Hitting and Hitters Discussion Up in the box or back in the box

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Just curious. What is your preference for batter's box position. Do you like your kids up in the box or at the back. Do you move them around based on the pitcher's speed or do you keep them still and teach them to adjust to the speed and pitch type.

 

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My daughter likes to be way up in the box always, and it works for her very well. However, some coaches try to get her to move back on rise ball pitchers. I don't see the logic, except for getting an eye on the ball "all the way in" - don't you want to get the ball before it rises?

 

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They should be in a neutral position. I won't go into detail, but I love the kids that go up in the box, because I know I own them. We had a high school game my pitcher got 13K's for this one reason. If you go to the Ice Camp for coaches this will be discussed and why they should be in a neutral stance. Many sources out there on why. Mike Candera has some good training DVD's on this subject. I love it when I hear a parent yelling at little Sally to move up and back as a coach. It makes it very easy to call the next pitch!

 

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Okay, you can't just say that and not elaborate a little. My dd loves to be forward in the box. Not so sure it's the best thing. Why is neutral the best?

 

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Because we are going to give you a steady diet of rise balls and some off speed. Would you want to face a girl that has speed and movement from 35 feet or 40 feet. We find this more of a problem in the younger ages, then as they get older the face better pitching and it messes up the timing of the hitter. Stay in one spot and adjust (dance with the pitcher) to adjust your swing to match her speed. Read the Post " Things you hate to hear" This was listed by coaches as one of the top things they hate to hear. I think I stole the above line from Johnnies post .

 

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This is a subject i dearly love, i believe in the system we teach, as anyone who know me also knows my dd bats from the front of the box depending on the speed of the pitcher, if shes trows heat 60 plus then definatly middle box and toe touch at noon if shes normal speed ( and normal from what ive seen is between 54 and 57 and has the ability to adjust to the off speed pitch, and i want to make it understood im talking about kids that can adjust on a consistant basis, if you cannot then SBFamily is correct he will cork screw your kid in the ground with changeup,s lol, i know i may catch some heat from my fellow lemmings on this, but whats life without a little food for thought

 

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SB hit it dead on, you want to be neutral in the box. Learn to hit all the pitches from this position. If a good pitcher sees you move back, expect to see screw, curve and drops. Move up in the box, change up, rise and fastball on your hands. Candrea has excellent points on this in his DVD. Most hitting coaches teach to take the same exact spot in the box every at bat.

 

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Tim is 100% correct, but his daughter is better than 95 % ( or more) of the kids we see. Bustos moves all over the place to bait the pitcher. I know we all think our dd's can do this, but unless they have an Elite swing we don't recommend it.

 

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I am a firem believer in being neutral in the box plate almost center.I also like,that saying!!
It's not which style is superior,but which style you perfect.

 

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If there was an advantage to being up in the box from a hitter's perspective wouldn't MLB players use it? I understand the plane of the pitch is different but if there was advantage in being closer to the pitcher.... I am sure you would see it from team USA and in the Major Leagues and you don't.

 

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In my opinion the hitter moving in the batters box up and back is usually insisted upon by the coach without regards to the hitters skills as to timing and rhythm. The coach sees his hitters struggle fast or slow and makes a decision to move them forward to compensate for the hitters lack of timing.

At 40 feet after the pitcher goes forward maybe 4 to 5 feet to throw, then the hitter moves forward (batters box is 7 feet long) so you choose how far she moved forward, the hitter has to make timing adjustments and IF they have never worked on making the adjustments the pitcher that can change speeds will have the advantage because the hitter has not worked on it which is why the coach moved them up usually.

This is why we do the Barry Bonds drill using the pitching machine so the hitters create what we term a swing DNA as they have seen it and done it and make the adjustment. We teach the hitters to have a window to hit in that gives then a mental and physical area to hit in for timing and rhythm, from the tee and soft toss and timing drop drills so they can make the decision of when to hit the ball.

