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Effective Tools For Batting Practice
by Dave
Friday, July 01, 2005
 Batting has been called the single most difficult athletic activity in sports. The reason for this is because it combines the same kind of muscle memory elements of, for example, a correct golf swing or basketball jump shot with the complex eye-brain activity of judging the speed and directional attributes of a thrown ball. There is so much going on in the body and brain of a batter that it boggles the mind. But as with any complex activity, the trick to mastering it (if that is really possible) is breaking it down to its simple elements. The choice of practice aids is critical to learning to hit well.
In order to bat properly, a batter must accomplish a couple things. First off, she must have a smooth swing without a hitch. Secondly, she must accomplish proper weight shifting at the moment of impact between bat and ball. Third she must accomplish the smooth swing and weight shift while keeping her head "quiet." A "quiet head" refers less to not being distracted by other thoughts and more to keeping the head motionless. It is certainly necessary to concentrate but it is more important to keep the head as still as possible. This is due to the complex nature of vision. Your vision involves your brain putting together two pictures, one from your left eye and one from your right. That is what gives us depth perception and allows us to judge speed. Batting makes this process more complicated because you stand with one side closer to the pitcher than the other. If you constantly move your head, your brain has to go into overdrive to judge the vector of the ball. So ideally your head would not move at all during a swing.
In order to teach proper batting skills, it is not necessary to have a couple dozen balls, go to the park and pitch to your child until your arm drops off and you are in dire need of traction. In fact, this is a bad idea because you spend too much time and energy trying to throw strikes at the right speed and chasing down balls in the field, not to mention finding a good unoccupied location. Repetition is critical and the greater the number of swings taken, the better your daughter will hit. The tools I like to work with are 1) the Hit-N-Stik, 2) the batting T, and 3) a variety of different types and sizes of balls.
Batting T
It really makes no difference whether your child is a 7 year old playing her first year of t-ball or the star cleanup hitter on your local championship ASA team. The batting T is her best friend when it comes to batting practice. I recall a conversation I once had in which the parent of a really good player was frustrated about his team's batting practice. He complained that all they ever did was hit off a T. He wanted his daughter to face live pitching as much as possible. I pointed out to him that even the major leaguers do the vast majority of batting work off of the T. I recently watched a show about the manager of the NCAA champion University of Texas baseball team. Almost every shot of him was done to the backdrop of 20 guys hitting off Ts. Sure they hit live pitching sometimes but most of that involves a machine or coach throwing slow, flat pitches. That is not really meant to prepare them for live, jumping fastballs, drop off the table curves, etc. Hitting live pitching is just another drill which complements hitting off a T and other methods. The real work of developing, maintaining and even correcting a major league swing is done with a T.
If you want to make a small investment in your child's enjoyment of the game, go right now to Sports Authority or Softball Junk and purchase a good, adjustable batting T with a couple dozen whiffle balls. The whiffle balls are not the classic ones with which you can throw all sorts of curves, risers and drops, but rather are durable softball sized plastic balls with holes all around. If you can get them in different sizes, great but we'll get to that later.
The hidden value of using a batting T and plastic balls is that you can use them almost anywhere. You can use them on a field at a team practice without the danger of someone doing a fielding drill getting hit by an errant hit ball. You can use them in your yard without needing very much space or breaking anyone's windows. You can even use them in your basement without worrying about broken lights. They are very handy tools.
Before figuring out where to place a batting T, have your daughter swing a few times and see where a good place for her to make contact is. Then mark the spots where she is standing and to place the T. If you are lucky enough to have another person with you, have them put the balls on the T for you so you can focus on your daughter's swing. Keep the end of the tee in the strike zone or just outside of it and after a lot of repetition, you can begin moving the height around. To spice things up, have her hit to each of the three fields by adjusting where she stands in relation to the T. This will teach her proper weight shift to hit the ball to right on outside pitches and to left on inside ones. If you don't have a good place to practice on rainy days, you can also use a T without a ball on it by having your daughter swing and just hit the top of the T.
Hit-N-Stik
The Hit-N-Stik is a long, flexible wand with an object at the end of it which resembles a small ball. It typically costs around $50 and is better than some of the hitting practice aids you often see advertised on TV. If can be attached to a stand with a recoil mechanism but you do not need this. The wand will do just nicely.
The reasons why the Hit-N-Stik is such a good aid is because there is no reason to chase balls and you stand just six feet away from your daughter when you use it. This allows you to get tons of repetitions and to be in a perfect position to see and correct errors in her swing. Also, very little space is needed to practice hitting with this device. You can use it in your garage or basement assuming you have one and your car or other junk is not completely occupying the space.
