timing drills?

[dredge61]

Can anyone give me some tips on timing drills for hitting. My daughter is a HS sophmore 180lb 5'6 with good hitting mechanics but consistently meets the ball to far in front of the plate. SHe is fine at soft toss and tee drills but put her in the cage and she gets overly aggressive.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

By putting her in the cage, do you mean hitting off the machine?

If so, try eliminating that. Do more t-work and front toss.

Use a variety of balls and other things (tennis birdies) to toss to her.

 

[Hitter]

Can anyone give me some tips on timing drills for hitting. My daughter is a HS sophmore 180lb 5'6 with good hitting mechanics but consistently meets the ball to far in front of the plate. SHe is fine at soft toss and tee drills but put her in the cage and she gets overly aggressive.

Try this and she if she is doing any of this WHILE she is working soft toss or off the tee.

Tracking,timing and rhythm starts at the tee in my opinion. I would look closely at what they are doing as to practice and try to get them to think in game mode.

For example I have my kids look through the net and track the ball to the tee and not just look at the ball on the tee as they would never do that in a game either.

I have white rag glue inside the tube on the tee also and when the ball is on the tee they can not see it and after they hit the ball we want them to see it.

Many coaches force a stance of the kids without allowing the hitter to find the stance that they can actually see the ball with both eyes.

Stand your daughter facing the mirror like they are looking at a pitcher.

Is she using an even stance, slightly open stance or closed stance?

In most cases this is over looked completely!

We want them to get a good two eyed look at the ball and that means turning their neck and shoulders enough towards the pitcher to be able to do it without causing any discomfort in the neck or shoulder muscles while doing it.

I ask them to use their stance they have been using first and then ask them to turn their head towards the pitcher so I can see the white area around the eye on the lead eye.

Think of using a pair of binoculars and could you see well enough if you allowed the right eye to be off the binoculars? Probably not.

Each hitter is unique as to eyes being bug eyed, tear dropped as to shape etc so we all see the ball out of the window, eyes lashes, how the eye lids are cut or shaped so I let them pick the stance that allows them the good two eyed look.

Then we start by getting the stance even and say how does the feel and if I can see the white area they look further towards the pitcher and then I move their back foot towards home plate in one inch increments until it is comfortable to them.

TSW used two to four inches and each two inches is considered five degrees.

I only have three girls who use a closed stance and all three have had lazy left eye surgery and see the ball better because the left eye muscles being weaker.

We also teach to give our hitter heads a head start as the head moves slower than the eyes.

In doors even in a garage we work on tracking and timing by putting a ball on the tee and I get behind the net and go through a pitchers motion and they are timing it to load at my K position and stride when it hits the net and then swing.

I use a tennis ball or whiffle ball as every once in a while they hit the ball I am throwing with the ball off the tee and you do not want a soft ball coming back at you!

The next thing we do I picked up while working with the Chinese National Softball Team. The say one as E and two as R or E, R or one two.

I tried to get my interpreter to get my voice inflection into the translation and it was not working so I tried dragging out the E to load as EEEEEEEE and then said R! to actually stride and swing. I explained the pitcher never stops her motion once started and as a hitter we need to learn how to dance with the pitcher and not stop and start our motion.

I do this with soft toss and as I lower my hand I say EEEEE and then as I throw say R!

After a few tries they do it on their own and then I do a timing drop drill by holding the ball shoulder level high with my palm facing down and the key is for them to lstart their load is when I flex my wrist and then I drop the ball and move my hand upward to clear the hitting zone. Again we use EEEEE, R!

This seems to give them a jump start when going to the field as we point out as the pitcher is going to the K position we say EEEEE and at the pitchers window of release R! and stride and then judge when to swing.

While working in a cage we do a drilled termed the Barry Bonds drill and we start in the back of the cage beyond where the catcher sets up and then move forward towards the pitching machine after each good swing!

Depending on if you are in a public cage or your own cage you can move forward as long as it is safe. Any more than 15 feet from the machine may put the hitter and feeder in harms way as the ball can bounce off the tire or back through the feeder tube so be careful!

When we reach our limit then reverse by stepping backwards after each swing and we consider that a cycle.

Move away from the plate for outside pitches and crowd the plate for inside pitches.

Every pitch has a different speed and angle so your hitter is learning to adjust their timing and rhythm.

Make sure the person feeding the machine has a ball in their left hand and a ball in their right hand....place the ball in the left hand in the feeder tube and do a arm circle with the ball in the right hand to give the hitter a sense of timing and feed the ball into the tube at the K position and tell the hitter to step when they see the ball in the wheels.

Thanks Howard

Thanks Howard

 

[Wellphyt]

My DD has a similar issue. In my DD's case I think she is starting her negative move too soon. She's just too anxious to get started. With that said, my DD still needs to learn how to hold the load in her back hip without stopping her movement once she begins her negative move. I'm trying to get her to have an AHA moment with creating a bind in her back hip and holding that bind for a little longer when she strides. IMO, a big part of timing boils down to balance as the hitter strides. IMO, if a hitter can maintain dynamic balance as they stride while keeping the load in their back hip, they will do a better job at timing pitches.

There is a definite technique involved and I would encourage you to experiment yourself first. The best way I know how to describe it is this way...Create a bind in your back hip by internally rotating your front leg as you load your back hip, then as you begin to stride pretend to sit on a bar stool. The effect is that you sit as you stride. Keep in mind we're talking here about fractions of a second. Meaning the sit is not as noticable or pronounced as it might sound in print. Which is why I suggest people try it first to better understand what I'm describing. Pro hitters do it all the time, especially when they get fooled on an off speed pitch. Epstein describes it as "sitting to by time". I don't have the video library that others have, but maybe someone else can post some clips.

