Always pulling fouls.

No. 1 I prefer the athlete does not move in the box. I am not sure how old this athlete is but it is a maturing process to allow the ball to get there. Once he does this the light bulb will go on.

Front toss may help, but under hand slowly with little velocity to see if he can wait until it gets there and have hit back up the middle to the screen.

Overall I agree with the don't move in the box. Find a spot and settle there to hit. Sometimes you may have to make an adjustment in the box but overall find one spot.

The front toss is a great idea if the toss is to the outside and they hit to the opposite field. If they keep hitting pull side then you're wasting your time. One thing to add to this drill is to put three balls on the ground. One inside corner at the front of the plate, one down the middle in the middle of the plate and one outside on the outside back corner of the plate. Have him work on separating the trigger and swing. This could possibly be a problem as well in that his trigger / swing are all one motion which is bad because he can't let the ball get deep. Once the trigger and swing are separate then have him take dry cuts and stopping over each ball. Call out A (inside) or B (middle) or C (outside) and have him freeze there to get a feel of that the swing doesn't change to go to opposite field. Then do the front toss with him after doing this a little.

Things not to do.
Don't move up in the box
Don't swing a heavier bat

He is "jumping" pitches. He is chasing the baseball. What you will hear many times when kids are doing this is "He has such quick hands he is out in front." "He likes to face the hard throwers he hates to hit off the soft throwers."

There are two things that cause this and sometimes both of these are issues. #1- He does not let the baseball travel. He hits the baseball out in front of the plate. Moving up in the box does not fix this problem. He is still going to hit out in front of where he stands in the box. Now he may be a little later because he is closer to the pitcher. But its not addressing the problem. If he swings a heavier bat it may cause his swing to slow down a bit. But he will develop poor swing mechanics and still attempt to hit the ball out in front of the plate.

He needs to understand there are zones to hit in. Inner, middle, away. Left field , Center field, Right field. He needs to understand that in order to have success he must learn to be a hitter and use the entire field. As the pitching gets better and the coaching of the pitching gets better he will have less and less success with this approach. He is capable of still having some success because the pitching and the pitch calling. Once a coach sees a hitter that is a one zone hitter its over that day.

How do you get a young man to understand this? Sometimes it takes a bunch of failure. Sometimes it takes some failure. Sometimes it simply takes some success learning how to use the entire field. The sooner he starts learning to use the entire field the better. Because if he does not he will not be hitting very long as he moves up in the game.

#2-Another issue that could be at play is a swing that simply swings around to get to the baseball. A pitch down the middle swung around and fouled to the left side. Instead of a swing that allows him to hit the ball where it is pitched "staying inside the baseball." Jumping pitches and hitting out in front of the plate with a long swing will produce long foul balls. Jumping pitches and hitting out in front of the plate with a short inside the ball swing will produce more swing and miss.

Learning to hit means learing to hit the baseball where it is pitched and learning to use the whole field. This means he has to discipline himself to allow the baseball to travel. Imagine standing at the plate and a pitch inside. Imagine hitting that ball just in front of the left thigh. A pitch down the heart right at your crotch. A pitch outside just before your right thigh. It takes discipline to allow the baseball to travel. And the longer you can wait and still be on time the better decisions you will make. Bat speed, quick hands, etc mean absolutely nothing without the ability to use it properly. In fact many hitters with poor batspeed who understand how to hit have much more success at the hs level than kids with great bat speed and and quick hands that do not.

Set up a L screen. Front toss him on the outside of the plate and have him work on letting the ball get deep and driving it to the right side of the L screen. If he is a little early he will hit it back at the screen. If he is way early he will roll over. Teach him to focus and drive the ball backside and allow it to get deep. Talk to him about the fact it is much better to be a little late and foul that pitch off than to be early and ground out to the left side with a weak ground ball. Preach to him that it is ok to be a little late. Its all about timing and learning.

Work him away and let him get the feel of letting the ball get deep and driving it backside. Then work him middle and let him get the feel of driving the ball up the middle. And then work him inside and let him get the feel of driving the ball to the pull side.

If he is swinging around the ball you will see him pull pitches foul that are strikes on the inside and inner half. If he is staying inside the baseball he will be capable of hitting inside pitches fair. All of his front toss should be done with a purpose. Away , middle , in. All three zones. Let it get deep and hit the ball where it is pitched. Allow the baseball to get where it needs to get in order to hit it where it is pitched.

Think of it this way. If he is thinking Left field and he is early its a strike "foul ball." If he is thinking middle away and he gets that pitch and he is a little early he has zones to work in. But the key is getting him to understand that a double to the rcf gap counts just as much as a double to lcf. If he can only hit in one zone that means he is 1/3 the hitter he needs to be. And if he wants to hit down the road when the pitchers , catchers , coaches can see a one zone hitter from a mile away he needs to listen to you and go to work on this.

All of his bp needs to be done with a purpose of teaching him this and reinforcing this. Away - Zone 3 RF/ Middle - Zone 2 Middle/ Inside Zone 1 LF.

Good luck this is a common problem for hitters especially those who are too anxious in the box and looking to hammer. Its kind of like the kid who cant wait for the cork to go under so they pull the cane pole as soon as the cork wiggles. Let the cork go under and relax and then drop the hammer. Good luck I hope this long winded post helps you out.

That right there my friends is your basic,
"copy, paste, and Print" post by Coach May...

And I'm glad to see everyone say don't move around in the box. And do use the whole field. We call right center field the bank, as in "Why did Jesse James rob banks? Cuz that's where they keep the money." Why let the ball travel and hit it where it's pitched? Cuz that's how we win games boys.

