Number of Swings

As long as the batter has enough time to reset between pitches, there should be no reason to limit the number of swings in a practice.

There is no better teacher than repetition.

Why not use the bucket workout?

A bucket of ground balls.

A bucket of batting practice.

A bucket of pop ups.

In a team workout, ten swings would be good because of time constraints.

Quality over quantity!

If his swing is not effective, how many reps doesn't matter.......

If his swing is effective, how many reps doesn't matter........

The swing won't break down and get sloppy.......If you think it did, it was sloppy to begin with........

I used to go to the golf driving range alot....I would always hear players say, I lose my concentration after hitting a bucket of balls.....Those who said that always turned out to be duffers who couldn't play a lick.......Their swing wasn't any better the first bucket...They just thought it was.......

Not a veteran but my son does not like to hit off a machine at all.to predictabe and he feels it leads to a breakdown of his swing. he goes to a hitting coach mainly for BP because swing is pretty solid. Hits live for 30-40 minutes each week and then hits off tee or live at baseball, cage work is soft toss and guys pitching.some people live by the pitching machine but my son does not like them at all.

I'd really like to hear the theory that everything about a swing should be just as good on the 4th bucket as it was on the 1st bucket. I'm actually a little shocked to see that statement.

Does fatigue not affect the swing?

I know it affects my sons. Not necessarily the mechanics, but the speed starts to drop off as he gets tired. Once his bat speed starts to slow, his timing gets off.

But then again, I just found out I'm a duffer that wasn't worth a lick at golf and still am. So possibly, my sons swing has been sloppy all along and I've just not noticed.

He never hits long enough with his instructor to get that tired.

An interesting concept....

Every great hitter is known to have taken extra batting practice.

I would always say that hitting with live pitching allows a batter to gauge release point and adjustment to the varying locations.

When I was a kid, we played for hours. If all I could get was ten swings, I might have gotten bored with the game.

I would say it varys with each player, but a good Coach can tell when the player is getting tired. I would say most players are in the 10-20 hard swings in a row catagory. It is like lifting weights though, nothing says they can't do 5 or more sets with a 1 to 5 minute rest between sets.

1BDad, there are Coaches who post here who have kids who swing 100-150 times a day.....

How tired are players in the 9th inning who step in the box and need to get a hit against a closer?

quote:

I'd really like to hear the theory that everything about a swing should be just as good on the 4th bucket as it was on the 1st bucket. I'm actually a little shocked to see that statement.

PGA golfers rely on this happening........Many times after a grueling tournament round they hit bucket after bucket well into the night.......Their swing has to work when they're tired to be able to compete......

A major difference between pros and duffers is that the pros' swing works well on the first bucket and the last bucket, however many that may be.......

And, there are times it takes hitting several buckets to get their swing working the way they want it to.......

quote:

Originally posted by BlueDog:
1BDad, there are Coaches who post here who have kids who swing 100-150 times a day.....

How tired are players in the 9th inning who step in the box and need to get a hit against a closer?

Bluedog knows my daughter typically hits 150 per day. My hs players more. However, they are not only off of a machine AND they are for some purpose. If you are talking about setting up that machine and throwing a gut shot fastball then I would question the benefit. FYI, at today's workout, we set the machine up for both inside fastball (50 balls), outside fastball hit to right (50 balls) balls down in the zone (50 balls) and then balls down the gut. With those down the gut, we took a long time and worked on concepts including stop swings. In other words, where was her body at contact and how efficient was she. Again, I'm not of big fan of here it is just hit it.

I edited this to add that we finished up with me throwing her some BP. IMO, it is a good idea to end with live arm.

quote:

How tired are players in the 9th inning who step in the box and need to get a hit against a closer?

Well let me do a little math...9th inning, even if they hit once an inning they would have batted 8 times previously. Should they swing three times per at bat (not likely) that would be 24 swings. I'm not sure about your bucket, but mine holds about 55 balls on a good day. So how tired would they be after less than half a bucket??????

My son would just be getting warmed up. Apples and oranges in my opinion.

