Correcting slotted swing path, through "Location Progressions"

[softballdad97]

I have noticed at my DD's practices when the girls work on their dry swings nearly all of them repeatedly swing in the same path or slot on every swing, and some take that same swing into the cage when working on hitting. While feeding the machine I can see that some have the exact swing even though location changes.
I believe that we should teach a process in the dry swing practice that we have them work the strike zone much like a pitcher would where you have them swing at inside low, inside high, outside high, outside low, then one right down the middle. In doing so the girls need to implement visualization skills and the hitting approach that the each location requires to hit that particular pitch. Each location should have the respective number that your team designates for that location and work through the progression, once they have mastered the progression then when doing dry swings call out random locations in a rapid fire dry swing session to help groove the various locations, all the while the girls should implement the visualization and location techniques. I believe each girl should practice this at home when doing dry swings and I believe in the on deck area they should work on this as opposed to what I see most girls do and groove the same slot or path over and over again.

Is this too advanced for 13yo? I have tried to implement this with the team I assist with and was told it may be too much for the girls to grasp at this point. That they are working on the correct swing, I believe it should be taught from the beginning.

What are your thoughts to this concept?

 

[bobbyb]

Not too advanced for 13...I use to do something similar with a league teams i coached and they were 10-12 years old. We would all do the swings dry....all together... getting in alot more swings per practice.

We would spread out and go through stances, bunting and dry swings in slow mo and then full speed and do various location swings. We practiced all that as a warmup before batting practice which was about 5 stations. I loved doing it that way if for no other reason that we accomplished more during the time we had for practice making a more quality practice. I wish our tb team would use it. Only complaint was first couple weeks...blisters...cause we were swinging alot.

 

[pbsoftball]

I beleive this location progression is a good tool. I once read that a college baseball team ran their pre game fielding without using any balls, bats or gloves it was purely visualization. Anyway some drills that I use to kind of have the hitter get a feel for pitches in different locations. For this drill I have the hitter use the shaft from a lacrosse stick or you can use any light broom handle cut to the size of a bat. Also needed is a punching mitt you know the ones boxing trainers use. The coach places the punching mitt in different areas of the strike zone and the hitter using the stick swings only to contact. No follow through or extension during this drill only to contact. This then gives the hitter a feel for the swing in different locations and also the feel of contact from those locations.
Another thing we do is to have the hitter hit from a tee. The tee can also be places at different locations in the zone again to get the feel of pitches in various locations. After taking a few swings in one location I then ask the hitter to visualize a pitch being thrown to that location and the have them try to hit the ball off the tee with their eyes closed. If their mechanics are good and as they improve their visualization skills you would be surprised how well they hit the ball with their eyes closed. Again I think using visualizationi is a very good tool. Let me know what you think and I hope this helps.

 

[PEPPERS]

I do it in progressive steps I put them in their stance, use three softballs, or similar type balls, place the three balls on the ground a ball for the inside pitch inside corner of the plate and in front of front foot, one in the center of the plate for the pitch down the middle even with front foot, the third on the outside corner of the plate for the outside pitch slightly behind the front foot.

Number 1 is low inside, number 2 is low down the middle, number 3 is low outside. Number 4 is middle inside, Number 5 is middle middle, number 6 is middle outside. Number 7 is high inside, number 8 is high down the middle, number 9 is high outside. Same for right and left handers.

At first I call the number and batters go to contact and stop, example 6 is middle outside, I check for proper contact position, fix any incorrect contact points. I follow numeric order at first then mix them up. Then when that is looking good, we stop at contact and then finish. Then when that is looking good we slow motion and finish mixing up the numbers. The next step is remove the balls do slow motion and half swings by the number. The last step is game speed swings mixing up the numbers.

 

[softballdad97]

Peppers, I like your more in-depth location progressions and will begin to implement the additional locations and contact points as you described.

 

[batspeed]

Another twist to this is once they know the locations by numbers then give themm situations, like 3-1 count and if you say a location that they do not hit well then they should not swing. Or say runner is stealing and see if they should swing, then to keep them on their toes say hit and run and make sure no matter what you say they are swinging. I think all of this is great for the age if they have been taught it.