how to stop hitting the ball right at the fielder.

quote:

Originally posted by Bas3balldad:
My son's swing looks good, he's making good contact but not getting base hits. He goes up to the plate isn't striking out but he hits the ball right to an outfielder center or right mostly or to the short stop.
Is there something to work on or is it just his luck right now?

Keep playing! This is a game of failure. The law of averages will catch up over time. Keep working hard.

Is he hitting the ball hard or are these lazy fly balls or soft liners to the OF? If he's hitting hard line drives / groundballs but the defense is catching them then don't change a thing - they will fall. As Bobby says it's a game of failure and you can go 0 - 3 and look like a bum in the boxscore but in reality you hit 3 shots they made plays on but you got a guy who's 3 - 3 with two seeing eye singles and a flare that flops in. The boxscore makes him look like a stud but let's face it - he had a bad day but got lucky.

He's hitting it pretty solid but there not going off the wall either. He had one pop up. Non that I saw were on the ground at all. Never probably more than 30 feet of the ground. Just line drives right at the fielder.
My son still feels good at the plate and knows it should come around. If the coach hadn't started taking him out of games to put another batter in I probably would not look to change anything. In fairness to the coach my son didn't exactly tear it up in fall ball but it was kind of the same issue just more infield hits.

If he is hitting hard line drives everywhere the law of averages will work out for him. On the other hand, he may be trying to pull pitches that are on the outside or off the plate away.

How is he at taking the outside pitch to opposite field? Most pitchers at the HS level like to work away... if he is hitting everything to the pull side he may need to adjust his swing to learn to hit oppo with authority.

I don't know were every pitch was but he mostly hits it up the middle or to right field.

I've had to stop breaking down all parts of the game with him so I can only go by what I see from were I'm seating or he tells me on his own.

so, is he a lefty or righty?

Righty. I guess that would of helped to figure out if he was going to opposite field.

quote:

My son's swing looks good, he's making good contact but not getting base hits.

That's all the hitter can control. After that it's up to the "baseball gods." If he's hitting the ball squarely, change nothing and they will eventually begin to fall, ... usually preceded by a "fluke" hit!

Hitting the ball right at people is a red flag to me....

It's a swing problem....

BlueDog, how is it a swing problem? As a player I hear, "Hit the ball up the middle or other way" in the cage constantly.

quote:

Originally posted by BlueDog:
Hitting the ball right at people is a red flag to me....

It's a swing problem....

Would you care to elaborate?

quote:

It's a swing problem....

Blue ...

agreed; a "hit seeking" swing should harness either GPS data or Laser guidance to avoid defenders. Do you teach that as swing mechanics or do you gain that advantage over mere mortals with special "in-the-bat" technology?

quote:

Originally posted by BlueDog:
Hitting the ball right at people is a red flag to me....

It's a swing problem....

I am also still waiting for further explanation.

First of all, there are no baseball gods......And, I would be remiss not to tell you that this is blasphemy against the one, and only, true God to say this sort of thing....

If a swing is efficient, the swing plane will consistently dictate line drives to be lifted over the infield and under the outfield.....

If you're consistently hitting line drives at people, your swing plane is less than efficient....

Here we go agaiin with the god stuff--enuff already

All I ask is that my guys hit the ball hard---eventually they find the holes in the defense

To say a batter hitting line drives is not efficient , Blue Dog , is totally ludicrous--what do you do ? Ask for time out and ask the fielders to move !!!

quote:

Originally posted by BlueDog:
First of all, there are no baseball gods......And, I would be remiss not to tell you that this is blasphemy against the one, and only, true God to say this sort of thing....

If a swing is efficient, the swing plane will consistently dictate line drives to be lifted over the infield and under the outfield.....

If you're consistently hitting line drives at people, your swing plane is less than efficient....

.................................wow

I guess when playing a team with "efficient" swings you should play your outfielders shallow....

So, line drives right at the outfielders are the result of bad swings. Must be as an "efficient" swing would place the ball short of their position with the application of the proper batspeed.

Man, I learn something new everyday on this site. This is too cool. Like coach2709 said, "wow". LOL.

quote:

Originally posted by S. Abrams:
I guess when playing a team with "efficient" swings you should play your outfielders shallow....

So, line drives right at the outfielders are the result of bad swings. Must be as an "efficient" swing would place the ball short of their position with the application of the proper batspeed.

Man, I learn something new everyday on this site. This is too cool. Like coach2709 said, "wow". LOL.

