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Mar 29/24
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Texas Rampage Softball
HITTING
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HITTING

Secrets on How to Be the Best

Master these 7 steps and you are on your way to achieving your goal of being a hitter that can go as far as your dreams, desires, and hard work can take you.

JUMP INTO THE BOX

The stance is similar to when you land from a jump - knees bent - feet slightly wider than your shoulders - on balance - bend slightly forward from the waist.

DOOR KNOCKING KNUCKLES

The best grip to use will line up the knuckles we would use to knock on a door. This allows for a freer and quicker swing.

BIG TOE

This reminds us of the soft step that starts the swing with weight landing on the big toe. It’s no more than 6” and keeps the weight back while this step is taken. It also reminds us to keep the front foot closed.

SQUISH THE BUG

When we hit, we need to use not just our arms, but get the big muscles in our hips and torso working, as well. This is a hard twisting on the ball of our back foot.

KARATE CHOP / KARATE PUNCH

We need to take the barrel of our bat right to the ball, like in karate. The lower hand would be a snap from the elbow straight out, while the top hand would go straight toward the ball so that it meets the ball in the ...

THE RED ZONE

Hit the ball out in front, where our hands and arms are fully extended for maximum impact with the ball contacting the sweet spot of the bat. Also known as the hitting zone or success zone.

FOLLOW THROUGH

This reminds us that once we’ve hit the ball to bring the bat through the zone quickly. You’re still in your straight balanced position, but your hands go right from contact to your shoulder or back. 

 

How Hitting Practice Can Help You be Great at Hitting

Have you heard this saying for hitting practice –

“Practice makes Perfect”?

Think about it for a moment and let me ask you if that is correct?

One second for thinking ...

2nd second for thinking ...

etc... etc...

So what do you think? Let me tell you what practice makes – it makes permanent. Think of it this way, if you did hundreds of swings hoping that “practice makes perfect”, but you were swinging the wrong way, would that help? Actually, it would make the wrong swing more a part of you than before. See, it would make it “permanent”.

Actually what you’d need to do is practice perfect swings over and over again until the perfect swing was permanently a part of you.

If you don’t already have the perfect swing (and almost everyone doesn’t), how many practice swings do you think you’d need to get rid of the bad habit?

One second for thinking ...

2nd second for thinking ...

etc... etc...

Did you say 100 swings? A million?

Well the good news is, it’s not a million, but it is 3,000 perfectly executed swings before you start seeing it become a part of your regular swing. 3,000!! That’s a lot! True, but I thought you wanted to be a great hitter.

3,000 swings are almost impossible if you don’t have a plan to break that down into manageable chunks. Can your hitting practice include 100 swings a day? Can your hitting practice last 15 – 20 minutes a day in your quest to be a great hitter? Sure it can. That’s how long it takes to put in 100 swings per day. How many days will it take then? That’s it, 30 days, or a month, to break bad habits and make new ones. (30 x 100 = 3,000).

Great quotes on the Babe Ruth homepage –

 

"Never let the fear of striking out get in your way."

and

"Every strike brings me closer

to the next home run."

 

Drills, Drills and More Drills:


Don't Hit the Chair Drill
Place
 an old folding chair slightly behind and not too close to a batting tee, and practice hitting the ball off the tee, without hitting the chair. You'll probably want to use an old bat for this drill, which helps break an upper cutter's bad habit. Make sure that the tee is a little lower than the chair so you swing with a downward motion.

 

HITTING: 60 SECOND DRILL 
One of my favorite drills to improve bat speed is the 60 second drill which was taught to me through my uncle. What you do is, get someone to time the player for 60 seconds and make them swing as many times correctly as possible. While you are timing the player make sure each swing is done correctly.

 

Front Barrier Drill:

Have the batter stand one bat length from a barrier (I prefer a net to prevent damage to the bat, but you can use a fence). Have her take her normal swing. If she hits the barrier, she is unlocking her elbows before her shoulders and getting wide on the swing.

Rear Barrier Drill: Place a barrier directly behind the batter and have her take her normal swing. If the bat hits the barrier, she is dropping her hands. You can use this barrier even when you are using a pitching machine or live pitching for instant feedback to the batter that she is dropping her hands

 

HITTING: BASKETBALL DRILL


This is a great drill for teaching follow-through. Get a couple of old basketballs and take most of the air out of them. Place them on one of those orange cones you see at construction sites. Have the batter take her normal swing and follow-through right through the basketball. HAVE THEM WEAR HELMETS!!! Use regular sized bats for this drill.   I used to do this hitting a tire hanging from a tree.


HITTING: CONE DRILL

I learned this one while watching my daughter go through a batting clinic taught by a group of women that play, coach, and recruit for a major university.

The drill involves a cone, a ball,a 36 inch piece of thick rope (taped at both ends to stop fraying) and a lot of concentration. Place a ball on top of the cone and attempt to take a proper swing with the rope and hit the ball solidly. You will want to tell the girls to release their top hand to prevent hitting themselves in the back with the rope. If this is the perfect drill to practice as it will aid in concentration, stride and hand positioning.


