Hitting and Hitters Discussion stuck on hitting

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:-?14 year old player, has always been good consistent hitter with some power. Since last season, and into this season so far as well, can not get a base hit. EVERY at bat so far this season, she has put the bat on the ball--center field, left, right, bunts, never striking out. Sometimes has 10-pitch at-bats. Only time in 10 at-bats in the last 5 games that she has gotten on base was due to a throwing error. I have video footage of some of her more recent at-bats, but can't post it here (too many gigabytes or whatever they call them). She's good at laying off pitches out of the zone, but it's frustrating to watch her hit every ball right to a fielder. How do you overcome this?

 

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Upload your video/videos to Photobucket or Youtube, then post on here the to the page and we will be able to...es. Let me know if you need some help. Shayne

 

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There are some other variables to consider before attempting anything with her swing.

The biggest one that I can think of right off of the bat is what type of pitchers is she facing vs last year? That was a big adjustment for my DD when she started playing in the summer HS leagues against older pitchers with lots of different pitches. Only time and at-bats can help that situation.

 

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this happens, so don't feel bad...we had a poor girl last year (our lead-off hitter, for much of the season) that struggled all winter, zero hits...but, here was what was positive...balls being put into play, reaching on errors, sac bunting, not striking out and line drive outs (she actually led on on-base percentage since she walked alot and seemed o get hit every game!)....poor girl didn't get her first hit until late first summer tourney, I think, ended up batting in the high 3's....what you dont want to see is looking at 3rd strikes, pop ups, weak grounders to the pitcher...it will come in time, but it is tough to be patient...hang in there...

 

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(she actually led on on-base percentage since she walked alot and seemed o get hit every game!)....poor girl didn't get her first hit until late first summer tourney, I think, ended up batting in the high 3's....

Also helps when your dad keeps book...

 

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Based on your post, it SEEMS she is doing a lot of things right. Of course we want our kids to get a hit every time up. It doesn't happen. I try to remember to talk to my girls about having good at bats. Right or wrong this is the way we define it. Swinging at the pitches you should. Not swinging at those best let go. (I will tell you that these definitions change as they mature as players and hitters, and the situation). Keeping strikeouts low, NOT getting called for a third strike. When they hit the ball, did they hit is solidly and hard. When they consistently put together good at bats, the hits will fall eventually. Those games where they hit everything hard right at someone will be balanced by the games, when the ball seems to have eyes. One of the most difficult mental hurdles we have had to overcome is when the kids were younger they were content to make content rather then occasionally strike out. Younger players with less experienced fielders they feel like it is better. As they get older and the fielders become more skilled just making contact is less effective unless you have really good speed.

 

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This is her 3rd year of travel ball, her 14U team last year played in a few 16U tournies, did well defensively and moved runners (not a lot of running speed). She's a catcher for her 16U team, and gets a good look at how the junk pitches move. I am uploading a video on youtube, I'll post it as soon as it's ready...

 

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mozz - Let's assume her swing is ok - I would focus on making sure she stays "mentally" tough and doesn't start to give up. Again, assuming her swing is ok it sounds like she's doing exactly what a hitter is supposed to do - put the ball in play!!! She's doing her job by putting the ball in play and the defense is doing there job by getting the outs, it's really as simple as that. I'm sure she would like to get on base 50 - 60 - 70% of the time - every kid does. As long as she continues to work hard IT WILL HAPPEN - she'll soon have that breakout game were she goes 3-3 - she HAS to believe that!!! I've always told my players that success can be measured in different degrees - If you go up the plate with confidence and you have a 8,9 or 10 pitch at bat, then K, you've been successful - If you go up and swing at 3 pitches you've been successful , maybe not to the degree you'd always like but success has been achieved to some degree. Now going up and looking at 3 strikes - not good.

Now - say something is wrong with her swing - to a trained eye, watching the video should show it - are her hits hard hits or soft ones? like wvanalmsick said maybe she's just facing better pitchers and needs to work on bat speed. Is she keeping her head down? I recently attended the Wright State coaches clinic where I learned some things about vision training - I know you say she's hitting the ball to different parts of the field but maybe she's just not "seeing" the ball good. Maybe consider having her eye's checked, or inquire about vision training. Ask her if she's doing anything different - at that age they should start to learn to recognize when things are different - like they're not keeping the head down, there weight shift is not correct. Without watching the tape it's obviously hard to say. This can be very frustrating to the kids so the last thing we want them to do is to get down on themselves. Tell her to keep working hard and good things will happen. I don't know if I really addressed your concern but I hope this helps.

Confidence - Confidence - Confidence...... Good luck.

 

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I know this is not a real stat but I discuss QABs with my team... quality at bats.

QAB - hits the ball well - doesn't strike out much- works the pitcher count up - puts the ball into play all with good technique.

Over time QABs lead to an improved BA. Sometime the factor called "luck" or "unlucky" will affect the BA but not the QABs. Concentrate on QABs.

OK....time for my medicine.

 

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Okay, it uploaded. I'm apologizing for the angle and looking through a fence, but this was from the Spano 16U tourney this past Saturday...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shGHnt_5Ajs

 

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haha, no way, mine had her own struggles adjusting to becoming more of a "slapper" instead of swinging from the right side...dad isn't easy on his own :-[

 

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I will PM you.

