in her abilities and believe in herself when she sees faster pitchers.

Well she needs to quit playing C level softball. She needs to be competing everyday. She isn’t being challenged at C level. Once she is competing at a higher level, she will either accept the challenge, or fail. Something tells me she won’t fail.