Category Archives: Hitting
Get a rhythm
One of the things you’ll often see with hitters, no matter whether they’re hitting off a tee, soft toss, a machine or even live pitching is starting from a complete standstill. They stand like statues, and as the pitch comes in they move forward toward it.
While you can do that, it’s not ideal. You’re better off moving backwards first then forward — what is often called a negative move. The reason is simple physics.
Newton’s first law of motion says an object at rest will tend to remain at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. That means in order to get it moving, a certain amount of energy has to be expended. This energy doesn’t contribute to the swing, so it’s essentially wasted.
Think about a freight train starting from a standing stop. There is a lot of noise and fury but not much movement. It takes a while until it really gets going. But if it’s already moving, it’s easier to get it to go faster. All that early energy is being used to overcome inertia.
The same happens with the swing. If you go forward first, or start with all your weight back already, you’re going to use a disproportionate amount of energy just to get your body moving. But if you push back a little first, before the swing really occurs, your body will be in motion and can slingshot off of that momentum to make a quicker and more powerful forward movement.
That’s what to do and why. But what about how? The best way to think of it is like a dance movement. A small but rhythmic sway backwards usually works better than a stiff movement. Practice in front of a mirror until it looks smooth and natural. When you can do that you will be ready to apply it to your swing.
As Johnny Cash said, get a rhythm. It will do wonders for your hitting.
Team USA’s take on the ITB
Stayed up way too late last night to watch the first medal round game for Team USA versus Japan. I didn’t get to bed until 2:00 AM, which was worth it then but a little rough this morning.
One thing I found interesting was the approach to the ITB that Coach Candrea took — mostly because it was similar in philosophy to what I’ve done in them (although not always with that level of success; have to be careful with that kind of comparison).
Of course, the conventional wisdom says the team on offense should bunt the runner on second to third, then take two shots at bringing her home. The Japanese team certainly followed it, at least in the bottom of the eighth when the score was tied.
Team USA, however, had a different plan. Rather than expend the out and play for one run, Coach Candrea elected to keep the extra out and play for more than one run. After not having it work out in the eighth, he put his faith in the top of the order and had them swing away. He wound up with four runs instead of one, which in a game that had gone eight innings with a 0-0 score was a huge mountain to climb.
No question about it — you have to have the bats to do it. Not to mention the nerve, especially if it doesn’t work since you’ll be facing a host of fans and parents who will want to know why you didn’t play it safe and bunt. But if you can pull it off, it’s quite a feat.
The point is don’t always get yourself stuck in the rut or feel you always have to follow the “book.” No guts, no glory.
NOTE: This post was edited for accuracy. I’d kind of let the eighth and ninth blend together. Told you I was tired!
The word on composite bats
I pass this along as an FYI for those who aren’t already aware. It hasn’t been made known to the public generally, but 2008 is the last year that manufacturers will be allowed to make composite bats — at least for now. The reason I’ve heard from a couple of distributors is that the bats pass the initial test, but then get considerably hotter after they’ve been used for a little while. It knocks them out of spec at times, but it’s too hard to police it. So ASA is just going to not test or allow new bat models to be used after this year.
A few examples of composite bats are the Louisville Catalyst, Demarini Phenix, Easton Synergy and Stealth, and Miken Halo.
The good news is, if you already have one, you will still be able to use it. This press release from ASA explains how current bats are being grandfathered in. They’re just not allowing more to be manufactured.
The bat manufacturers are quietly trying to dispose of their inventory. If you want one, you’d better order it quickly. A lot of the models are already sold out of the most popular sizes. But you can still find them if you look hard enough.
Good luck!
The intentional duck snort
This is an idea I’ve been toying with for some time now. How many games have you seen where the deciding hit was not a big blast or a sharp ground ball but what’s often called a duck snort, Texas leaguer or blooper — one of those weak, annoying hits that falls just out of reach of the infielders? Too often, probably, especially if you’ve been on the receiving end of it.
So I’m wondering: Why don’t we teach hitters to hit duck snorts intentionally? If you see the outfield is playing deep and the infield is playing at normal depth, a ball lofted weakly just out of reach of the infielders ought to put you on base every time.
