Hitting and Hitters Discussion 2 Ball drill

straightleg said:

Quote:
We do this with the bat first and then teach it using the Whip Hit. Several of our kids can do it with the Whip Hit on up the middle, outside and inside tee placements. It just depends on if they want to put in the effort to learn how.



We do the 2 ball once in awhile with the bat, but never with the whip hit. That would take some serious practice to do consistently.
Just depends how good of a hitter you want to be.
Next time casey and I work on it will give it a try.

Straightleg

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When we do the two ball drill we try and point out that when you swing around the ball or the front side opens to much you will not drive one ball into the other ball. Then we have them upper cut the back ball so it will jump over the lead ball to give them an idea of what and why it goes wrong at times. When we hit the ball off the tee we always place it so there is a two seam target and they attempt to hit the middle on every pitch. With the net marked at 51 and 39 inches it gives the instructor and hitter a target on every swing they take and instant feed back in our opinion.

Gerry why don't you take a picture of your bat cave so others could see what you have done.

Thanks Howard

straightleg said:

Quote:
We do this with the bat first and then teach it using the Whip Hit. Several of our kids can do it with the Whip Hit on up the middle, outside and inside tee placements. It just depends on if they want to put in the effort to learn how.



We do the 2 ball once in awhile with the bat, but never with the whip hit. That would take some serious practice to do consistently.
Just depends how good of a hitter you want to be.
Next time casey and I work on it will give it a try.



Straightleg

Click to expand...

Its definatly worth the time and effort if she works on the whip hit and double tee.... the return is definatly worth the investment of time....... then before you know it you and i can just go to clinics and heckle H and let the girls do the instruction...... lol

Tim

we did the 2 ball drill for about 2 hours.. 10 girls run through it. This was extra fun and also eye opening for Tom since he hasn't implemented this yet. Taught him the drill and how to work the "results" of each swing. Tom is very versed in H's system and this wasn't a big deal for him to pick up. The girls loved it! If the drills are fun they will do them on their own and with the "automatic" feed back on the 2nd ball's trajectory they can see for themselves. One of the girls batted over .600 all year...she can hit and has been with me going on 4 years now... she had never seen this drill. Let me tell you... it showed us "swing issues" right away. Particularly in her wrists and when she opens up. Great drill and it shows results right now!!

We also worked in the "hand over" drill to help on this drill. Nice "advanced" drill and we will continue to use it. Next thing to work into the routine is the whip hits.

Lester said:

we did the 2 ball drill for about 2 hours.. 10 girls run through it. This was extra fun and also eye opening for Tom since he hasn't implemented this yet. Taught him the drill and how to work the "results" of each swing. Tom is very versed in H's system and this wasn't a big deal for him to pick up. The girls loved it! If the drills are fun they will do them on their own and with the "automatic" feed back on the 2nd ball's trajectory they can see for themselves. One of the girls batted over .600 all year...she can hit and has been with me going on 4 years now... she had never seen this drill. Let me tell you... it showed us "swing issues" right away. Particularly in her wrists and when she opens up. Great drill and it shows results right now!!

We also worked in the "hand over" drill to help on this drill. Nice "advanced" drill and we will continue to use it. Next thing to work into the routine is the whip hits.

Click to expand...

Les get a round patio stone and drill two holes in it so you can attach a handle to it to carry it around.....then do Crystl's drop drill for hitting the low pitches. It makes a great visual when the hitters see they can hit the low pitch and then how they can control the flight of the ball by keeping the hands above the pitch and getting the bat head angle down. When I went out to see Joes team a couple weeks ago we used concrete blocks and did the drill at a station on the third base line so if we had an issue they would hit a few from there and make the adjustment. I like the patio stone as it is lower to the ground and protects the bat better from being hit.

we'll give the stone a shot. We do the timing dropped drill with a few of the girls now. Especially ones with timing issues.

bouldersdad said:

Its definatly worth the time and effort if she works on the whip hit and double tee.... the return is definatly worth the investment of time....... then before you know it you and i can just go to clinics and heckle H and let the girls do the instruction...... lol

Tim

Click to expand...

Tim.
I see that being a reality

I tell casey things and she says, I know.
She works alone off the tee once in awhile. She has been doing it long enough to practice different parts of her swing.

I am sure brit can do the same thing.

H. will post some pictures of the bat cave in the next couple of days.


Straightleg

My hitting area.

Net hangs off spring clips attached to the trusses. I have double layer of moving blankets to stop the balls.
The black stripe is 39 and 51 inches up to check ball flight.
The striped rope in middle check's hand path - hitting left or right of center.
Net rolled up hung by ropes to make a catch basin to collect the balls.
I took a swimming noodle, cut it in pieces to spead the area to catch the balls.
Wood ceiling to support a light and 220 volt blower heater I have hanging for winter time use.
It also deflects any balls that are missed hit.
Net curves on ends and black stipes on ends are for working on opposite field hits.
I put plastic 1/2 in water line in front of catch basin to keep it straight to help catch all the balls.