LOL. I've been telling my son to move up for the past year. He too hits out in front, but not grounders. His hits are line drives, however, not hit with the power he would have if he let the ball travel more. I think this may have hurt his score at the PG underclass. I know he has more power than he showed, because I have seen it. I will take this advice. Thanks Coach!

That is a great post Coach May. When my son was in this situation I would, very techincally , tell him to try to hit the ball to the opposite field. Then take him to his hitting coach ASAP.

That's the difference between a dad who knows little about baseball and a coach who knows alot.

Great Post Coach May!

Power hitters should pull the ball....

Never move up in the box....Stay back as far as possible...MLB leadoff hitters try to rub out the chalk in the back of the box for a reason....That's where their power hitters want to cheat back even further....

The hitter needs to sequence better.....Get a running start with his lower body and get a sense that the swing is putting the front foot down....Do not stride, then swing.....

When you get the running start with the lower body, your hands are loading late...

You can drill till the cows come home, nothing will change.....Sequence his body better and he'll get really good....

I just don't see pulling a pitch that is 3" off the plate...and having a good outcome, as a rule...

quote:

Originally posted by BlueDog:
Power hitters should pull the ball....

Close. Power V extension hitters pull the ball. Others, not so much.

quote:

I just don't see pulling a pitch that is 3" off the plate...

Did somebody say to do that?

Hey Bluedog,

I am a firm believer in "get a good pitch to hit", but frequently a pitcher will "stay away" from a hitter that is perceived to be adept at putting the ball in play.

I am fully with you on middle and middle in, and if you are provided a pitch to hit in your zone, by all means yank that puppy out of here. You do need to have the mental makeup to be prepared and able to react. However, if you are getting pitches away that are being called strikes a hitter needs to put these pitches in play, and I just believe that a hitter will have a greater level of success taking those pitces the other way...

All hitters should be capable of pulling the baseball not just power hitters. The difference is power hitters will hit it with more power and produce more extra base hits - hr's than non power hitters. Where are you going to pitch power hitters? Are you going to pitch to their strength? Power hitters / hitters who are only looking to pull the baseball will have very little success when pitched away from their strength. So if your looking to pull everything and you dont get a cookie to pull your going to struggle.

Excellent post above Coach May.

quote:

Power hitters / hitters who are only looking to pull the baseball will have very little success when pitched away from their strength.

I saw Bonds destroy that theory many times.....

It's all relative, nobody hits .400 in MLB......There are many ways to not hit .400!

Nobody hits .400 because they are swinging for the fence. The Bigs love a guy that hits .240 as long as he goes yard 35-40 times.

Bonds didn't always look to pull the ball until the last few years. And he didn't have a lot of success in those years.

Oh my!...There is a dillusional amongst our midst!

I hear you Bluedog, but your comment aside, you have to admit that Bonds was a one of a kind. It is impossible to teach that talent, sort of like teaching someone to be Manny Ramirez.

Each player is their own, and has differing levels of skills and strengths.

A player needs to be able to be the best that they can become, and that may or may not involve emulating Barry Bonds approach at the plate.

My guy is 5'11 (6' on a good day) and 190lbs, he is not built like Barry Bonds and is not the free swinger like Manny Ramirez.

We are talking about HS players here for the most part, albeit HS players that often have a goal of playing this game for a long long time.

Your great players can hit to all fields and hit the ball where it is pitched.

The one of a kinds, like Barry, Manny, The Babe, the freakish power hitters of the game, they are in a class by themselves, and someone on this site may have a player that is capable of attaining that level of greatness, but that player will do it instinctively, regardless of what anyone says.

I agree with Florida. I have seen a few kids coming up through HS and college who could hit with plus power to all fields. A great feel at the plate, great hand eye coordination and very strong built. Just God given! These kids in addition, also have a great approach at the plate. Yes, they may be successful 1 out of 3 times, but the one time the ball is completely crushed. They never really try and do to much other than focusing on putting a good swing on the ball. A beautiful thing to watch!

Lefty...

quote:

Originally posted by BlueDog:
Oh my!...There is a dillusional amongst our midst!

A simple look at the stats. Nothing delusional about it.

One thing that worked for my son last year as an 11 year old was me telling him when he recognized off speed was to push his hands back. He was able to see off speed but not able to wait. That simple statement worked wonders for him. Shortly after that, he batted over.600 in the state tournament and hit 2 homeruns.Last of which was a curve he hit opposite field.

Unfortunately, during the course of a game, saying "Stay back and let the ball come to you" rarely works. That requires lots of reps for proper timing in practice. Although in general I'm not a fan of moving around the box, sometimes with high school kids it can be effective for the time being until you get a chance to work one on one. A high school pitcher who sees a line-up all of a sudden move up and closer to the plate many times will mistakenly think he has to make an adjustment as well instead of just throwing the way he was. An off-speed pitcher often thinks he should start pounding the hitters inside. If he does, he's taken the bait and moved away from his strength and playing right into the hitters' hands by pitching to the inner half. With aluminum bats and pitchers with not a lot of velocity, that usually doesn't work.
My main point is that often moving around in the box is more to try to get the PITCHER to adjust as opposed to your HITTERS. It doesn't always work but it's surprising how many young pitchers will fall for that. Never forget that they're just kids.

BaseballByTheYard

quote:

A simple look at the stats. Nothing delusional about it

Oh my, it's terminal!

It is obvious that the batter is not letting the ball get far enough back before hitting it. Luckily this is a simple problem to correct though it will take some time. Simply have him hit balls off a standard batting tee, but place the tee farther back then it would be normally so he learns to take the ball up the middle and opposite field. Cheers!