I'm looking for some advice and drills for my son. For what it's worth, I'm just a dad with no personal experience to draw upon. Everything I know about hitting I've gleaned from books and watching games on TV. My son's problem, from my limited perspective, is he seems to be pulling off the pitches and over-rotating his hips in an attempt to pull everything. We've discussed the importance of "going with the pitch" by taking the ball back up the middle or to right when the pitch is outside, but more often than not he ends up with his hips corkscrewed and pointing to the third base dugout (he's rh) despite the pitch location. He has flashes when he recognizes the pitch location and deliberately hits the other way or back up the middle with good success. I want to find a way to cultivate and reinforce this. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

One thing that my Son has focused on when working on his swing has been "the finnish". Basicly when he completes his swing he freezes and has a series of "check points" to inspect, such as 1) Balance, 2) front foot 3) not overrotating the backfoot 4)Powerline 5) clubhead tilt and 6) head. The logic behind this is that if the body ends in the correct position, then it had to go through some correct motions at full speed to get there. At the end of the swing it is easy to see where you end up by freezing and checking the batters position at followthrough.

Another drill that works very well for us has been "Dynamic Pepper". I described this once before but will try again.

The basic goal is to master Club Head Control, so it really works the forearms and wrists. It is a Soft Toss Drill.

First, the batter is tossed the ball and must hit the ball squarely on the sweet spot and freeze his bat. The ball should jump off sharply toward the direction the pitch should optimumly be hit (outside of the plate the ball should go between 2nd baseman and 1st base) Secondly with the same pitch location the bat strikes the ball then retracts the bat immeadiately following the identical swing plane. Thirdly the hitter using only upper body with feet planted swings through and drives the ball and lastly the hitter takes a full swing.

The location of the soft toss pitch is the same through each of these "swings", perhaps 5-10 with each version, eg. freeze , retract, upperhalf, full swing. The back hip should explode and point in the direction the pitch should be hit as well.

So...soft toss to outside of plate and the hitter should master driving the ball opposite field. Then work middle of the plate up the middle, then inside for pull.

Soft toss works well for this because you should be able to place the ball consistantly where you want it allowing the batter to focus on one thing at a time, such as opposite field.

The Dynamic pepper drill works very well.

Here is a video of my guy doing a the "Dynamic Pepper" drill. Not perfect, and that is the point, with the drill you can easily tell when he mis-hits and gets a bit under the pitch, making it easier to adjust and move forward. Only the "freeze" and "retract" positions are shown.

http://www.getmynameoutvideo.com/DoyleBaseball/Pepper.wmv

Here is another player doing the soft toss drill and freezing at the finnish.

http://www.getmynameoutvideo.com/DoyleBaseball/SoftToss.wmv

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Originally posted by Marklaker:
I'm looking for some advice and drills for my son. For what it's worth, I'm just a dad with no personal experience to draw upon. Everything I know about hitting I've gleaned from books and watching games on TV. My son's problem, from my limited perspective, is he seems to be pulling off the pitches and over-rotating his hips in an attempt to pull everything. We've discussed the importance of "going with the pitch" by taking the ball back up the middle or to right when the pitch is outside, but more often than not he ends up with his hips corkscrewed and pointing to the third base dugout (he's rh) despite the pitch location. He has flashes when he recognizes the pitch location and deliberately hits the other way or back up the middle with good success. I want to find a way to cultivate and reinforce this. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Start by throwing him middle-out pitches and help him to understand to keep his front shoulder in. He should tilt over the plate to hit those pitches with authority to the opposite field instead of casting his arms.

Good luck!

Thanks both of you for the suggestions. With regard to throwing him middle-out, we actually do that quite a bit.....unintentionally. I throw him batting practice twice a week and because I have tendency to throw across my body and don't always stay on top of the ball I get a quasi cutting motion to my fastball. He sees plenty of middle-out pitches....he just wants to pull them.

