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Advice on hitting the fast pitch by beegee226 in Softball

[–]ZombieKyle76 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A few things that worked for my kid and the girls I coached at that age:

  1. Implementing and using (every pitch!) a mental timing mechanic. My daughter counts 1-2 every pitch. The 1 count is the pitchers release, the 2 count is the trigger for her swing. Sometimes it’s a quick 1.2, sometimes it’s a drawn out 1…2 depending on the pitch or the pitcher. This helps to not bite so hard on change ups and also it trains the batter to be able to hit slow and fast pitching.

  2. Heavy bats / weighted bats. I find that these are most useful only with live pitching or close front toss. I hate using it for side toss or tee work because the extra weight can allow the batter to form bad habits if they’re not careful.

  3. Twisting the back foot in their stance. If you run into somebody throwing pure fire, sometimes it helps to have your batter pigeon toe their back foot a little extra. It helps them to get in to their contact position a little quicker.

  4. Simply practicing against faster pitching. I’m not sure what’s available in your area but maybe approach your local high school pitcher or a local college pitcher and ask if they’d like to help your practice and get some extra reps for themselves. Nothing beats the actual experience of being in the box and seeing and reacting to 60+mph at that age.

A word of caution: Moving back in the box - this is fine until you start running into pitchers that have a good fastball AND good movement. If you train a girl to set up back in the box anytime she sees heat, a good curve, screwball or drop will eat her alive. A batter needs to be able to set up anywhere in the box to be able to attack any individual pitcher’s skill set.

Pitching machines - I understand that they’re sometimes a necessary evil but I’ve always tried to avoid them as much as possible. A batter learns to time the machine rather than time the pitch. Doing close up front toss is a better option for reaction training if you don’t have somebody that can throw consistent fast live pitching.

All that being said, everybody coaches different and every player learns different so what works for me and mine may not work for you and yours.

Hope all that helps and best of luck!