Hitting and Hitters Discussion Girls Softball Hitting the Rise ball, suggestions, pointers or tips!
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BouldersDad
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Its called a rise ball for a reason. Its a ball lay off. Wait for a rise that dosent rise then take it yard. You cannot drive a pitch out of your hitting zone. A rise ball is a pitchers pitch. Leave it be and find one in your zone.
I have learned from Crystl the umpire has a strike zone and the hitter has their hitting zone and it is their responsibility to determine what they can hit in their zone. The only thing we want the umpire to do is call safe or out and it is the hitters job to determine what they can hit. She has said we hit from the nose to the toes and should practice hitting balls no one else would swing at.
She places a tee on top of a 5 gallon bucket at its highest position. To get them to see it, feel it and fix it, we place a tee in front of a mirror. We always want the lead arm elbow above the plane of the pitch no matter what the height of the ball. We say elbow above the plane of the pitch, bottom hand below the elbow and the bat head below the hands. We work from the top down hitting about 5 balls and then adjust the tee down a couple inches until we have lost the tee adjustment at its lowest position. Then remove it from the bucket and place it on the ground and raise it to its highest level and continue working down. We have taken V 8 juice bottles and filled it with gravel or sand and drilled a 3/4 inch hole in the cap. Then wrap duct tape around the lid several times. We also made a pole the holds 9 softball size whiffle balls on a the stick. The stick is mounted into a holder that has a flag pole mounting kit so it can be moved and tilted to any direction. We measure off midway from the top of the arm pit and adjust it to the midpoint of the arm pit. This places the bottom ball just below the knee cap.
Coach Candrea ask Crystl why she hit a ball that bounced over home plate for a home run in a game? She said I practice doing that. After the game she showed Coach how to do it. She holds the bat in her top hand and holds a ball in her left hand about 45 degrees straight away from the body at shoulder height. She drops the ball and when it bounces she hits it. Each ball because of age bounces a little differently. This is where the phrase we hit from the nose to the toes came from.
During soft toss, live pitching, front toss or using a machine we want them to be able to hit a ground ball, line drive and then a long ball. We feel it makes them a better hitter in all situations when the coach is trying to make something happen.
Each umpires judgement of the strike zone appears to be different as no one is perfect and the hitter must be able to adjust to what is being called that day. We tell our kids if you have two strikes and get wrung up you decided you could not hit it, so do not even think giving the umpire that goofy look of wonderment that it was a called a strike!
Howard
She places a tee on top of a 5 gallon bucket at its highest position. To get them to see it, feel it and fix it, we place a tee in front of a mirror. We always want the lead arm elbow above the plane of the pitch no matter what the height of the ball. We say elbow above the plane of the pitch, bottom hand below the elbow and the bat head below the hands. We work from the top down hitting about 5 balls and then adjust the tee down a couple inches until we have lost the tee adjustment at its lowest position. Then remove it from the bucket and place it on the ground and raise it to its highest level and continue working down. We have taken V 8 juice bottles and filled it with gravel or sand and drilled a 3/4 inch hole in the cap. Then wrap duct tape around the lid several times. We also made a pole the holds 9 softball size whiffle balls on a the stick. The stick is mounted into a holder that has a flag pole mounting kit so it can be moved and tilted to any direction. We measure off midway from the top of the arm pit and adjust it to the midpoint of the arm pit. This places the bottom ball just below the knee cap.
Coach Candrea ask Crystl why she hit a ball that bounced over home plate for a home run in a game? She said I practice doing that. After the game she showed Coach how to do it. She holds the bat in her top hand and holds a ball in her left hand about 45 degrees straight away from the body at shoulder height. She drops the ball and when it bounces she hits it. Each ball because of age bounces a little differently. This is where the phrase we hit from the nose to the toes came from.
During soft toss, live pitching, front toss or using a machine we want them to be able to hit a ground ball, line drive and then a long ball. We feel it makes them a better hitter in all situations when the coach is trying to make something happen.
Each umpires judgement of the strike zone appears to be different as no one is perfect and the hitter must be able to adjust to what is being called that day. We tell our kids if you have two strikes and get wrung up you decided you could not hit it, so do not even think giving the umpire that goofy look of wonderment that it was a called a strike!
Howard
manitoudan
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One things for sure and I've said it a zillion times , hands MUST be above the ball at contact . And thats more difficult than it sounds , doesnt come natural to hitters at all. Takes tons of high tee work .
The best approach to dealing with the rise ball is to make sure you hit the fastball when it is thrown. Great hitters can waste pitches they don't like, get in good hitting counts and DON'T miss pitcher's mistakes. A lot of .500 HS hitters become .175 hitters in college because they can't get rid of tough pitches or swing and miss/foul off that 1 hittable pitch in an at bat.
Lenski65
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Physics tells us that riseballs don't "rise". It is nothing more than a pitch thrown with an upward trajectory consisting of either a rifled (bullet) or upward spin. For the pitch to be anywhere in the hitter's zone the ball's flight pattern has to flatten and eventually start dropping. If it's in the zone (a mistake pitch) you swing at it (elbow above hands, hands above barrel of bat). If it's not in the zone you let it go by.
