Hitting drills when you’re too early…

[OHsoftball]

Anyone have any suggestions for drills to improve timing when you’re hitting everything a bit too far out front?

 

[yocoach]

Front toss from 25' or so away. Have her try to hit everything to RF.

 

[daboss]

I believe this chronic problem can be one of the hardest to overcome in all the hitting quirks there are out there. Trying to re-establish the contact zone with a kid that may come from playing upper level ball that has some real heat coming into her, then needing to adjust to REC or school ball where the speeds are more average to the game in general. It's difficult at any level of skill but I'm referring to a seasoned hitter with a developed swing that struggles almost as much as a kid still learning how to hit! Not cool!

I would start with a tee and point out the zone in general off the front foot and work with head position and bat contact point. The need to establish body positioning with shoulder and hip placement at contact is critical to remind a girl where her power is coming from.

In many cases I believe vision is a major issue. Girls get complacent and want to "lock" their head to their shoulders and won't "track" the ball into the zone. It's easier to see the ball out in front of them so they never pivot their head (that's why they like the high ones). The next drill is simple. I refer to the nose being a pointer. Have them stand at the plate and simply track pitches thrown till they go by them and pivot their head with their nose pointing at the ball the entire time. Practice their head being on a swivel if you will.

Then, go work on soft toss from the side by tossing into the zone off the front foot and make them wait to swing and hit the ball. see how long they can wait before swinging hard and making contact. Throw the balls up into the zone so they hover a split second.

Lastly my favorite is beans. Yup------beans. I like kidney beans but Lima beans will work too. Stand about 12' in front of the girls with safety glasses on, and toss underhand to the girls one bean at a time. If they can see and hit a bean, they can hit a softball. You sell this to them you will improve a kid's hitting 100-200 points in a season. Biodegradable, the birds love it, and the kids enjoy the challenge. Helps with every facet of hitting as you encourage her to hit the bean back at you as hard as she can.

Hitting is timing. Girls need to know the zone and practice rotating thru the zone. Keeping the shoulders and hips in the proper position before "releasing the rubber band" of the swing is constantly lost by hitters at every level. Learning to control it helps once they learn to see the ball------- track the ball deeper into the zone---------then explode.

Just my opinion....

 

[CARDS]

I would look at some video to see her foundation/lower body set up she could just be too open.

The other most likely cause is swing casting or as daboss pulling the head and front shoulder .

You can set up the Tee deeper inside and see if she can consistently keep her hand path inside the ball and drive the middle. soft toss focusing on driving middle/right side.

If she is pulling out upper or lower body you will generally see a lot of pop ups especially on pitches away.