how to fix timing too early on a player who's bat speed has increased a lot

[RADcatchers]

Practice hitting off machine set at 45 mph and throwing low and outside. Most slower pitchers live low and away. Don't try to hit the ball to the back of the cage. Try to drive it to LC.

Is it me or is it true that the pitcher throwing 53 mph get a bigger strike zone???

The nicer pitchers...

 

[CoachBNC]

Nice work on the bat speed increases - bat speed plays and it is a tool she will need against faster pitching. More bat speed combined with barreling the ball up is NEVER a negative . . .

I see this problem a lot with travel players on our middle and high school teams. Pitching speed is significantly slower in our local school conferences and hitters struggle to "down shift" in response.

Sounds like she is doing great against machine, soft toss, and "fast" pitching - so I wouldn't bother with swing changes. I think more exposure to "slow" pitches while still focusing on good batted ball outcomes is probably the key here. I would leave the Blast sensor on and have her work with over/under weight bats (say +/- 20% of normal bat weight). Especially a light bat will teach her to stay back. The goal in training would be barreled line drives to the outfield or the back of the cage while keeping that bat speed up. Ideally, I'd set two pitching machines up and have one throwing a "slow" or change up speed and the second throwing a more challenging "fast" pitch.

That would throw some good variation into her training and she'll adapt just fine. I would guess that two or three sessions a week for three or four weeks will probably be enough time to see positive changes in her timing.

 

[Bob Ullman8]

So during the summer, my daughter (16yo) focused a lot of getting stronger because she feels she wants to make a push to make a d1 program. This was her choice, not mine, but I supported her and helped her on this.

Since April, she's gone from a 116 pound contact hitter, to about 136 pounds and is now consistently hitting jacks during her practices (previously, she never did). On her blast sensor, she would hit about 54 mph tops last year(average about 50), this year she's consistently in the 60's, and hit 64mph bat speed a few weeks ago, we'll just say that her swing has gotten a lot faster. This hasn't been a good thing for her.

In practice, she's easily the best hitter on her team, both high school and her travel team. On machine and and soft toss, she rakes, and against faster pitching she's pretty good, but in live games against pitchers throwing sub 55 mph, she's struggling bad. Every swing either too early, or off the end of the bat. We do the thing of telling her to let it travel, try to hit to left field (she's a lefty), all that, but mentally, she's still timing the pitcher as if she's swinging 50 mph bat speed instead of 60 mph and it's definitely making a difference in her performance.

We're not in panic mode because we know that when she does get her timing down, she's going to do pretty well, but the adjustment is frustrating for her. Any tips from parents/coaches who've been through this process?

 

[Bob Ullman8]

i was just going to post this one.....love it......some days i call out plate switches really quickly, they have to hustle to each plate, no time to think, get set & swing......others we are more deliberate


the matt lisle 'hit pause' drill is an old staple of ours, too.....one of the "foundational" tee drills we use, and it is just a good general timing drill.......with DD1 i can simply reminder her "hit pause" when she's getting out in front and it reminds her to focus on good timing

Have you ever had her sequencing evaluated?

 

[Towny9]

Here’s a video of her in practice last night, I’ll post an in game video after this weekend.https://my.sportsrecruits.com/athlete/meghan_bradley2?video=4460809

Thanks. I looked back at some of the older game videos and her leg kick is much bigger in the batting practice swings vs her game swings. Is that typical or are the practice swings closer to her current game swing?

I like my hitters to stay more middle in their load and not sway back towards the catcher as much. If the hips drift back in the load then they will usually drift back forward causing you to be early/jumpy. Watch Trout as he loads. The hips don’t go backwards at all.

 

[Orange Socks]

Wait a minute OS, you can't tell a story like that and not give out the "power tweak"!
Cough it up.

It's fairly simple. Full EXTENSION after contact. DD had a habit as many younger kids do. They fold their arms around their and hit their back. They seen some older kid doing it and they think that's what to do. I had her over exaggerate the swing which leads to more torque, which forces more rotation. She would let go of the bat with her right hand as her left hand kept going.

 

[Corleone]

Thanks. I looked back at some of the older game videos and her leg kick is much bigger in the batting practice swings vs her game swings. Is that typical or are the practice swings closer to her current game swing?

I like my hitters to stay more middle in their load and not sway back towards the catcher as much. If the hips drift back in the load then they will usually drift back forward causing you to be early/jumpy. Watch Trout as he loads. The hips don’t go backwards at all.

We’ve talked a lot about controlling her loading so as to not sway back (I think of it as a vertical line from instep of rear foot and prefer she keep that line). Right now, not really focusing too much on that because I want her to generate more power and whatever it takes for her to load and utilize her legs more I’ll take and then hopefully slowly work on improving that, but I do agree with you.

 

[JLI2010]

My DD went through something similar where she had very fast bat speed but was hitting everything out front and was too much arms, We put her in a heavier bat and moved the contact position back a bit and now she is hitting for good power. In your video, I would like to see the top hand arm get extended. She seems to hold contact and if that's a common occurrence it would certainly hold back power.

 

[Corleone]

Have you ever had her sequencing evaluated?

I’m not smart enough to even know what that means, can you elaborate?