We hit 4-5 days a week...depending on weather and schedule at school. Typical work is 1 bucket off the tee, 2 buckets front toss because we can control location better and then 1 bucket of live arm. (maybe two if my arm feels good) So if he hit every pitch of a four bucket day, that would be 220 swings using my bucket.

He looks pretty good at then end, because he's been doing something similar since he was about 12 or so. He's conditioned for it.

Pro golfers are the same way. A round of golf is 55 swings or so if you take out the putts. So a golfer goes to the range and hits 5 buckets of balls after a round of golf? Big deal, he's been hitting 500 a day in practice. But he didn't start out at 500...and if he hit 600 he might get tired and fatigue would have be a factor.

So to say if your swing looks bad after a long session, then it looked bad at the beginning is incorrect IMHO.

It depends on the kid. Much like the right swing depends on the kid.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Everyone thanks for all your input.

We have two cages at our disposal right now at a indoor batting facility. One we use the machine, the other we have "live" pitching. Our manager pitched in college so the batters who face him look at some pretty good stuff.

When our pitchers the pitch the quality is obviously tied to that pitcher.

My son's home BP is usually around 100-120 swings per session. He is 14 playing 14U travel next year.

Many of you reference your own BP at home with your players. I would love to see what drills comprise your sessions if I could.

Once again thank you for all your input.

Dazed63

Hey Hitting Forum....I do a ton of private lessons and work with a lot of high school hitters...I would say to get better, you need to be taking at least 75 swings a day, quality ones! As well, I wouldn't take more than 130 at a time. I have found that is about the max before a hitter starts to fatigue and break down his mechanics. I am a firm believer is working smarter, not harder. However, young hitters need to build good muscle memory and learn their swings. Professional hitters take about 100 swings a day on average, and they play every day. I hope that helps.

AB

bubandbran:

Your post makes more sense to me than anything so far. But I have a series of questions for you. If, in lifting weights, you have to get the muscles fatigued before you can build them up. would not the same apply to practicing hitting? Don't you need a few more very strong swings after fatigue sets in to build up the muscles or do you balance that out against the loss of mechanics that inevitably goes along with fatigue? Thanks again for a very rational and helpful response to the question.

TW344

TW344, good question. Good hitters have the ability to repeat good mechanics. When training as a hitter, you are trying to train good mechanics. You lift weights and work out for strenght. Hitting is an art form in my opinion. A smarter swing is more important than a harder one. So, I would work until I was able to repeat line drives over and over, than I would shut it down. Because, after a while, you body will break down and so will your mechanics, and then you will be wasting your time. I hope that helps.

AB

I have a 12 year old that I work with. His work out consists of about 200 swings in an hour work out. I constantly tell him "focus on the swing."

My son swings around 150 to 200 times a day. Live bp consists of around 50 cuts per round with 2 rounds per session. Then the rest is in the cage around another 50 cuts or so.

Machine bp to me in my opinion is a waste of time. Live BP , front toss , thats where its at. Machines throw the same speed and pretty much the same location. I dont like them at all. Alot of kids can mash against machines and cant hit a lick on live arm.

The fact is if you do your core work , spend your time in the weight room , the bat feels like a feather in your hands anyway. My boy swings a 34-31. He does not get tired hitting. In fact Im done before he is. Now he gets tired after we hit. Because that is when we do all the running and core work then the weight room.

If your swing is breaking down after 20 or 30 swings you need to get your butt in shape. Thats just my opinion. No harm intended. jmho

I usually hit anywhere from 100-200 balls a day, and have been doing this for years. I never get tired. However, I worked with one hitting coach who had me hit 8 buckets of balls one day! However, after the 5th bucket he had me switch to a lighter bat (like a -7 or something) and do tee work and one hand drills for the last 3 buckets. I never have been so sore after a day of hitting!

how many swings do you think the major leaguers took when they were kids? i always wondered about this..

There have been quite a few accounts of J D Drew swinging until his hands bled. I had heard as many as 600-700 swings a day. I am with BuB and believe that good mechanics and quality swings are more important. The hitter won't be alone and someone watching or helping should shut him down if the mechanics go south.