In fairness, he has gotten much better in this area. We've begun working on pitch recognition - type and location - after every pitch in the cage. I throw, he hits, then I ask him what I threw and where it was, where he it, and where he should have ideally hit it. This has really helped his self-awareness and his concentration level.

Thanks!

Have him try hitting the inside pitch to the opposite field. It will force him to keep his hands inside the ball and make him hit the ball 'later'. This is an excellent drill for all hitter to work on.

Travel Baseball USA.com

Marklaker, I would be careful with the advice you are getting here....

The greatest hitters ever pulled the ball...Williams and Bonds to name a couple...

He could have a weight shift problem....Maybe not getting his weight off his back leg....Certainly get him to moving his body more efficiently, but I'd be very careful about changing any hitter's natural bat/ball contact point....

Hitting opposite way is never the answer, IMO....

Now I'm a bit confused, Bluedog. Maybe I wasn't very articulate in my original posting. When I mention his pulling off the pitches, I'm speaking entirely of balls on the outer third of the plate. If he attempts to pull balls in this location I would think he's going to produce weak ground balls or little flares, and our sessions in the cage and on the field seem to support this. Conversely, when he rotates so that his belly button points to right/right-center and no further (sorry, best way for me to explain it in my limited baseball vernacular) he gets much more pop and drive, producing line drives and swift groundballs. Middle-in I still expect him to pounce on the ball and get maximum hip rotation. Am I off base here (no pun intended)?

Thanks to all who responded.

Marklaker,

I belive your assessment is absolutely correct. Pitces 3" off the plate are strikes and if pulled will result in weak ground balls more often then not.

Plate discipline comes into play with what Bluedog alludes to. Ted Williams I believe adhered to the motto: The first rule in hitting, is get a good pitch to hit.

If a ball is middle in that would be: pull that sucker out of the park.

Bluedog and I don't agree on the hitting approach on balls away. However, his point is valid that with proper bat coverage/swing mechanics, in theory a hitter should be able to cover all portions of the plate with the bat. I'm not here to speak for Bluedog but would believe that a portion of what he states when he mentions pulling a ball would include any ball on the pull side of second base and to the foul line on that side. All of those balls are pulled and so, one could argue about not changing the natural point of contact. I've seen some pretty good hitters be able to do that.

It is hard for anyone to assess what your son is doing without video. I'm not the best at trying to give advice having not seen the swing. I do like Coach Cohen's 3 cone drill. One simulates a ball in the 6 hole or pulled ball. One simulates a ball up the middle and one simulates a ball in the 4 hole. All is done from front toss and so, the feeder needs to be behind a screen. It is then a progression of inside, down the middle, outside and the hitter learns to allow the ball to get deep. From there, you have to incorporate that into live hitting. We start with progressions but then alternate locations with the hitter explaining what they did and why. This takes a lot of time both in practice and over the course of the year.

Again, I have not seen your son hit and so, won't comment on the mechanics too much. Beware of various gimmicks like having your son put his shirt sleeve in his mouth to keep his shoulder in. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Take care,

I like the concept behind the cone drill. I think I'll give that a try this weekend. I have no intention of changing his MO on balls middle-in, I just think he can become a much better hitter when he takes the pitches on the outer third the opposite way. After two weekends of stressing this in the cage and on the field for live pitching, he's starting to make some progress and at the very least he's recognizing what he should do, even if his muscle memory says otherwise.

He gave me a good laugh last Sunday. I threw a pitch about a ball's width inside the black and he contorted his body as his hips worked into the pull position while his hands stopped short of this as he recognized the pitch location and tried to punch the ball to right. At the completion of his swing he turned to me with a screwed-up look on his face and said, "My mind said to stay back and hit it to right, but my body wouldn't let me." Now my 10 year old understands muscle memory.

Thanks for all the advice. I have to say I absolutely love this site. A great resource for someone like me.

