What drills to do to improve my daughters succes at the plate

[Westwind]

"What I have concluded however is that the drill, like many others, allows the dedicated player to become so comfortable with a bat in their hand and seeing balls at such a variety of speeds and reaction times that they just get better. So long as it is just a part of training. It doesn't support a good swing or path to the ball but it can heighten reaction, awareness, confidence and other factors that contribute to a complete ball player. "

Ilhowser, that's exactly how we used it. I'll add that when you are 15 feet from a Jugs machine spitting out balls and smoking them back at the screen, you are the coolest kid in the room! Great confidence builder.

Just one of the many things to break up the monotony and they do seem to improve timing IMHO.

When we use the machine we almost always have a gimmick rather than just hitting a bucket at a time or whatever. We use dimple baseballs most of the time.

I noticed at a very good college hitting camp that they tended to work on a concept with roughly 1/4 tee, 1/4 front toss with pitcher seated on a bucket, 1/4 front toss from a longer distance with full arm circle behind a screen and 1/4, (maybe less), of machine. Next rotation was new concept. I am going to try to plan roughly the same in our home training.

 

[HOF86]

Looks like all back all forward... You want hips forward, hands back. Like most swings it comes down to a swing sequence.
That slow motion swing I posted of my daughter shows the hips going while the hands are back....



SL

SL

I agree with this. Her weight is shifted across her chest. She is shifting and not loading. This is some sort of a drill so its hard to tell what she is doing?

I see no separation.

My biggest advise to the father of this girl would be to brush up on what these terms mean, Hitting is a different language and the same term can mean something totally different. Understand what the following terms mean.

The corner

Torque, Hip coil, load

Out front

All forward all backward

Separation


Turn the barrel not push the barrel.

Truly understand what " Don't squish the bug means"


Sequence


Hands back, staying back


At foot plant/ toe touch.


Start by understanding those terms and it will make your reading and comprehension much better and easier.

I also would not let myself get pigeon holed into one particular type of STYLE such as linear or rotational, I believe the swing I teach has Linear and Rotational parts to it. I am a firm believer in that! Some will disagree and that's ok!

Lastly don't argue hitting over the internet! LOL!

Your daughter looks really strong and I see a real strong hitter if you stay on it!

All the best!

 

[HOF86]

You wrote the following ..... "Howard advised you did not want to get any closer than 15 feet for safety. Start at the back edge of home plate, each successful hit take a step forward and hit again when you get to the 15 feet marker start backing up until you get to the starting point."

Your words were ... "when you get to the 15 feet marker".

Again ... 70mph, at 15ft, would be the equivalent reaction time as for 200mph at 43ft. Simply silly if you don't believe that would negatively impact one's hitting mechanics.

Here's your post .....

Where in this post does it say 70 mph? What am I missing?

That being said Bustos cant hit a ball @60 mph from 5 feet either. Not with a game swing ...No way!

 

[redhotcoach]

I also would not let myself get pigeon holed into one particular type of STYLE such as linear or rotational, I believe the swing I teach has Linear and Rotational parts to it. I am a firm believer in that! Some will disagree and that's ok!

Agree. I loathe the words rotational and linear in hitting. Even people who say "linear into rotational"...I would and have argued that "rotation" is the front of the rear leg/hip area moving linearly toward the pitcher.

Remembering that discussion (was not an argument, all agreed), where is lclifton and hyp? A christmas greeting would be nice if all is well.

 

[Westwind]

Hof, just for arguments sake I'll say this: 1) I saw CB swing a bat in person a couple months ago. Her bat speed was other worldly. I have never seen anyone swing a bat like that. 2) if the person feeding the ball is giving the hitter a consistent timing cue, and the closer you are to the machine, you know where the ball will be. It is just a matter of timing it correctly. I swear, the closer my 15 year old and her friend got to the machine, the better they hit it. If they can hit most balls on a jugs machine set on 52-54 from 15' I bet CB can do some really crazy stuff.

CB hit a one hop pitch over the fence in a game. She is.... A different sort of hitter....

The problem I see with the story is what fool is going to feed the machine? My hand isn't going to be 5' from CB hitting back at it!


Edited to add: I wear a batting helmet with a face mask when feeding this drill from behind a pitching screen. There is no way to avoid the ball if it comes back at you and glances off the machine.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

FFS, Looks like everyone was correct on your post! You are the one that has never posted a video on any hitting site of you doing a drill and we all know why! Plus know one has every seen you conduct a hitting session with anyone. I can at least produce members of DFP that have observed me and I don't claim to be an expert, with close to 7,000 posts must be nice to be an expert and never swinging a bat!

Perhaps you can point me to a link where you are shown demonstrating a drill.

Better yet, show us one of your hitters performing this drill ... and then folks can see how detrimental the drill is towards swing development.

Regarding your comment that no one (not "know one") has ever seen me conduct a hitting session ..... simply not true. In any event, that seems to be important to "you", so go ahead and post video clips of yourself working with hitters. While you are at it, post a video of this drill ... perhaps taking another look at the drill will help you finally see the issues with it.

Regarding the drill .... it can be a fun 'contest' amongst a group of hitters .... but other than the 'fun' aspect, I have yet to see it help a hitter in terms of developing a fluid productive swing. As one poster mentioned ... competitive games are fun ... but my preference is to use competitive games that don't degrade swing mechanics.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Where in this post does it say 70 mph? What am I missing?

That being said Bustos cant hit a ball @60 mph from 5 feet either. Not with a game swing ...No way!

You would need to go back and follow the thread ..... http://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-hitting-technical/17290-what-drills-do-improve-my-daughters-succes-plate-6.html#post214908


They had a 70 MPH hitting station with an Iron Mike

 

[Westwind]

FFS, I'm in but it will be after the first of the year IF dd's agree to it. I only ask that the video will be posted for a short amount of time and then be taken down.

DD is playing basketball right now. She injured her shoulder and I don't think she is up to it.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Agree. I loathe the words rotational and linear in hitting. Even people who say "linear into rotational"...I would and have argued that "rotation" is the front of the rear leg/hip area moving linearly toward the pitcher.

Remembering that discussion (was not an argument, all agreed), where is lclifton and hyp? A christmas greeting would be nice if all is well.

I seem to recall the agreement being more on "rotational to linear". HYP posted on this at BBD ... Centripetal and Centrigugal |. There wasn't so much as a whisper of from those that promote "linear to rotational".

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

FFS, I'm in but it will be after the first of the year IF dd's agree to it. I only ask that the video will be posted for a short amount of time and then be taken down.

DD is playing basketball right now. She injured her shoulder and I don't think she is up to it.

Take care of the shoulder injury and enjoy the basketball season .... great activity for developing a fast paced sense of game action.

I suspect those that would post video of this drill, getting to 15ft of the pitching machine, will see the flaws as they look at the drill closer .... so I'm not expecting many to post a video of it. Should you decide to do it ... then understand that the video would likely be copied by some and used as an example of "what not to do".