If the weight shift is done correctly the hitter can adjust and dance with the pitcher no matter what she throws and Britt understands that....flexed knee is the key! Look at how soon the batters box back line is erased in a game and you don't see many moving forward in the box unless they understand how...In my opinion....

 

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All this being said and i do understand everyones comments, i dont force her to hit from there its her comfort zone, now wether its a disadvantage to her or not can be debated all day long, I believe i understand her logic though, and that is to take away the majority of the movement from the pitch, stop a rise before it rises, and curve before it curves and so on, theres a part of me that believes it and a part that is skeptical, but whats important is she believes it and makes it work, when it comes to changing her mind about hitting i,ll leave that to Howard, i,ll keep more of my sanity

 

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I am not a fan of hitters being up in the box unless you are sacrifice bunting( more fair territory). I personally do not care where hitters stand as long as they have proper plate coverage, up or back in the box has nothing to do plate coverage.

I agree that coaches and hitters use up and back to make timing adjustments, however any decent pitcher or catcher will make adjustments to the hitters location in the box. If a pitcher is just throwing the ball past the hitter and they can not catch up, there is nothing wrong with getting as far back in the box as possible. The reality is some hitters are just overmatched by fast throwing pitchers, especially at younger ages. Move back, put on a good swing and get some confidence.

I feel the best plan for dealing with a true rise ball is to just let it go, unless you are an elite hitter you are going to have little chance of hitting a true rise ball. Let it go and chances are that it will be called a ball, very few pitchers can start a true rise in the strike zone and have it end up in the strike zone. Just my opinions.

 

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Opinions are like belly buttons and everybody has one....some are in and some are out....she hits fine from right where she is...and she knows how to adjust...that is the key as she practices what the pitchers will do or try to do as to pitches in out and up and down.

The hitter has to determine what they can hit not the coach and we have seen them hit pitches out of the so called strike zone for home runs because they knew they could handle it.

However just moving them up in the box arbitrarily defies logic in my opinion.

 

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I agree about laying off the rise balls, but it's so difficult to do.

 

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I agree with that , i dont teach moving up when we do the clinics or when teaching one on one, sorry folks i seemd to have hi jacked the thread, lol couldent help myself just one of my favorite topics,

 

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Chip you are correct about plate coverage and it is a great point....Tim remember Jenny Topping talking a lot about where the hitter stands in the box as to distance away from the plate or in towards the plate and that we teach what she called neutral and as a catcher calling pitches it is more difficult to call pitches when they are neutral, which is a bat length from the outside corner to the lead foot and striding straight ahead or linear.

Hitting the rise ball in my opinion is more effective when the hands are above the plane of the pitch or a drop ball because the hands are still above the plane of the pitch which is why swinging level or down on the ball makes it more difficult no matter if you are up or back in the box...in my opinion.

 

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Hitters are unique in the details of what they do and what makes them succesful . The biggest component of that is if they believe in their approach and what they are doing but that is on an individual basis.
I believe if you are talking a general rule that up in the box does not hold any advantage and is actually a disadvantage for the reasons Hitter mentions above. If you don't believe it do the Bonds drill and watch the player the first time they conitnue to move up after each hit .

It is worth it however when you here the opposing coach say she's the one that jacked the change up last at bat !!!!!

 

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Nope! Strikezone is based on the batters normal batting stance if they were at the plate. Don't matter if up or back in box....it is always where it crosses the plate.

 

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TS, correct on the strike zone. As far as breaking pitches, they generally break about 3' in front of home plate, if a batter is in the back of the box she will have a very hard time touching a hard breaking curve. One might argue to lay off, like the rise, but as in a curve, it's hard to lay off of a pitch that appears to be a fastball down the middle of the plate. If we see a batter move back in the box to adjust for speed we throw a steady diet of drops, (again hard to layoff a pitch that appears to be a fastball thigh hi) and smile when batters swing right over the top. Good hitters will adjust to pitchers and "GO" with the pitch.