To use the Hit-N-Stik, basically you hold the end of the wand in one hand and part of the shaft in your other while bracing for impact. The device comes with instructions about how to stand while holding it. Place the wand at a good point of impact within the strike zone and your girl swings away. The trick is not so much to hit the ball but rather to take good swings. After some practice both will be accomplished but in the beginning, remember that swing mechanics are more important. Don't get frustrated because your daughter continually makes contact with the shaft.
Good swings are important regardless of where the pitched ball is, assuming it is in or close to the strike zone. You should vary where in the zone you place the wand so your daughter can learn to hit inside and outside, high and low pitches. She must maintain good swing mechanics when adjusting but it is necessary for her to learn how to hit pitches in a variety of areas.
If you or your daughter becomes bored or find hitting this way too easy, you can do a number of things to spice it up a little. The company which sells Hit-N-Stik does not advocate this but moving the stick around a little, so that the batter has to hit a moving ball, can make the experience more interesting. A slight wobble mimics risers, sinkers and curves pretty well.
Another drill is to have the batter stand it hitting position and then close her eyes. You then place the ball into the strike zone and have her simultaneously open her eyes and swing. This teaches fast recognition of where the ball is and how to adjust your swing to location.
I think you will find this device an invaluable tool which may become your favorite practice aid. The only potential problem with it is that it does tend to break but only if you use it a lot. You may want to get yourself the most expensive version, the one intended for older kids, in order to save some money on buying replacements. If you absolutely must buy the stand because you think it is helpful, fine, but remember, the stand is no substitute for you. The stand does not correct errant swinging technique. And allowing your daughter to practice swinging by herself, especially in the early years is a great way for her to develop critical mechanical mistakes which will not go away easily.
If you use the Hit-N-Stik, you will quickly see that a high quality batting practice can be had in less time than it takes to drive to the batting cages or field. Your daughter will get more swings this way than any other. And it is not only a great practice aid, it is also a great way to warm up before a game. You can run a whole team through a quick batting practice or warm up drill in fifteen minutes.
Different Sized Balls
World class softball players and major league baseball players use any number of different drills to practice hitting. When they want to improve their reaction to a pitched ball, they often use pitching machines but these are expensive and not practical for the parents of a junior player to purchase. Even some ljunior teams own them but many do not.
When top softball and baseball batters practice they often use small balls to improve their hand-eye coordination. I do not advocate using different sized balls to pitch to a first year player but as your daughter moves up, it is certainly something to consider. If your daughter's league plays with a 12-inch ball, consider throwing batting practice with an 11 inch one. This will make the ball seem that much larger come game time.
You can also consider using very small balls such as tennis balls (although these can be dangerous to your eyes. I was once hit in the eye with a thrown baseball and the emergency room doctor told me how lucky I was that it wasn't a tennis ball. Tennis balls bounce back so when you get hit in the eye, it pushes your eye back in as it bounces off. Also, tennis balls have fuzz on them which is very effective for scratching the cornea of your eye. Tennis balls are most often used from pitching machines where there is little danger of anyone getting hit in the eye.
I suppose baseball are a decent alternative to tennis balls but you may want to have special bats for this kind of practice since they may do damage to softball bats. And you do not want a bunch of girls standing in the field if you are pitching batting practice with baseball. The ball will generally come off the bat much more quickly than a softball does. If your girls are acclimated to practicing with a hard ball, fine but if not, I suggest you use them only within a netted area.
Another alternative is the very small whiffle type balls you sometimes see golfers practice with. These balls are very hard to pick up when they are thrown or even tossed. They can, therefore, be a great tool to help your daughter or teammates pick up balls thrown by a fast pitcher. If you paint the balls different colors, you can throw two or three simultaneously and have the batter focus on hitting one specific color. This further trains the eye to quickly recognize pitches.
Whatever you do to teach your child hitting, please remember that it is possibly the most complex athletic skill in all of sports. Practice is critical because this skill involves a high degree of muscle memory. The greater number of quality swings your daughter takes, the faster she will take good swings in games. It is fun to hit balls with a bat so it should be easy to convince your junior girl to practice. Focus on fundamentals and eventually your girl will start smacking the cover off the ball.Labels: hitting
Permanent Link: Effective Tools For Batting Practice
 
Let's Go Watch A Game!
by Dave
Thursday, June 30, 2005
 | | Photo by Elizabeth McConchie |
If you're like me, chances are pretty good that you really enjoy a well played game of baseball. Watching good hardball or softball is a really fun experience. I introduced my kids to professional hardball by taking them to see the New York Yankees against the San Francisco Giants. The seats cost me somewhere around $210 and by the time we were done with souvenirs to mark the occasion and food to make it more enjoyable, I had dropped a total of $500. We lasted until the fifth inning because it was hot and the kids had enough baseball for one day. We did get to see a steroid induced homerun off the bat of Bonds but I don't think the kids really understood. They only knew that they were hot. So we jumped in the car and fought the traffic for two hours.