HITTING: ROPE DRILL It's an old drill...but one I find very effective. You need a softball, some thick garden gloves and some rope about 12 feet long. Drill a hole through the softball and insert the rope. Tie a knot on both sides of the hole.

Put the batter in her regular stance, and stand opposite her. Start swinging the ball on the rope, through her strike zone. Hang on tight cause if they get a hold of it the balls takes off (thus the gloves).

I find this is great because you can vary the speed of the ball and the location. It's especially useful when you've got a variety of kids working on tees, in a cage etc. and there's some one on one time.

 

HITTING: SOFT-TOSS DRILL

We rarely use a full size "bat" or a full size "ball" when doing soft-toss. This is done to intensify the drill and the skill being taught. Position your self to the batting side (right for right handed batters) and ahead of the batter. Toss the "ball" at the hip of the batter. You want them to impact the ball in front of their body. This is the "contact point". The toss is important!! You do not want an arching, ugly type of thing, unless you are playing the old man's game of "slo-pitch", if so, you are on the wrong home-page. The toss should be crisp, but not too fast and out in front of the batter. Practice this to get it correct.

We use soft-toss to teach and reinforce the proper mechanics of the swing. Make sure your batters are:
1.) pivoting correctly and early enough.
2.) rotating their hips with an explosion toward the ball.
3.) unlocking their shoulders, elbows and wrists in sequence while throwing their hands straight to the ball (watch for hands dropping and correct this).
4.) Watching the ball all the way to the "bat" and continuing to watch the "contact point" after the "ball" has been hit.


The proper stance is essential. It should be a balanced stance with 60% of the weight on the back foot, eyes level, bat in launch position (not rapped behind the head), knees slightly bent, and door-knocking knuckles lined up. The stride should be a short, smooth lift and move type of stride. At impact with the ball and at follow-through, the body should be in a slightly curved position toward the ball (inward "c"), this insures that all the weight and power went in to impacting the ball.


We have used many things for "balls" and "bats". To increase concentration on the ball, try using tennis balls, practice whiffle golf balls, coffee can lids (plastic ones like frisbees), but my favorite (and the players favorite) is to use black-eyes peas. We start hitting them with a full size bat, but quickly move to using a "thunder-stick" or a home-made "bat" I made which is about the same size as a "thunder-stick" but with less weight inserted in the end. I feel we are trying to teach muscle memory and too much weight teaches a slower swing, but others think diferently. During warm-ups before games, I always hit the peas and them some LOUD, regular sized softballs. These are the hard ones and they sure turn some heads! The girls love the looks on the opposing teams faces when they hit these loud balls. We hit into a portable backstop so there is no time lost chasing balls.

One of my favorite drills is the "High-Low" drill with the practice golf balls. I hold 2 balls in my hand and toss them into the "contact zone" and call out either "high" or "low". The player must hit the corresponding ball. I tried it once with the black-eyed peas and was quite successful.

If the batters start to "cheat" on soft-toss drills, I hold 1 ball in either hand and rotate them (like juggling) and toss one up. This way they do not know when the ball is coming. They all hate this, but it works!!


HITTING: FROM CIRCLE TO BOX TIP

Emphasize to your girls that getting mentally as well as physically prepared to hit must be done not only before the game but before your at-bat as well.

Your at-bat begins when you step into the on-deck circle. Get your intensity level, aggressive attitude and swing mechanics properly prepared in the circle, then carry them with you into the box. Intensity and aggressiveness must be practiced!

HITTING: FOCUS TIP

Probably ever since you have started batting, you were told to watch the ball all the way through the arm motion, right? Try this test. Focus on an object, any object for 10 seconds. What happens? The object comes in and out of focus, right? Is this what you want to have happen when you are just about to swing at the ball? I do not think so.

I have my batters focus on the shoulder or some other part of the pitchers upper body until the ball has reached the pitcher's hip. Then you focus on the ball as it comes and makes contact with the bat. This way, you will not lose focus on the ball when it is critical that you see it.  I have my girls watch the pitchers hip.

If you have a problem picking up the ball at this point, you can pick it up a little earlier, but try not to focus in too early. This should allow you to keep a sharp focus on the ball all the way to the plate.

 

HITTING: ON-DECK HITTER TIP

 

 

There are several products on the market that do essentially the same thing, they are called "On Deck" hitters. They are basically a ball on a rope, that is tied to a swivel and then secured to a pole or rod and that is mounted to the fence either by bolts (U-bolts to mount to the fence pole) or springs (to mount to the fence directly). The on deck (we use "in the hole hitter") batter goes behind the fence and takes swings at the "on deck" device before she goes to bat. It is a great warm-up tool and we take ours to every game we play. I like to have a coach out there with the batter to make sure she is using proper fundamentals and intensity!!

 






 


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