2 strike hitting

Sounds like issues maybe picking the ball up soon enough. A drill that I can think of that would help with this is.

Throwing batting practice WEAR A BLACK BATTING GLOVE on your throwing hand. This will help your hitters really focus on the ball coming out of your hand and tracking it along with picking up the spin on the ball.

Another drill that will help with shorting up your batters swings. Go to your local baseball academy and assuming they have a pitching machine. Put the pitching machine in the batting tunnel about 40 ft from the plate and CRANK IT UP TO FULL SPEED.

In order for your players to make contact they will have to shorten their swings. This is assuming your team is 13u or above. If not adjust accordingly.

We have ours move in to the plate, move up in the box and choke up on the bat. They have better bat control. We have been working on it the last two days and some of my guys have really long swings and have changed to this because they are hitting the ball so much better.

- are they getting their foot down before the ball is halfway? (the usual suspect)
- are they swinging down vs swinging level?
- are they swinging at all when they K?
- should they swing at more first pitches?
- why are they getting to 0-2, 1-2, 2-2?
- are they swinging out of the strike zone?

quote:

We've been hitting tennis balls with broomsticks trying to just short up and make solid contact for about a week.

I would quit doing this and focus on real bats and real balls at game speed.

quote:

Originally posted by CoachBT9:
We have ours move in to the plate, move up in the box and choke up on the bat.

Our pitchers would be giving you a steady diet of inside fastballs.

I agree that is just being asked to be pitched inside.

quote:

Originally posted by SultanofSwat:

quote:

Originally posted by CoachBT9:
We have ours move in to the plate, move up in the box and choke up on the bat.

Our pitchers would be giving you a steady diet of inside fastballs.

quote:

Originally posted by SultanofSwat:
Our pitchers would be giving you a steady diet of inside fastballs.

Our hitters (a couple of them anyway) would then be giving you back a steady stream of jacks...

quote:

Originally posted by turnin2:
We're swinging the bats pretty well...team avg is .339, hitting .330 with RISP, 11 2B 3 3B 7 HR and 88 runs in 10 games....however we have struckout 80 times in about 260 at bats.

Our approach is everything up middle, middle/backside with 2 strikes. We've been hitting tennis balls with broomsticks trying to just short up and make solid contact for about a week. Any thoughts on what we can do to help reduce ks??

If I had a team hitting and scoring runs that well I wouldn't mention or acknowledge the K's to the team. One way or another, they're going to make 21 outs per 7-inning game.

Get
Rid of the tennis balls and the Broomsticks. Hit baseballs with a bat and your kids get immediate feedback if they are squaring it up on the sweetspot.

Jmo

If you choked up on a broomstick, you could hurt yourself.....

The first thing to watch for is how they handle their at bats. A lot of the times, especially with high school age players, you can't watch two strikes go by. Once you have two strikes on you, there is a big chance that a high school pitcher will throw you junk. If your players are striking out because of off-speed pitches, make sure you tell them that they should try and make contact before they get to two strikes.

You are on the right track hitting tennis balls with broom sticks. For an even better drill try using whiffle golf balls or even dried lima beans. Also teach them how to recognize and hit off-speed pitches if they are having trouble. Best of luck!

quote:

Originally posted by turnin2:
We're swinging the bats pretty well...team avg is .339, hitting .330 with RISP, 11 2B 3 3B 7 HR and 88 runs in 10 games....however we have struckout 80 times in about 260 at bats.

Our approach is everything up middle, middle/backside with 2 strikes. We've been hitting tennis balls with broomsticks trying to just short up and make solid contact for about a week. Any thoughts on what we can do to help reduce ks??

What’s the average pitch count the hits have come on, the average pitch count the strikeouts have come on, the average pitch count the walks have come on, the average pitch count of the balls in play, and the average pitch count of all the at bats.

I’m just gonna guess that you’ve beat into their heads that they shouldn’t swing at a pitch unless they think they can drive it. We have a kid hitting .349 with a .433 OPBP, and a .535 SlgP with 34 hits in 99 at bats and 120 PAs with 16 walks, but he’s only struck out 6 times. He doesn’t K a lot because he doesn’t waste many good pitches, so he doesn’t allow himself to get into a lot of 2 strike counts.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t work for everyone because they don’t have his ability to judge pitches relative to the strike zone, or his ability to pull the trigger.

From my previous conversations with Mike Diaz, former MLB and Japan Pro player. Mike said with 2 strikes and if you are hitting RH, remove the LF foul line. Use Left center field as your foul line.
Reverse for a left handed hitter.

Does this make sense. In Korea HS, the coach will remove you from the game, if you do not execute.

Bob

quote:

Originally posted by BlueDog:
If you choked up on a broomstick, you could hurt yourself.....

Glad to see you're ok Bluedog.

As I have mentioned previously, no one describes how to hit effectively with two strikes better than Ted Williams himself. Read the book, practice what he preaches.