Let me ask you this S. Abrams - you coach your kids to take efficient swings and in the first inning you score 20 runs because everyone is the lineup is now something like 4 - 4 already. The defense adjusts and plays shallow.......

Do you -

A) realize the game is now over since they have figured out your secret

OR

B) tell your hitters to now hit the ball wrong over the OF head

??????

Inquiring minds want to know.

coach2709,

Being that my kids can obviously place the ball wherever they want to with their basehits and have the tendency to make for some boring games, I would have them all switch to the other side of the plate to get some reps and develop an "efficient" swing from the other side so the teams in the future couldn't stack their pitching staff against us. That, and drag bunting. Gotta think ahead in this game.

I would probably wait until the other team hits though as they may be well coached and have their own "efficient" swings. This game could really become a slugfest and we may need at least 100 runs to come out on top. Hopefully I'd spot their "efficient" swings quickly and move my outfielders in shallow or play my infield really deep.

Always happy to help those with inquiring minds.LOL.

Try to hit the ball right at the fielders

JCbaseball365,

Nahhh, wouldn't work....my kids swings are so "efficient" they would do exactly that and be out. LOL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...JmZY&feature=related

listen to the description of Ted Williams, efficient swing. With his perception, "proper thinking"
and tremendous "bat speed", Ted Williams definitely was EFFICIENT and powerful.

Bob
Williams

I couldn't expect Coach2709 and a coupla others to understand what I'm talking about....They're smokescreen posters....

They would rather talk about wide or narrow stance or something else that doesn't matter.....

Sequencing body movement and swing plane discussions is a shade too close to exposing what they know, or don't know, about swinging a bat, I think....

Not trying to be skeptical of them, just that I've noticed they're always absent from the real discussions and show up for the smokescreen stuff....

Why you reckon they don't interject any pearls when me and Mr. Tewks and Powertoallfields have discussions?....

Ted Williams talked and wrote alot about swing plane....One other interesting note about Ted....He always struggled to hit opposite field....

blue dog;

do you have his final interview while sitting in the RF seats at Fenway Park?

the answer to your question is told by Ted in the interview.

Bob Williams

Bluedog you have no idea what I know about hitting because as you said I rarely partake in discussions in this forum. I don't come here very often because a large number of discussions get turned into a "using the bathroom" contest or people using big terms when they explain something just to feel good about using big words. I don't want to discuss hitting with people who have extremely inflexible views. I know I don't have all the answers and I never will but I do like to try and find them.

What you posted in this thread is ridiculous.

quote:

If a swing is efficient, the swing plane will consistently dictate line drives to be lifted over the infield and under the outfield.....

If you're consistently hitting line drives at people, your swing plane is less than efficient

I'm not going to turn down a basehit that gets over the IF and in front of the OF but to say a hard hit ball at a player is inefficient is ridiculous. I don't care if you even try to pull out a semantic argument by pointing out you put the word consistent in your reply. For that argument to hold water you would have to define how often consistent is.

If a kid drills a ball and it happens to get caught then I'm ok with that. The purpose of hitting is to hit the ball as hard as you can - it's not to place it. There is a ton of open field out there and to try and place it with an efficient swing is pointless.

Anytime you want to discuss hitting in a mature non-confrontational situation I'm more than willing to do it.

quote:

Why you reckon they don't interject any pearls when me and Mr. Tewks and Powertoallfields have discussions?....

You know Blue after thinking about it a little bit what you put here is the pot calling the kettle black. You question why I don't come in here and discuss hitting but yet you never leave the hitting forum. When was the last time you posted on the coaches, pitching, ump, fielding or any other forum?

Let me put it to you this way - I was a successful high school head coach and I will be again sometime in the near future. I've been offered college coaching jobs but had to turn them down due to various reasons. I'm not a guy who just knows one thing about the game - I know a whole bunch about the whole game.

So let me pose the same question back to you - where are you when the rest of us coaches / knowledgeable parents are talking bunt coverages, first / third defeneses, double play turns and the other aspects of the game?

Just curious.

If your hitting the baseball hard , hitting line drives , smoked gb's. If your turning on the inside pitch , driving the pitches over the heart back up the middle , going the other way with authority on pitches away. That is all you can ask. If you just happen to be hitting these smoked balls right at people that is just being unlucky. It will even out it always does. That's baseball.

I agree with Blue Dog many times. This is one time I have to disagree with him. Kids that can really drive the baseball many times when they hit a line drive shot will either hit it in the gap for extra bases , hit it out , hit it over the outfielders head , or hit it where it can be caught. When they do hit a line drive between the infielders and outfielders it is usually because the line drive has top spin and dives in for a hit. Some kids benefit from their lack of power especially at the hs levels where they can smoke a line drive and it will fall in many times. And the more powerful hitter will smoke a line drive and it carries to the point it can be caught. Many different scenarios thats for sure.