Might give you some ideas.



Straightleg

Gerry very nice!!! As you know we will be over one of these days!

straightleg said:

My hitting area.

Net hangs off spring clips attached to the trusses. I have double layer of moving blankets to stop the balls.
The black stripe is 39 and 51 inches up to check ball flight.
The striped rope in middle check's hand path - hitting left or right of center.
Net rolled up hung by ropes to make a catch basin to collect the balls.
I took a swimming noodle, cut it in pieces to spead the area to catch the balls.
Wood ceiling to support a light and 220 volt blower heater I have hanging for winter time use.
It also deflects any balls that are missed hit.
Net curves on ends and black stipes on ends are for working on opposite field hits.
I put plastic 1/2 in water line in front of catch basin to keep it straight to help catch all the balls.

Might give you some ideas.



Straightleg

Click to expand...

The dark area is the hitting zone and represents about 10 to 26 degrees with the tee 4.5 feet from the net at 29 inches high. This gives you an approximate angle you are hitting the balls as to hitting on top of the ball and it is below the 39 inch line or hitting the bottom of the ball hitting above the 51 inch line...if it goes left of center what opened i.e. shoulder, front leg, casting out with the hands, rolling the wrist, turning in on the ball to far with the front shoulder. If the tee is in the center and slightly ahead of home plate the ball should go forward and if not figure out why.

Just hitting the ball time after time without understanding what could be right or wrong makes no sense and builds bad muscle memory in my opinion. When you hit an inside pitch then you should be able to predict were the ball should go as well as up the middle or outside and if not what is preventing the hitter from doing it. This set up also helps the slappers as we tell the slapper exactly where to try and direct the ball being hit. When we do a drill to show bunt and then power slap to the 51 inch line and then show bunt and put it at the bottom of the net they see the difference and understand the results and what they have to do to achieve the results. The same happens when we say show bunt and hit away and they should see the ball in the 39 to 51 inch hitting zone.

Also please note the beautiful boat behind the hitting area....he was supposed to take some of the lemmings to the river for the WEBN fireworks and his wife nixed that idea....then look at the grill, my GE stove probably can not out perform that and Oh yes we were supposed to have a cookout for the lemmings also and his wife said she was having her bridge club over and that got canceled also. Looks like it will have to be Gold Star in Fairfield or the Mexican joint Cancun on Hamilton Ave where we had our first meeting of the Static Coaches last year.

put's my hitting area in the basement to shame! Gerry I know the feeling of being hen pecked. Howard gives it to me on every visit!

Nice setup, gives me some I deas to improve mine.. All I have right now is a very large rawlings pop up, which has done the trick, but looking for something beter this winter that I can move out of the way and put a car in too.

I will probably never have a boat like that in my back drop however.. Somehow, with the big net I have, there are still ones that blast the ball into a wall or two. Has anyone ever hit that boat???

Crush1 said:

Nice setup, gives me some I deas to improve mine.. All I have right now is a very large rawlings pop up, which has done the trick, but looking for something beter this winter that I can move out of the way and put a car in too.

I will probably never have a boat like that in my back drop however.. Somehow, with the big net I have, there are still ones that blast the ball into a wall or two. Has anyone ever hit that boat???

Click to expand...

We have a cable suspended with the net hanging on it and then have enough slack forward toward the pitchers position to keep them out of the ceiling. Then we have the sides of the net wide enough to keep them off the walls. The key is keep the tee within 4.5 feet of the net so there is no sharp angles to the sides of the walls. Then when we are done we roll the net to one side so we can get the cars in.

Next time Gerry is over I will ask him to take a picture....no boat, no grill just some tool boxes, drill, saw and a lot of bats!

Dan you are past hen pecked, I thought Laura's name was Yesshonney and was a French name!

Hitting tools.
First is a pvc bat Howard made.
Second is a whip hit
Third is a hand path device used at clinics by Crystal and H
Fourth is a whiffer hit stick. 40 inches long, a piece of rebar in the handle for weight and holes drilled in end to make cool noise when you swing it.


As far a being henpecked - last time I put my foot down I slept in the boat pictured above behind the net.

Was not a total loss. Have beer in the fridge pictured to the right of the boat.


Straightleg

straightleg said:

Hitting tools.
First is a pvc bat Howard made.
Second is a whip hit, co invented by Howard
Third is a hand path device used at clinics by Crystal and H
Fourth is a whiffer hit stick. 40 inches long, a piece of rebar in the handle for weight and holes drilled in end to make cool noise when you swing it.


As fas a being henpecked - last time I put my foot down I slept in the boat pictured above behind the net.

Was not a total loss. Have beer in the fridge pictured to the right of the boat.


Straightleg

Click to expand...

As fas a being henpecked - last time I put my foot down I slept in the boat pictured above behind the net.

Dan this is a real man...he planned ahead and stocked the fridge!

Ask him to show you his sons tree house almost as good as the boat to sleep in!