MLB is great and the minors do not offer the same degree of hero worship but dollar for dollar minor league baseball is a decent alternative to the high prices of MLB. I took the kids to see a low-class-A game which cost $12 per seat for the best view in the house. Food and souvenirs were less than half the cost of comparables at an MLB game. But I have to tell you, the best bargain for your entertainment dollar is the amateur game.
During the spring we were able to find any number of good quality high school games within a few minutes driving from our home. There is generally no charge for these games unless they are championship ones but even then the charge is usually nominal. You can sit or stand just about anywhere around the field. The games we saw had about 2-300 fans in attendance. We brought beach chairs and found that we could set up shop right next to the center field fence. We could have sat along the base lines or within the infield but I like to have space and the kids could get up and stretch, not to mention run around like kids, every inning. It was very comfortable, free, and great fun.
Now that school is out, we have made another discovery. There are a ton of ASA teams in our area. Most of these have a variety of age groups including 10U, 12U, 14U, 16U, and even 23U. These teams are always hosting tournaments in which teams from several states are in attendance. Sometimes there are really big tournaments in which teams from ar far away as New York, California, Texas, and Michigan compete. The level of play is extraordinary. It is entertaining even to me, a long-time veteran of just about every level of baseball.
My kids are pretty young and just learning the game. High quality amateur softball is possibly the best way for them to get to know the game. They get to see the way every player moves on just about every pitch. They observe baserunners leading, stealing, taking an extra base. In general there is nothing like watching somebody who is years ahead of you play a particular sport. The way they move, the things they do all teach a young player how to play the game.
I can remember as a youthful baseball player, my father brought me to see what was then called "county ball" where numerous big time college and high school players competed during the summer months they were not with their school teams. I would watch the way the catcher snap a throw to second or the way the shortstop fielded a ground ball. I remember watching the various hitters to see how they approached each at bat. It was a tremendous thrill but I also gained a huge amount of valuable information. My father explained the infield fly rule to me while I could see runners on first and second with nobody out on a pop. I can still hear the ump yelling "infield fly" at the top of his lungs and wondering what the heck he was talking about. Obviously it was an infield fly. I can't even begin to count the various lessons I learned in this fashion.
Finding amateur games can take some work on your part but once you figure out how to locate them, you have a life-long ticket to entertainment and free softball lessons for your kids. The problem is that these junior ASA teams are set up for the kids, as they should be. They do not try to bring in fans. Typically even at a high school game the majority of fans are parents of players. ASA games are almost exclusively watched by parents. You really have to find places on the internet and in your local paper where these things are announced. The web is probably better than the paper as many of these are never mentioned even after they are over. So your first step is going to be to locate the teams in your area. You can do this by simply searching places like ETeamx or LeagueLineup which make trade by hosting web sites of many amateur teams. You also should check the web sites of every local newspaper to see if they have a youth sports section or even forum online. We have a site in my state which has both and sometimes there are tournaments posted there. Even when there is nothing posted a quick message asking if there are tournaments in this or that time frame is usually answered pretty quickly.
You should be able to find good youth softball games in your area or within a reasonable drive. If you are having trouble locating one, you just need to be persistent and use a little creativity. I can almost guarantee there are games near you. If you have no success finding them, try taking a nice little drive to all the available fields in your area on a Saturday around noon or even earlier. Tournaments usually will be played towards the end of the week and into the weekend. If there is a field or complex near you that has a reputation of being very good, try there first. Whatever way you find some games to watch, make sure you bring along chairs, a cooler full of water or whatever you like to drink (but don't bring alcoholic beverages - this is for your kids) and maybe even snacks. Many tournaments last all day long and often there is no snack stand. In any event, I highly recommend amateur softball and wish you good luck in finding some near you.
Permanent Link: Let's Go Watch A Game!
To Send Your Kids To Softball Lessons Or Not?
by Dave
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
When I was a kid, there were some sports camps around, all of which were rather expensive. At the age of something like 13 or 14 I finally attended a baseball day camp which did a pretty good job of teaching some fundamental skills. Alas, most of my bad habits were already set in stone. I had learned baseball from somebody else's father hitting ground balls and pitching batting practice for two hours a week for five or six weeks each spring. At camp, I learned some valuable tips and my game improved but it did not make a huge difference. Nowadays it seems as if softball and baseball instructional businesses are popping up in every nook and cranny of vacant strip mall real estate. But are these places worth the money? Will your kid learn solid fundamentals which will not only help her improve her skills, but also maybe prevent injuries in the years to come?