 

[cshilt]

Sounds a little like Howard's "Bend, bend, bend" drill. Howard, care to explain?

 

[tom.guerry]

well -

That is a good example of the need for feel cues to explain action under the hood that is hard to appreciate on the surface except in the context of a well understood overall pattern.

"holding load in rear hip" must also be reconciled with Williams description of hip action as being metronomic/uninterrupted back and forth, and no starting "pre-loaded" in an atempt to shorten the motion by eliminating or truncating the negative move.

This is all tied up with balance on either side of the rear hip as the key to "dynamic balance".

 

[Hitter]

My DD has a similar issue. In my DD's case I think she is starting her negative move too soon. She's just too anxious to get started. With that said, my DD still needs to learn how to hold the load in her back hip without stopping her movement once she begins her negative move. I'm trying to get her to have an AHA moment with creating a bind in her back hip and holding that bind for a little longer when she strides. IMO, a big part of timing boils down to balance as the hitter strides. IMO, if a hitter can maintain dynamic balance as they stride while keeping the load in their back hip, they will do a better job at timing pitches.

There is a definite technique involved and I would encourage you to experiment yourself first. The best way I know how to describe it is this way...Create a bind in your back hip by internally rotating your front leg as you load your back hip, then as you begin to stride pretend to sit on a bar stool. The effect is that you sit as you stride. Keep in mind we're talking here about fractions of a second. Meaning the sit is not as noticable or pronounced as it might sound in print. Which is why I suggest people try it first to better understand what I'm describing. Pro hitters do it all the time, especially when they get fooled on an off speed pitch. Epstein describes it as "sitting to by time". I don't have the video library that others have, but maybe someone else can post some clips.

Wellphyt

One of the things I try to get my hitters to see balance as well as feel it is to have them stand in front of a mirror and I try to point out to bend at the waist and soften the knees so the knees go more towards the toes and they are not sitting down YET!

Then we do a simple knee cock or turn the lead edge of the foot inward a little so they can see the weight inside their back leg and then feel the hip turn in and not the shoulders.

This movement seems to give them the feeling of not stopping as they load up and they do not go over their back leg. Many go way over the back leg to the degree it looks like a hip sway and they can not pick up their stride foot and flow forward with any repeatability.

What has helped our hitters get their timing down better is their stride to a flexed knee on the inside edge of their foot or what we term eversion. When take their lead foot shoe off they should be able to see the baby toes not supporting their weight so the hips will not stop.

The human step when made has the baby toe coming down first and the big toe last for stability and we want in stability that we can control by landing on the inside edge of the foot so our hip does not stop.

I am not talking about hip slide or the sway of a path on a swing set either.

When I see especially a girls step flat footed and the weight stops, something else will open next, foot, knee, shoulder, hips and the front knee is usually stiff or stiffer to some degree.

I see Manny as being one of the best at what I term sitting on the front knee and accepting the weight to transfer based on the pitch he sees. Even his separation seems to be a minimum to expedite hip thrust and rotation quickly and with little effort.

I have asked kids to load and step and land on a flexed knee and then flex it a little more and rotate to swing and we do not have to even bring up heel plant as it happens automatically when the hips take over.

As a right handed hitter the loading of the right hip or the settling in to the socket gives it a platform so to speak to launch from and your degree of athleticism will take over from there in my opinion.

This is why when I see girls throw awkwardly why should I expect them to throw correctly? NO weight shift to throw usually means no weight shift for hitting either has been my experience.

This is why I use a concrete block on the outside edge of the back foot as the heel must be coming up as we focus on driving off the big toe to get the thrust feeling and hips moving forward.

Thanks Howard

 

[dredge61]

Yes She goes in the cage of the machine. I try to do a routine of 10 inside pitches and then 10 outside pitches. My thought bieng is if they see a consistent inside pitch they may be able to read the ball better on the field. Is that thinking incorrect?

 

[Hitter]

Sounds a little like Howard's "Bend, bend, bend" drill. Howard, care to explain?

Chris

Justine made it down....Thanks

Chris could you post the pitcher of the two home plates we use so I can point out the window we use to hit in.

We have the hitter load and step on a flexed front knee and I say bend and they bend on the front leg further with their knee cap pointed in the direction of where the second baseman normal playing position would be and I too a ball.

We repeat and I say bend, bend and soft toss again.

We repeat and I say bend, bend, bend and soft toss again.

I want them thinking and feeling to adjust to a faster pitch on one bend, off speed two bends and change up three bends.

Funny I never have to say heel plant as it becomes instinctive and happens without mentioning it as long as the knee was flexed at toe touch.

Sue Enquist does a good job describing this the adjusting portion of RVP in my opinion.

When the pitch is coming our weight is still shifting forward and when we decide to swing, in my world the back elbow begins to lower and the drive from the back hip thrust to initiate movement begins as a lift and the then to the big toe and rotation starts in the hips.

I then vary the tempo by dropping balls doing what we term the timing drop drills and I start it low for a faster pitch and elevate the drop as we slow their reaction time down and they have to adjust for where we drop the and release the ball.

Thanks Howard

 

[cshilt]

Sure thing, Howard. Here you go...