Hitting and Hitters Discussion Up in the box?

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I have seen many teams with hitters in the front of the box (I guess to minimize the impact of the junk pitches). I have also watched college and our Olympic team hitting form the back of the box. I am curious what all of you think is the best approach and why?

 

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You're not from around these parts are you.

 

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I'll ride the fence and stay somewhere in between.;&

 

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Countdown for the big guys response................

 

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I heard Howard (Hitter) describe his view on the topic in August. To paraphrase what I think I heard - the batter becomes 'trained' visually, mentally and physically by hitting in the same spot in the box. If you as a coach ask the batter to move in the box up or back, you have ruined that 'training' - unless you practice. Howard suggested using the Barry Bonds drill to 'train' hitting in multiple spots. Barry Bonds drill is where you setup the pitching machine and you move the batter forward steps at a time (changing the ball angle/speed) and then backward steps at a time (changing the ball angle and speed).

Howard, please further explain and/or correct.

 

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Big guy is on the road to Zainsville for a coaches clinic.............

 

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I guess it all depends on your batters ability and what you are trying to accomplish in that at-bat. I like the girls further up in the box most the time with some variation, but some of them are just not comfortable with it.

 

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Tangy-Mike : Good response. My pitchers love the coaches that move them up. Add's to the K count, if you know what to pitch. I'm sure this will be one of the topics at the Zanesville Clinic. Measure off from the plate and stance. Pre-flight check list as the Big guy likes to say.

A quote to save him from posting it., from one of his prior posts.

" Moving forward can and does effect timing issues so why would we want to move forward or backward when we know it affects our swing DNA or data base we have accumulated perhaps taking years to learn just because one coach on one day decides it is time to move up or back based on one pitcher! We have hopefully worked very hard to develop our window of opportunity and timing and now we are going to try and change our data base in a game without first making adjustments during practice.

This is why we work on mechanics first and style second so we can become more consistent in our approach to our hitting mechanics and hitting within our window of opportunity in my opinion.






Timing is crucial to hitting and why is it we never see the elite caliber athletes such as MLB moving around in the box? In softball I have seen them bait the pitcher into throwing what the hitter wanted and moving up in the box as the pitcher started their motion in hopes of throwing the pitchers timing off by taking something off the ball because they saw the hitter move as they went to release the ball. However when I see especially the high school coaches tell the entire team move all the way up in front of the box for no valid reason I wonder why they do this? Against a good pitcher I will see as many as 11 to 14 strike outs as the hitters have not practiced adjusting for the pitchers speed or movement by 3 to 4 feet!"

 

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Watched a couple of Bandits (Pro League) games last summer and all batters were back in the box, including Sam Findley who hit a couple out. I think parents/coaches/players move up and stay up to the front of box out of ego mostly. Never could understand not making an adjustment during the game.

 

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Dan you lost me on that last post, in the front of the box and ego? help a brother out and explain that one to me

Tim

 

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Tangy-Mike : Good response. My pitchers love the coaches that move them up. Add's to the K count, if you know what to pitch. I'm sure this will be one of the topics at the Zanesville Clinic. Measure off from the plate and stance. Pre-flight check list as the Big guy likes to say.

A quote to save him from posting it., from one of his prior posts.

" Moving forward can and does effect timing issues so why would we want to move forward or backward when we know it affects our swing DNA or data base we have accumulated perhaps taking years to learn just because one coach on one day decides it is time to move up or back based on one pitcher! We have hopefully worked very hard to develop our window of opportunity and timing and now we are going to try and change our data base in a game without first making adjustments during practice.

This is why we work on mechanics first and style second so we can become more consistent in our approach to our hitting mechanics and hitting within our window of opportunity in my opinion.






Timing is crucial to hitting and why is it we never see the elite caliber athletes such as MLB moving around in the box? In softball I have seen them bait the pitcher into throwing what the hitter wanted and moving up in the box as the pitcher started their motion in hopes of throwing the pitchers timing off by taking something off the ball because they saw the hitter move as they went to release the ball. However when I see especially the high school coaches tell the entire team move all the way up in front of the box for no valid reason I wonder why they do this? Against a good pitcher I will see as many as 11 to 14 strike outs as the hitters have not practiced adjusting for the pitchers speed or movement by 3 to 4 feet!"

Dan I could not have said it better....I think I did however and Crystl address it at the clinic....same message

 

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It doesn't matter if your up in the box,even or back ,as long as the batter allows the ball to get deep in her zone when she delivers her ball crushing blow.If you have to move everytime to hit a certain pitcher then you are a maladjusted batter.This moving around stuff is crazy.Get where your going by getting there and adjusting your swing speed, anything else is just S.W.A.G.!!!!!!

Scientific
Wild
A
Guess!!!!!! Plain and simple.Better off numbering 6 pitches rolling a 6 sided dice and looking for that pitch the odds are about the same.

Just being comfortable with where your at in the box is a start, the rest is training to hit everything from that same spot. No one Coach has the perfect swing for every player.If that were true,in 150yrs of the game we'd have better players.
Quit looking for the majic bean. The first Farmer to do so lives in,"Birdseye In47513",you know, HoHoHo!!! Green Giant. I dont think he learned how to perfect farming,they're still working on that.

O.K. So I pulled alot of legs ,fudged the facts a lil ,and glamourized some far fetched facts.
There is a town in In. Called Birdseye not to be associated with bluebird seal for fresh packed peas.Theres a moral here.

"There is no such thing as perfect swing!!!!,just people who try to perfect how they swing!!!"

Yeah, Gotcha!!! I was bored,the lack of softball has me doing some crazy things. I hate cold wet weather....Having FP Withdrawals.

 

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Batters moving around in the box to swing away drives me nuts espescially when she is struggling anyways. Alot of (young) batters get in the box and are tense anyways then the coach says "move up in the box" which cuts reaction time because they are cutting distance between pitcher and batter. What I tell DD is too keep the plate in front of her unless she is bunting and even then she only moves up a step to put the bat just a little more in front of the plate. I have seen players so far up in the box that they are almost out of the box.... pitcher throws a change up that looks high to her then drops right across the plate for a strike most times for a K.