To help my son to take the outside pitch the other way...i just make a simple agreement with him...

He is left handed...so during batting practice all the balls he hits to left and left center I have to pick up...all the balls that are hit to right center and right he has to pick up...anything not hit out of the infield he has to pick up........i then make sure at least 75% of the pitches I throw are down the middle or outside...so if he does it right he is rewarded with me having to pick the ball up...I do throw about 25% inside to make sure that he still pulls that pitch....it makes a game out of the drill and adds some fun to our batting practice....

quote:

When I mention his pulling off the pitches, I'm speaking entirely of balls on the outer third of the plate.

A better understanding of how and when to shift his weight would probably go a long way to solve this....

The upper and lower body must synch...But, what you are doing by making him hit opposite way is to slow down the upper half....This robs him of power and his natural swing......I would suggest to work on speeding up the lower half, instead...

quote:

If he attempts to pull balls in this location I would think he's going to produce weak ground balls or little flares

Well, he may....But, many of the greatest hitters to ever play didn't....Why would you think they could pull those pitches?

Williams and Bonds were two of the greatest hitters ever....Both were dead pull hitters....

You can take a pitch opposite field 2 ways. You could have slow bat speed (for whatever reason or reasons) or, you could have tremendous bat speed and let a pitch get deeper and explode on it driving the ball to the opposite field. This is of course for middle out pitches only. Driving the ball opposite field with power only shows a more versatile player. Assuming he can turn on the inside pitches as well.

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You could have slow batspeed (for whatever reason or reasons) or, you could have tremendous batspeed and let a pitch get deeper and expode on it driving the ball to the opposite field.

Why do you think Williams and Bonds did not do either?...Or Hornsby or Maris?...Or Ruth?

Berkman or Ortiz?....Griffey or Sheffield?...Giambi or Winfield?...Reggie Jackson or Bagwell?

Teaching hitters to let the ball get deep is a steep slope to travel, IMO.....

Did those players not hit opposite field singles, doubles,or HR's ever? Did they sit and wait for an middle in pitch to take deep. otherwise walk? Right center is oppo for a Rt hand hitter. I am not suggesting that everything middle-out goes down the 1st baseline...

Middle in pull. Middle back up the middle and middle-out oppo.

It sure seems to be a desirable trait when viewed by recruiters and scouts as well as coaches.

The ability to hit opposite field with power (HR and extra base hits) seems to excite a lot of these folks.

A slider low and away with 2 strikes too close to take...are you going to yank that (pull it) over the fence for a HR or are you going to put it in play?

There are more hits in baseball than just HR's. Sure, most HR's will be pulled, but there is more to the game of baseball then pulling a pitch out of the park. Even if you are primarilly a hitter.

quote:

Right center is oppo for a Rt hand hitter. I am not suggesting that everything middle-out goes down the 1st baseline...

Floridafan, I know....

Let's take Jeter....He hits middle-in pitches the opposite way....And, from what I see, he struggles with away pitches.....And, he's a lifetime .317 hitter....

Now, if someone would have messed with his natural bat/ball contact point, would he be a MLB player?....Who knows?

There is no time to think in the box....Once a player develops his swing he's gonna take to the game, they hit with their spirit, not with their brain, IMO...

The real discussion is, should you teach a hitter to hit a certain pitch in a certain direction?...I say no, you shouldn't...

Teach them to synch upper and lower body and let their spirit take over....That will keep anyone plenty busy....

I did just see A-Rod take a middle out pitch to left Center and Giambi pull an inside pitch. Nice way to move the game along.

I also just watched Gurrero take an outside pitch oppo. This is what my guy is being trained to do with outside pitches.

quote:

I also just watched Gurrero take an outside pitch oppo.

He was late on the pitch....Even the announcer said he probably wasn't trying to do that....

I don't know what broadcast you were listening too...

It was a highlight during the Cubs - Cardinals game....