Hitting Against Better Pitchers

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Oct 29, 2019
89
18
That may be an option in the fall. What can i do in the short term to better prepare her?

Hitting 60 in a cage is a great start. Then do a round of 50. Then 60....

Best thing I do is be friends with some good pitchers and invite them out to the fields/cages for some live pitching.

Having a hitting coach or parent that has a Varity of spins/speeds in his/her soft-toss game is nice too.
 
Jan 27, 2010
1,871
83
NJ
5th year of TB at C level.
There is the problem. If she can hit 60 mph in the cage she should be hitting better than .200. With good pitching you want to hit the first good pitch. Watch for patterns in pitch calling. Also you want to try to avoid hitting with 2 strikes as much as possible. Good pitchers with good pitch calling can be real tough with 2 strikes. Also girls try to swing harder/faster against faster pitching and get sloppy (armsy) and over swing. Timing the faster pitching with your normal swing.
Hitting 60 in a cage is often done by 10-11 year olds. It's the movement and speed variation that causes the problems. DD's HS hitting coach used to play this game where she'd see how close she could get to him and still hit the underhand, behind the screen pitch. A quick decision and fast hands come into play big time. FWIW, hitting high .200, low .300's against top pitching is pretty good. Against C or even B, not so good.
 
Apr 20, 2015
961
93
Hitting faster and better pitching often brings out flaws in the swing that hitters do not do in the cage at their lessons when they are relaxed. Get some video of both and compare. If I had to guess she has a little cast in her swing with the hands or pulling out of the front shoulder and the better pitching is exploiting it.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
May 20, 2015
1,095
113
focus on location when doing front toss.....things like taking the outside pitch to opposite field or turning on the inside pitch both need to be as automatic as possible

she needs to be in position to hit the hittable pitches she sees

DD spent a lot of the winter focusing on just these two things.....you won't see a to pitches you can actually work with, she needs to be able to do that.....you miss those pitches and get down in the count, and it's lights out against good pitchers

this is MLB, but i suspect these numbers hold some weight across the board:

1617756699973.png

a lot comes from experience seeing better pitchers......but being in position to hit the pitches you can do something with, especially early in the count, can go a long way
 
Apr 2, 2015
1,198
113
Woodstock, man
She has spent a lot of time in the last two weeks hitting 60mph in the cage. She actually told me 60 seemed slow

Watch her in the cage. Does she stride? Probably not. Most don't in a cage, and the effort is mostly wasted.

In games she probably strides. Most kids wait too long to begin their stride - then it's too late. The faster the pitching, the worse the problem becomes.

Begin the stride when the pitcher's arm is at 12 noon or soon thereafter. Stride while in the cage.
 

Strike2

Allergic to BS
Nov 14, 2014
2,044
113
Hitting good pitching is a problem for everyone, including good hitters. There is more speed, more movement, and better placement. If swing fundamentals are good, it is somewhat "mental" in that experience really helps. We're early in the season in most places. I know my kid isn't ever at her best early on. Given that your DD has shown that she can hit better pitching, albeit less frequently, it is likely she'll improve with more at-bats.

Others have touched on it, but it's vital to put a good swing on a favorable pitch early in the count. Letting the first-strike fastball go by, and then fouling off perhaps another decent pitch for strike two puts the batter in a huge hole that I see often even in college hitters. The difference between that "B/C" pitcher and the "A" pitcher is that, with less than 3 balls, she'll see changes of speed, movement, and location that will be much tougher to get a bat on. What she's looking for is a mistake, but everyone makes them.

The pitching machine is good for establishing timing, but live pitching / front toss on a ball field tells more of the truth. If you can find an older pitcher to throw to your kid, that's great, but also try pitching a simulated game with front-toss starting with 1-1 counts. Sometimes throw meatballs, sometimes look for the edge of the zone, and sometimes deliberately miss. Focus on her approach given the situation and what she does with the pitches.
 
Feb 6, 2021
4
3
Some of it is just seeing it. My daughter struggled each time she moved up a level(12s to 14s to 16s) for a few weeks, up to half the season. When she went from playing B ball up to A/Gold level travel ball it took her a bit longer even to get acclimated to it.

Honestly, keep working mechanics. Make sure that swing is sound. Then it is just a matter of seeing that good pitching enough to make adjustments. It will happen, but patience is needed. I would also agree, if she is hitting .700, she is not playing at the right level. Challenge her and you will see that over time, she will get acclimated to that new level of play.
 
May 3, 2018
12
3
appreciate everyone's feedback. I have some good stuff to talk with the DD about. Sounds like I need to be patient and find ways to challenge her and shell be fine.
 
Jun 11, 2013
2,619
113
One other factor is that A teams also play A level defense so a lot of hits that would drop or get through at C will be outs in A. Also pitchers can hit spots so if you have a weakness in your swing they'll never stop pitching there.
 
Jun 23, 2018
222
63
Texas
DD is 2nd yrs 12U and moved up to a better team this spring that is playing A class teams. She is struggling a little with the speed changes and last tournament got introduced to a GOOD riseball, twice, once for S1 and then again for S3. That didn't go well. After she got over being mad, we laughed it off and she's ready to see another one.

I will say that the surprising thing is that the A ball pitchers we see for the most part are not 60 mph, but the ball moves and hits a location almost every time. Meatballs are almost never seen anymore. The 55-60 mph pitchers who don't move the ball get drove hard. Speed no longer kills like it did in 10U.

Be patient. I would bet by summer she will begin to adjust to the speed changes and the fact that pitchers are hitting locations. At least that is what I am hoping for my DD. Maybe she'll even be able to recognize a riseball.
 

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