How to hit faster pitching?

[4 girl's dad]

(10u going 12u this fall) Our girls are struggling to hit faster pitching in tournaments. We do ok against low to med speed pitching but have really struggled of late with the faster pitchers. We are late most often.

I know nothing beats reps but are there things you can work on in practice to help? Did a search but was hoping to get some current thinking on it.

Thanks in advance.

 

[JAD]

Have your pitchers throw BP from 35'. It will decrease you batters reaction time.

 

[Seattlecoach]

A lot of the time with young girls the problem is looking to see if its a strike and then deciding to swing. If you can take out that part (ie put them in a situation where they know it will be a strike-an accurate machine, close front toss with a good tosser) and then put them against faster pitching they'll figure out the starting earlier part themselves. Once they truly understand what it means to start the swing before they see the pitch then teach them the eliminate of YES YES NO, or starting to swing every time then making the decision NOT to swing.

Also, be aware that young girls may not be strong enough to swing hard (fast) so be patient and encouraging!

 

[guero_gordo]

Live arm hitting against a variety of speeds and locations will develop timing. Always keep a changeup in the mix to teach discipline.

 

[Doug Romrell]

Once they truly understand what it means to start the swing before they see the pitch then teach them the eliminate of YES YES NO, or starting to swing every time then making the decision NOT to swing.

This is FANTASTIC advice!

 

[Shawn]

As far as drills working on the high tee and then an high drop of the ball, helps to quicken up the swing.

 

[marriard]

Adding to the YES YES YES...NO swing advice.

- Live pitching in practice. Go get some older girls to come out to pitch to your team.

There is truly nothing better than this. We have it set up in our org that our older teams pitch to our younger teams in practice (and not meatballs - the pitchers are told to go after the batters aggressively). And we even have our HS pitchers come out for our 14U and 12U-A teams (for service hours). At this age, the more the better. Some 12U speedster looks much more hittable after you have had some success against a 14U pitcher a couple of days ago...

- Check bat weights and size as well. Some 10U parents hand their DD's some overweight clubs because of slower pitching or lack of knowledge

This can contribute to catching up to faster pitching. You have to be able to swing the bat you are using. You should also be looking for known end-loaded bat models to make sure the girl swinging them is capable of doing so. In 12U I personally believe that 90% of the girls should be hitting drop-10 balanced bats.

 

[4 girl's dad]

Thanks for the ideas.

They are swinging earlier, and getting caught on change ups so that idea, well, I'll just leave it alone...

I talked to the HC yesterday about bringing a 14u pitcher from the organization to pitch against us.

We do close front toss at times but not the the drop ball drill. Will try that.

What about a faster machine to help show them how early they need to decide? I know machines are not big fave on here but trying to give the girls some confidence that they can hit.

Thanks again!

 

[JJsqueeze]

Every top org I know of has girls in cages at least once a week taking a lot of reps against machines set to the top end of the pitching speed they will face.

Pitching machines are great tools for helping to get hitters comfortable and confident hitting faster pitching. Of course you have to use the tool wisely and also do tee reps to work on specific mechanical issues and live pitching to teach them how to actually hit. But machines are a fine tool.

One thing to keep in mind is that IMO speed wise 12u is in general easier to hit than 10u and 14u is easier than 12u. Those distance increases really help the batters for a few years until the pitchers catch up again in 16s.

 

[Westwind]

FFS or someone else can you post the "load slow and early" video? (I apologize for never remembering the baseball players name.)

That has been a help to my kids.

Good advice already posted above btw.