I have very limited experience with softball "schools" but I think my experience is useful in analyzing their usefulness. My girls have tried various sports but the only one which has really caught their interest is softball. One summer I noticed a sign-up sheet for a softball camp when we visited the local batting cages for some hitting practice. Unfortunately the camp was cancelled just a couple days before it was to begin. I was headed out of town on business and I needed a quick fix. I was visiting my doctor who was making pleasant conversation when I told him of my dilemma. He quickly told me the story of his daughter who was a complete couch potato before she discovered softball. His life has never been the same. He suggested I call one particular place and schedule some "private" lessons which I did.
Before I left for my business trip, I encouraged my wife to play catch with my girls who were 8 and 9 years old at the time. My wife had never played softball but she felt very comfortable catching with the girls and so off I went on my trip. Five days later I returned. My kids had been to three one hour sessions which consisted of one half hour of batting and one half hour of instruction on throwing and fielding. Upon my return I asked my wife how the lessons had gone and if she had kept her promise to play catch with the girls. She quickly told me that the lessons had gone very well but after lesson number two, she was no longer able to play catch with the 9 year old. "She throws too darn hard. I get scared when she throws the ball to me," she said.
The truth is the particular place I go for lessons is not all that unusual. Depending on your child's skill level, lessons can be an excellent way to learn the right way of doing things at a very young age. Private lessons are wonderful but they can be expensive, often costing $25-50 per half hour. But most of these places offer "clinics" where they teach kids in groups. It isn't quite the same thing as private lessons but it can drastically improve skills. The place I take my kids charges $40 per half hour for private lessons and about $200 for clinics which typically run 8 or so weekly one hour sessions. We try to mix up private lessons and clinics in order to save a few bucks yet still get some one-on-one instruction.
I imagine that, like anything else, there are schools which are more pretender than contender. Since it is your money being invested, you really need to sit there during lessons and see what your kids are learning and how. If there is no way for you to watch your child's lesson, don't send your kid there. Watch, ask questions, and generally interact with the teachers. Trust your instincts on whether you think the people "feel right," whether both you and your child like going there. Learning a sport simply must be fun or it cannot be successful. If you polled every major league baseball and professional softball player, I believe you would learn very quickly that while becoming good was hard work, the vast majority of players enjoyed practicing. Hard work is often times made far less hard by the desire to achieve some goal but made easy when we enjoy what we are doing. If your kid is not having fun or making marked improvement, obviously you've chosen the wrong place.
It is OK for the instructors to raise their voice at your kid every now and again although this should be an extremely rare occurrence. Adults usually raise their voices when they are frustrated. Good quality instructors generally do not need to shout in order to make a point. We all know our children can sometimes be very trying to anyone and it is not reasonable to expect a human being to never lose their temper but an instructor needs to be in control most of the time. If you hear too much shouting from instructors, take your kid someplace else.
As I said above, you have every right to expect rapid improvement, especially early on. Throwing and hitting are skills which, when taught properly, improve immediately. Your seven-year-old will not learn to hit like Kelly Wilkerson but she should be able to swing properly and make better contact than she did at the beginning of the lessons. Throwing probably will improve immediately though some kids relapse frequently to dropping their elbow and pushing the ball for a while after they learn to throw properly. As long as this is gently corrected until it disappears, the instruction is good. As your child progresses through lessons, the rate of improvement drops. But what you should hear from the instructors is an emphasis on sound fundamentals. The basics are really what make a great player great.
Your child's instructor should not try to introduce new skills constantly. This causes confusion. The drills will vary in order to keep the students attention and interest but new skills should be added gradually. On the other hand, you do not want your child to be taught essentially the same lesson every day of an eight week clinic. If this happens and you inquire about it, be alert to the "bad answer" of "if you really want your kid to improve, sign up for private lessons." This is an indicator that the clinics are there only to draw in kids for private lessons. Clinics should teach a full range of skills for a particular aspect of the sport like pitching. And there should be a range of skill levels such as beginner, intermediate and advanced. If there is only one skill level, you can bet that the clinics are meant to draw you in for bigger bucks.
I recommend softball schools because I have had great experiences. If you want your child to really enjoy softball, they are a good bet provided that you can find a good quality school near you. Like anything else, you need to be proactive and interactive in order to determine if your money is well spent. Don't be afraid of asking lots of questions. Don't be afraid of using your judgment to decide if the school you have chosen is teaching your kids well. Follow your instincts and remember, if your kid is not having fun, they will not be playing softball within a couple years and the only memories you will have is of seeing those large and frequent checks every month when you balance your check book.
