Cage Hitting Part 2

Bump = we have a lot of folks here that know hitting and also know how a normal HS practice works.......can anyone help me with the question? If you were in my son's position what would you do specifically.

catcher09, what are his options? If he has been instructed by a coach to do specific work, then he should do that work. A part of getting better is doing that drill work or cage time to improve your ability. If you don't believe in it, I doubt that it is effective. Speaking from a coach's perspective, what is the althernative if each player then decides which drills or what part of practice they want to avoid because they don't believe in it?

Your son is making it way to difficult. Tell him to have fun and enjoy it. Make up games in the cage. When I coached we put numbers in the cage at specific locations. Each player had to keep his total and each group would combine their scores. Low group for the day had to clean up the field and get up equipment. The players took pride in their hitting more and became better.

I understand your issue with the tosser. Maybe the coach should spend a little time teaching players how to toss. I would also say that making adjustments and waiting is as important to the swing as well. Be positive and tell your son to be as well.

catcher09, if he could stay out of the soft toss, then, it wouldn't be as bad.....Maybe, stay on the tee while the rest are doing the soft toss?......

I would recommend staying out of the cage on game days, if possible....

Game day cages are to loosen the hitting muscles.

In a perfect world, the cage pitcher would be throwing pitches and locations that they can expect from the opposing starter.

Ok - so this is what I have got out of this:

1. Cages are a requirement
2. Naybe hook up with a buddy that throws decent "game stuff" in cages
3. Make a sport of it/have a plan - work oppo, up the middle, low and away, etc. on tees and soft toss

Any others - my young man is a very good hitter and finds that hitting in the cages messes him up.

However, if the coach yells jump his reply is how high.

I would love to see a lot of feedback on this because I know many other players have trouble with cage time. Generally the coaches are not there except preseason. I think it is valid to say great cage hitting doesnt equate to great game hitting. What Im looking for is improvement in game hitting via good results/plan in the cage. Any plan or actions would be helpful.

catcher09, where are the coaches? I'd have a major problem if this is unsupervised and apparently not explained in detail. LOBS? Who does that?

quote:

I'd have a major problem if this is unsupervised and apparently not explained in detail.

Coach, IMO, this is the norm, not the exception.....

It is the norm! What advice could I give my son on how to approach cage time to make it beneficial?

BP is BP ....IT'S ALL ABOUT YOUR APPROACH.....you want to take your swing from tee work.....to front toss......to BP....to the game.....and hope that it is consistant...trying to drive the ball to the middle of the field (gap to gap)

there are different ways to work on off-speed pitches and pitches away from you, but if your approach is the middle of the field it really shouldn't matter where you hit

I agree with Vance34, you have to find a way to make it fun. If it not fun, bad habits can form MORE times than not..

My son has been brought up on tee work, soft toss, and to a lesser degree my lobs (not the best situation for improving IMO). Working with someone who can present different pitches (pitch recognition) is preferred over lobs.

At our HS, only the top 10-12 hitters get live hitting on the field during practices. That equates to a lot of live arm from the coaching staff on a daily basis. My freshman son was fortunate enough, at times, last year to be included in live arm. It was very frustrating (for both of us) when he wasn't. But coaches have to win now or they are gone. I believe young dids need to put in their time, work hard in the cages, produce when they get an opportunity, and they will get noticed.

On a similar note, I can't recall a situation where a kid (outside those top 12),if he asked a coach, couldn't get some live arm after practice.

Unless you have a large coaching staff, supervising the cage work is difficult. We are fortunate that our coaches have eyes in the back of their heads. I've witnessed it!

On game days we have our hitters work through a 3 drill progression and then I throw to them in the cage. In the cage they need specific goals. We bunt, try to hit the back of the cage, recognize pitches, and take a couple of two strike swings. When you have specific goals in mind it makes things more worth while.

Cage work will only be as good as the BP pitcher. He has to be able to throw strikes.

Also, pitching machines are only good for bunting in my opinion. The angles are off, they are no good for kids with loads or timing mechanisms in their swings (which should be most good hitters).

hsballcoach has the best idea. BP without purpose loosens muscles and little more.