Huge Diffrence in BP and game

This may sound elementary but are you close enough to the plate in a live game? Use your bat to measure by seeing if you can touch the other side of the plate.

Also strive to hit the ball out in front of your front foot.

Pitch selection: Look for your pitch when the count is in your favor.

See the ball, hit the ball.

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Originally posted by K.G.:
There is a huge, and I mean HUGE diffrence in my BP hitting and my live game hitting. I make contact but I seem to pop out and my power is not as good. I swing great in the cage and receive many complements from coaches but I cant seem to transfer it into the game. Has anyone had any experience with this and could give me tips so I can find a solution?

There are literally 30 different reasons why you have the problem. Try to get video.

Thank you all. After looking at some threads in "the mental game" section of the forum, I came to realize that I'm thinking way to much at the plate. Therefor, not letting the muscle memory, that I work m tail off to master, takeover. I have realized that when I'm completely relaxed such as in practice I can let my mechanics take over and really play to my full potential.

Hard to say w/o watching, however is your cage bp off a machine, t, or live? Many times bp with a machine messes up your timing..Just a thought..

Your probably rushing which all hitters have a tendency to do when the ball speeds up. Slow down your footwork, and focus on staying short and trusting your hands.

We noticed that we were having the same problem with some of our players. We hired a new coach and he believed it had to do with the fact that we were throwing BP at a shortened distance and that when this happens it doesn't show a players flaws. He said that if we move the distance back it would force the players to stay on the plane of the ball more. We moved BP back and I after seeing us hit in BP and progressing I tend to agree with him.

Probably means you have longs swings.

Probably means you don't have a clue what you are talking about.

quote:

Originally posted by IEBSBL:
We noticed that we were having the same problem with some of our players. We hired a new coach and he believed it had to do with the fact that we were throwing BP at a shortened distance and that when this happens it doesn't show a players flaws. He said that if we move the distance back it would force the players to stay on the plane of the ball more. We moved BP back and I after seeing us hit in BP and progressing I tend to agree with him.

That's actually something I've never thought about before. But then again, that would make it understandable why some players hit very well in soft toss and front toss, but can't hit during BP.

A lot of the problems I see with BP hitting is that the batters are not very selective in what they swing at. What I have noticed is the kids that are very selective in BP (only swing at strikes) are the ones that have the most success in the game. Hitters that swing away in BP are forced to change their approach in games because balls and strikes are being called. It makes the hitter go through a different thought process that he is not practicing during BP. Hopefully that makes some sense.

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Originally posted by Low Finish:…That's actually something I've never thought about before. But then again, that would make it understandable why some players hit very well in soft toss and front toss, but can't hit during BP.

I can certainly see how a change like that could have a positive effect, but rather than believe it would work equally well for every team is something I see as extremely dubious. Rather, I believe when something has an effect like that on the entire team, and I don’t know that’s true, it has more to do with the whole paradigm the team is playing/practicing under.

FI, perhaps there was very little or no “live” pitching during BPs, or maybe there weren’t any intersquad or scrimmage games. IOW, I’m not at all saying what was done didn’t have a positive effect, by I have to wonder if that one thing alone was thing that made all the difference, and I have to wonder if the positive “bounce” will continue.

Again, its not that I don’t believe what was done hasn’t made a difference, but I find it pretty difficult to believe that over 150 years of throwing BP from a shortened distance by virtually every team that ever took BP, has suddenly been found to be a technique that hurts rather than helps hitters.

quote:

Originally posted by IEBSBL:
. He said that if we move the distance back it would force the players to stay on the plane of the ball more. We moved BP back and I after seeing us hit in BP and progressing I tend to agree with him.

Yay , lets give them more time to see the ball so batters can have a longer swing.

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Has anyone had any experience with this and could give me tips so I can find a solution?

K.G. You weren't trying to be funny I know, but the fact that you asked the question as if it has never happened to anyone before, is really kind of hilarious!

Trust me here, you aren't the first and you won't be the last. Performing skill movements, of any type, in practice conditions often doesn't translate to competition. I'm estimating there have been tens of thousands of great "cage hitters" who couldn't hit in the game and NEVER were able to hit live, game pitching!!

Hang in there, keep working and honing your swing. How can you practice more often at game speed, or faster than game speed?

Relaxation is another key to peak game performance. Often that's tough for the untrained. The great Bruce Lee said, and I'm para-phrasing here: "move without thought, like stream water flowing over a boulder." Translated; practice until you own your swing mechanics so that in the game there is no thought, there is no physical resistance, just see, react and flow to the ball. Not getting the results you want, get more quality reps in.

I am afraid I don't have anything of much value to add to this that might help the OP but it did get me thinking. My son, to some extent, always had the opposite problem.

Never much of a cage hitter. He'd pull everything. In live ABs he was an oppo gap-to-gap guy. I never could figure out why.

In college he has improved at using cage and BP for the purpose intended: to hone swing and to get rhythmn for the game.

But all thru youth and HS ball we'd always joke about how his cage work differed from live.

quote:

Yay , lets give them more time to see the ball so batters can have a longer swing.

I am not sure how that creates a longer swing. Staying short has to do with a proper plan and the correct mechanics.

However you must know way more about my team than I do.