Dealing with a plate discipline issue

[softgabby]

Hey kiddo, Love your initiative...
The thing about balls and strikes is, they're subjective to the umpires perception. The edge pitches always change based on the Blue and their mood today.
My advise is to understand YOUR hitting zone! What can YOU drive with consistency? Continue to be aggressive, and work on timing. Hits will come. Do lots of tee work, placing the tee all over the zone... too high, too low, too in or out etc... Just remember to place the tee closer to the pitcher for inside pitches and closer to the catcher for outside. Get comfortable in you ability to hit anything! Good luck

Thank you so much for this, coach! Your right about balls and strikes being subjective. It seems like pitches on the edge has been a bugaboo for me all season but the last two weeks or so it's really bothered me.

I pretty much have the same hitting zones I had from last season. Early in the year, I'd drive anything in the middle or something that was sensibly low. I'm not talking low low...but something that is a little higher in the low zone. Being a left-handed hitter, I could deposit low and inside pitches into right and low and away pitches into left with a good amount of consistency. Plus, I'm still able to drive mistakes out of the park. But this was all before our three and five-hole hitters got injured to finish the season and I've seen pitches that look hittable but I feel like I need to try to do more than I really have to because I have no protection now in the lineup to get anything that I know I can hit. I'm going to try the tee drill you've described to see if it helps me out.

 

[Eric F]

This is totally the approach I'm going to take and hopefully, this mental block will be done by the time summer ball hits.

Have a plan. Work the plan. Profit!

 

[softgabby]

"you're not helping your team, you're helping the opposing pitcher. is she your friend? does she need your help?" this is my short conversation with with my hitters who swing at stupid pitches. "can you hit that pitch? no, you can't. so why are you swinging at it?" all great advice above but the fact is you are choosing to swing at bad pitches. choose not to. you're a #4 hitter for a reason, eh. good luck.

This is something that has popped in my head while I'm standing at the plate or in the on-deck area waiting for the replacement three-hole hitter to do her at-bat. I'm always getting mad at myself for swinging at borderline unhittable pitches or pitches I can't do much with. I wish I was able to work fouls and work the pitcher better in these situations.

 

[softgabby]

Have a plan. Work the plan. Profit!

This exactly. Something else I got out of doing is watching the opposing pitcher during warm-ups to get an idea for how she throws and what she has that day.

 

[softball dad 6]

8 HRs in 14 games works out to about 1 HR per 6 PA. No hitter in HS is going to see good pitches to hit unless they have somebody almost as good batting behind them. DD avg 1 HR per 7 AB and she gets walked 28% of the time. She has a travel teammate that goes to another HS with almost identical HS stats. At the HS level coaches know who the good hitters are and who to pitch around.
Once you have good swing mechanics good hitting boils down to 2 things. Pitch selection and being on time. Be ready to hit your pitch every time and take the walk if they pitch around you. Base runners put pressure on the pitcher and the defense.

 

[Eric F]

This exactly. Something else I got out of doing is watching the opposing pitcher during warm-ups to get an idea for how she throws and what she has that day.

Watch her in warm-ups. Watch her when your teammates are at bat. Watch her in the on-deck circle. The more you can learn about what she can and can't do, her speed, her movement, etc., the better prepared you will be to face her when it's your turn. This is an area that many players (most, probably) could do a better job.