 

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Shayne. ?I sent a pm, but see if you agree with me. ?Look at the hands( too high). Position in the batters box, distance away from the plate ,balance and width of the feet. Those areas I could tell from the presentation I would change. ?If Howard watches I'm sure he will see things I didn't. OK, just watched it again and so I modified my post. Watch the warm up swing and bat path and how she hits herself in the back. One good thing, looks like she has correct vision set up to the pitcher. Helmet is facing directly at the pitcher.

 

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The single biggest thing I see, is that she is not getting her bat on plane with the pitch, she appears to be swinging down on the ball. ?This is evident by how low her bat is finishing, even in her warmup swings. ?She has a slightly downward swing plane, which is causing her bat to hit her in the back or just below the shoulder. ?The bat should be finishing above the shoulder, and you would see the bat taking a slightly upward swing path. ?On the third swing in the at bat this is extremely evident. ?The ball is chest high when she swings, but her follow through is down by her waist.

Its a little hard to tell from the angle, but her rear elbow does appear to be moving into the slot nicely, and she is not dropping her hands or rear shoulder, but my biggest concern is what is happening with the front elbow. ?It should be working out and up, when the back elbow is dropping into the slot, which will set the hands above the bathead, keeping the hands inside the ball, and move the bat in a slightly upward swing plane. ?The front elbow appears to be just working out, and taking the shoulder with it, forcing the hands to disconnect and the bat head to work around the ball. ?

I'm sure Hitter will be on shortly to clear up the water, that I may have muddied.

 

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I watched the video a few times and even tried to "slo-mo" and "freeze frame" the swings by using the pause button. Far be it for me to suggest that I have all the answers, or can give you all the answers based on a quick look at a video, but there are some things I noticed.

Basically, it looks like she is fairly sound and shows good pitch selection. At 14U she is at that age where her athleticism may have got her by against weaker pitching. When the pitchers are better, with more speed and movement, proper mechanics become much more critical.

I would be curious to know what instruction she has received up to this point. Has she by chance had an instructor that teaches a "no stride" approach? I say this because I notice that on her live swings she seems to have little or no loading of the back hip and no counter rotation of the shoulders. "No stride" is a viable approach, but one mistake I often see is that hitters will interpret this as "no loading". I also would like to see a "no stride" hitter start out with a wider stance. She seems to have her feet at about shoulder width. Spreading them out a bit can help with her hip turn and balance- I notice that she is really off-balance on some of her follow-throughs.

She seems to be throwing the hips open early with a push from the back foot (spinning) instead of loading up and firing the hips against a firm front leg (getting off the backside). Her core body rotation looks weak, and that is forcing her to get her bat speed and quickness by using mostly her arms, with the arms being disconnected from the core rotation.

I notice her practice swings have a pronounced downward path and she seems to be turning on her back foot. Practice swings aren't always the best indication of what's going on with the live swings, but if this is something she is consciously trying to reproduce that could be a problem. I notice that on some of her live swings she is following through with the bat in a very low position, indicitive of swinging down on the ball. Better to try matching the plane of the pitch, which requires a slightly upward bat path and reveals itself by the bat being higher on the follow through.

All the foul balls down the left side might indicate that she is early on her swing. I'm going to say that this is symptom of the arm-dominated, disconnected swing. In order to get the bat around quick enough without good, connected core rotation, she is forced to start her swing early, resulting in all the hits to the left side.

It really looks like all the pieces are there- the good athleticism and pitch selection- but she needs to put the pieces together on good rotation connected to the arm action. This will allow her to wait on the ball a precious few fractions of a second and deliver more power to the ball up the middle of the field.

Combine that with a bat path more in-plane with the pitch path and you should see an increase in line drives. Line drives are more likely to fall for base hits. If you can do that 30% of the time, you're in pretty good shape!

 

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As always, Howard can clear the muddiest of waters!!!

 

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I second that. You and I at least saw the same thing. but only Howard can answer it and make us see the light!

 

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Thank you everyone, I copied and printed some of your posts. I realize, when making adjustments, you should go with one thing at a time--which thing should she start with first? :-?

 

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Go with with what Howard Carrier sent you. ( hitter). That is who we go for advice. If you do not know who Howard is, He has worked with some of the best softball players in this sport and was the hitting coach for team China.

 

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There are many reasons. The first question is whether she is hitting it weak or hitting it sharply.
If she is hitting weak - She either has a major flaw with her swing, not enough experience hitting better pitching, a possible vision issue that she isnt seeing the ball well or poor mental focus/confidence.

You can get very technical with a swing - too much so - Sometimes people put too much on the perfect swing thing and think a perfect swing means instant success.
And their lack of success must be a mechanical thing.
I have seen alot of hitters with less than a perfect swing smack the ball around off anyone. SO dont get too hung up on it.

If she is hitting it sharply but getting out she either has tremendously bad luck or something I saw a guy do last year. He hit the ball hard but got out or reached on errors alot. I found in hitting practice that he hit the ball to the same spots routinely. I asked him if he hits that way at the cage too and he said yes. He had actually trained himself unwittingly to hit in the same spots. I couldnt believe it. We told him to go up there and hit up the middle and had alot of trouble doing it. He finally practiced up the middle and it all opened up for him and he hit well.
Just one of those freak things I guess.
If that isnt the case and she is hitting it sharply all over the field but getting out I would say you have angered the softball gods and need to get in their good graces. You may have to sacrifice a water bottle or something.