Bat Speed -- Baseball Hitting Forum

Posted by: Coach C () on Thu Aug 28 22:53:09 2003

Most coaches suggest that hitting training progresses from tees, to toss, to machine, to live pitch. Also, that once the season starts they seldom go to machines unless it is problem specific. My question is, what is meant by live pitching. Coach tossing 2/3 speed at 2/3 distance. Or same level pitcher pitching at full speed at full distance and throwing all types of pitches in their arsenal??????

Yes to all and anything else you can dream up, but with one key. BP should be about getting a good pitch to hit. Train the kids to hit perfect pitches and not bad ones. How many times have we seen it......you know, kids swinging at everything. As a hitter I was extremely selective at the plate in BP, because I was training my eyes to know what my bat could do. Now if you're good enough to throw excellent BP (some are), then throw location and mix in some perfect pitches. Also put them in hitting counts so that they understand the strikezone may expand or get smaller. If the kids are making poor decesions then either you're throwing too hard or their mechanics need work to execute the swing in the proper time. I also like the idea of moving up and back, as a BP pitcher, it help's in teaching them how to make adjustments. For me BP machines have one primary purpose....hit the ball squarely each time, not hard, but squarely (50 for 50, depending on the age). If they are not doing that, then they have issues that need to be dealt with. As a rule BP should emulate game conditions as much as possible. You can even mix in some situational hitting such as hit the ball to the right side, this will help them pick the pitch that will work best to get that done. Most swings, however good, won't work if the timing is bad and the pitch is a poor one. I tell my kids that for every at bat you're going to get one great pitch to hit, so they better not miss it, after that you're having to settle on a pitchers pitch. I find that having good discipline at the plate makes me more agressive and not the other way around, because I'm always drooling that for that one perfect pitch. Hope this helps! Swings without the purpose of square contact are wasted energy.

Respectfully,

Coach C

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> Most coaches suggest that hitting training progresses from tees, to toss, to machine, to live pitch.  Also, that once the season starts they seldom go to machines unless it is problem specific.  My question is, what is meant by live pitching.  Coach tossing 2/3 speed at 2/3 distance.  Or same level pitcher pitching at full speed at full distance and throwing all types of pitches in their arsenal??????
> 
> Yes to all and anything else you can dream up, but with one key.  BP should be about getting a good pitch to hit.  Train the kids to hit perfect pitches and not bad ones.  How many times have we seen it......you know, kids swinging at everything.  As a hitter I was extremely selective at the plate in BP, because I was training my eyes to know what my bat could do.  Now if you're good enough to throw excellent BP (some are), then throw location and mix in some perfect pitches.  Also put them in hitting counts so that they understand the strikezone may expand or get smaller.  If the kids are making poor decesions then either you're throwing too hard or their mechanics need work to execute the swing in the proper time.  I also like the idea of moving up and back, as a BP pitcher, it help's in teaching them how to make adjustments.  For me BP machines have one primary purpose....hit the ball squarely each time, not hard, but squarely (50 for 50, depending on the age).  If they are not doing that, then they have issues that need to be dealt with.  As a rule BP should emulate game conditions as much as possible.  You can even mix in some situational hitting such as hit the ball to the right side, this will help them pick the pitch that will work best to get that done.  Most swings, however good, won't work if the timing is bad and the pitch is a poor one.  I tell my kids that for every at bat you're going to get one great pitch to hit, so they better not miss it, after that you're having to settle on a pitchers pitch.  I find that having good discipline at the plate makes me more agressive and not the other way around, because I'm always drooling that for that one perfect pitch.  Hope this helps!  Swings without the purpose of square contact are wasted energy.
> 
> Respectfully,
> 
> Coach C

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