Permanent Link: To Send Your Kids To Softball Lessons Or Not?
Play Catch! Please!!
by Dave
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
You would think that anyone who wants to have their child play sports would automatically know what to do to get them at least started. That's not always the case. I coached a ten and under rec team recently and many of the girls obviously had nobody to play catch with. Not only that, many of the parents do not even know how to play catch with their kids. I had to go away on business and the manager of my girls' team had another father warm up my daughter before she pitched an inning. The result? She ended up with a broken thumb because he threw the ball back to her far too hard. Can you imagine throwing a ball back to a just nine year old hard enough to break her thumb? I have played catch with my daughter maybe 400 times. I have thrown the ball to her more than ten thousand times without breaking her thumb. And this father's kid can neither catch a tossed ball nor throw more than 20 feet. Obviously nobody has ever played catch with her.
Before you even get your daughter involved with softball, make a commitment to play catch with her for at least 15 minutes each week. More is better but at least once a week for 15 minutes will give her a chance to really enjoy the game. I have been astounded by how quickly my girls improved just by having a regular, quick game of catch.
Obviously you are going to want to go out and purchase a glove for your daughter and perhaps you'll need one too but you do not need to have a mitt before you start playing catch. Standing just a few feet apart (5-10) and lightly tossing an appropriate sized ball back and forth with bare hands will teach you daughter to catch very quickly. An 11 inch regular softball is typical but many leagues use a smaller, soft ball which is actually a little bouncy. It is best to get the ball which your child will ultimately be using when she is on a team.
Once you begin playing catch, you will probably find that both you and your daughter get bored with simply throwing the ball back and forth with bare hands from 5 - 10 feet. Another way of catching is to roll the ball to your daughter and have her catch it in the same manner she would with a mitt. If you think she is going to throw right handed, have her field the rolled ball with her left hand while covering it with her right. It is best to emphasize two handed catching right from the very first moment.
A few days after you begin catching, you will probably want to introduce your child to a mitt. That's fine. But make sure the mitt is small enough for her to easily handle it. If it has been a long time since you picked up a softball glove, pick one up and see just how heavy it is. Now consider that your child is very young and not very strong. If you put 3 pounds of awkward sized glove on her hand, you are asking her to lift something very heavy while also trying to learn hand-eye coordination. That is a bad idea. Your child must be able to swing her gloved hand almost as freely as she can her bare hand.
Now that you've begun to play catch and your daughter is acclimated to wearing and using a glove. The best way to improve her skills while not boring her is to do a bunch of purposeful drills without letting her know that is what you are doing. You can throw the ball to her in the air but do not push things. Stay at 10 feet until she is really comfortable and then move it to 15 feet and so on. Rolling the ball to her is nearly as valuable as throwing it in the air and you will be able to begin teaching proper body position as well as throwing technique fairly quickly. Roll the ball right to her while she is standing, feet just wider than shoulder length apart with (assuming she is right-handed) her right foot slightly back from her left, butt down, head up, fielding hand on or near the ground, and throwing hand up near her face. This is frequently referred to as the "alligator method" because your child resembles an alligator gobbling up the ball. Make sure that you do everything you are telling your child to do. If she rolls the ball to you, get it with good alligator-like form. Your child picks up how to play more from what you actually do than from what you tell her to do.
Now try rolling the ball to one side of your child and have her do a little crossover step while retrieving it. You should have her do the steps first and then you roll the ball to where she ends up after a crossover step or two. Show her a crossover step and then pretend you are a mirror doing the step at the same time she does. You can even pretend that what you are doing is a dance step. That will make it more fun. Do this to each side so she gains some practice at moving for the ball.
Once your daughter has is comfortable with regular catch, ground balls straight at her, and crossover stepping, another important skill to teach is the notion of going for the ball. While standing in an athletic position - feet apart, one back of the other, butt down, head up - have her take two steps towards you and then squat down, placing her catching hand near the ground and the other near her face in the alligator position. As soon as she finishes, roll her the ball. You can do this with any number of variations using the crossover step or taking two or four steps forward. The important thing to teach is movement for retrieving the ball while holding a good athletic position.
You will notice that we have not discussed throwing at all. That is perhaps more important than catching but one I would like to give a little more time to. Check back for advice on teaching throwing and remember, if you do not play catch with your daughter, who is going to? Commit just a few minutes of time each week and your child's game will improve. You may find that you look forward to your games of catch more than she does.
Permanent Link: Play Catch! Please!!
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