The goal of the hitter is to drive the baseball. He simply can not control if he drives it at someone or not. To say he can is wrong. To say if he does he is lacking in his approach or hitting mechanics is wrong. Maybe Blue Dog is talking about something else I simply dont understand. I certainly hope so.

To suggest that a hitter can pin point the location of his line drives - look at the outfielders and say to himself - ok they are shading me to the pullside so I am going to hit a line drive to this spot on the field is simply no logical. How many times have we seen a kid have a great day at the plate smoke a couple of line drives right at fielders and leave the park 0-3? And then we see a kid go 3-3 on weakly hit balls that simply fall in?

That's kind of were my son is at right now the one that are hit well get him out. The hits he looks bad on fall for a single. There just haven't been enough of those. The coach has moved him down the order or subbed him out earlier in games. So he's getting less chances to have his luck turn around. His hitting coach has said he's hitting better than ever in practice but in games are were it counts.

Toughen up, Bluedog. Sheesh. Need some more pitbull and less poodle.

My apologies for ruffling your "fur".

As far as Bobby Tewks discussions, never seen the point to add to his comments as he is pretty decent at explaining his points. Very glad you found someone to actually have a discussion with.

I'll keep my eye out for your posts on the "real discussions" in the future.

quote:

Originally posted by BlueDog:
Ted Williams talked and wrote alot about swing plane....One other interesting note about Ted....He always struggled to hit opposite field....

and of course there is that frozen head thing...

Yeah don't sweat it like most people have been saying in your response. Just stay aggressive and things are bound to turn

I fail to understand why people cannot understand what over the infield and under the outfield means as it pertains to hitting.....

Hitters can swing on many different swing planes....Or, if someone doesn't understand swing planes, then, trajectories....It matters more than just a little bit what swing plane, or trajectory you're swinging on......

How can this be so hard to understand?

I would guess that most of us figure that if you have the right swing plane or trajectory, that the ball will go over the infielders continue to climb and clear the outfielders and the fence as well...

That said, my guy has twice as many doubles as home runs so far...

Bluedog,

I think everybody understands over the infield and under the outfield concept you are talking about.
We fully understand swing plane and trajectories easily as well as you do.

We fail to understand how an "efficient swing" does exactly what you are claiming in that it would prevent hitting balls directly at fielders. No one on this board seems to have ever heard of this concept so if you are correct it is incumbent on you to completely explain your thoughts.( Tried to Google your concept but didn't come up with anything about baseball ). Truly interested in your "efficient swing" thoughts about swing plane vs pitch, trajectory and how batspeed effects ball flight. Of course there are other variables you may feel should be discussed so feel free to add whatever is needed.

If not, it would appear you are doing the troll game and simply playing the fool to generate discussion as many have claimed is your role on this discussion board . If so, carry on.

If the purpose of hitting is to hit the ball hard where the defense isn't playing then why limit what you hit to just over the IF and in front of the OF?

Take a swing path to the ball that allows the bat to cover as much area of the ball as possibly can. When you can cover as much area of the ball as you can then you are going to hit it hard. Power creates distance therefore you want to hit the ball as hard as you can so you can send it as far as you can. If the efficient swing is putting it over the IF and in front of the OF then I can't see how you are consistantly hitting the ball as hard as you can.

Actually take it a step farther coach. If you can control where you hit the baseball. If you can actually create a swing that will allow you to intentionally miss the defenders. Why limit yourself to line drives that fall in between the outfielders and infielders. Just hit every pitch out of the park. Create a swing that will allow you to hit line drives out of the park everytime. Dang come on. lol

quote:

Originally posted by Bas3balldad:
My son's swing looks good, he's making good contact but not getting base hits. He goes up to the plate isn't striking out but he hits the ball right to an outfielder center or right mostly or to the short stop.
Is there something to work on or is it just his luck right now?

Buy him a rabbit's foot. It fits in a pocket better than a horseshoe.

If the effecient swing produces a single over the infielder and in front of the outfielder then guys like Pujois, Howard, Arod, and any other power hitter should change their swing.

Especially Pujois, who wants to hit 40 HR with .320 BA when you can hit 5 HR with a .360 BA.

Doesn't this type of hit indicate top spin? I don't know much about hitting technique but I thought hitters want to produce backspin and lift, not top spin and drop.