Slappers are taught to do this. If the infield plays in and the outfield doesn’t, good slappers will try to lift the ball to the edge of the skin. Why not regular hitters?
I saw this up close over the weekend. We were in a semi-final game on a field with about a 200 foot fence. We drove a half dozen or more balls to or close to the warning track, but the outfield was playing back. If we had the bat control to just stick the bat out and drop it short into the outfield, perhaps we’d have gotten a few more runners on base and forced the outfield to come in, thereby opening things up deep.
Consider it a modified bunt. Only instead of dropping it short in the infield you’re trying to drop it short in the outfield.
I haven’t seen it done much if it all. But it sure seems like it would make sense. Don’t you think?
Front toss an effective training tool
Ok, that may not seem like a big revelation at first. But there’s more to it. Bear with me.
During the off-season, we worked with our hitters in small groups in the batting cage. We worked a lot off the tee to build swing mechanics and try to correct major problems. Then we would finish with front toss, using real balls. The distance was roughly 8-12 feet. I would throw using a windmill motion, then duck behind a protective screen as fast as I could. Mostly I got behind it, although Jessica nailed me in the shin once and it still hurts when I kneel down. But I digress.
Anyway, as the HS season started, most of our girls did pretty well. But the further they got away from it, the less effective they became as hitters. When we finally got them back for the summer we again used front toss as a main form of hitting practice and the hitting went up. We haven’t done it much lately and noticed a drop, so last Thursday it was back to the batting cage for some front toss.
It may have been coincidence, but this weekend we hit .300+ as a team en route to a tournament championship, with lots of doubles and even a few triples on fields with a 200 foot fence. No one went yard, but several came close. Two of the opposing coaches commented on how well our team hit. Not so much because our first five hitters did it, but because we did it all the way through the lineup.
There are a lot of factors involved, of course. But it seemed like that front toss practice, time consuming as it was, made a huge difference for us. I’d highly recommend it to get the timing, and the feeling of hitting real balls. And if you’re quick enough, you can even correct some major flaws as you duck behind the screen!
Pitchers hitting
There is all kinds of “conventional wisdom” in the game of softball. You’ll often hear you should never make the first or last out at third base, that you should always bunt a runner to second with nobody out, and other such ideas. Some of them make sense, some do not.
Another common one is that you should DH for the pitcher. The reasoning is pitchers can’t hit because they spend all their time working on hitting. (Or in some cases there is a fear that the pitcher will get hurt batting or running the bases and then be out of the game, perhaps even down for the season.)
Yet let’s think about it for a minute. Pitching in fastpitch softball is an extremely difficult position. It requires great dedication and great concentration. Pitchers often continue to practice their craft after the field players have been sent on their way. Hmmmm. What attributes would we like in hitters? How about dedication in the off season and concentration at the plate? Get where I’m going?
Here’s an extreme example. When the 2004 National team was making its run toward the Olympics, their cleanup hitter in most games was a lady named Lisa Fernandez. She was either playing third or DHing for someone, and hitting the heck out of the ball. Yet when she was in the circle, the coaching staff would have someone hit for her. One day Coach Mike Candrea stopped to think about it and realized that was just silly. He then let Lisa hit for herself when she was pitching, and she helped the team win its third Olympic gold medal.
On my own team we’re seeing a microcosm of that scenario. Currently three out of the top four hitters are also my pitchers. (The fourth is an ex-pitcher, incidentally.) We’ll see how it goes during the season, but those three are leading or close to leading most offensive categories. Why on earth would I want to DH for them?
I’d be interested to hear from others who let their pitchers hit, to see if they are also at the top of the stats. Maybe we’re on oddity. But I don’t think so. Dedication and focus are required to hit well. Good pitchers have both in abundance.
Pujols’ position early in the swing
This post is actually a continuation of a discussionhappening on the DiscussFastpitch forum. I was trying to make a point over there, but I needed pictures to show it. Couldn’t figure out how to put them up there and so I tried doing it with Facebook. But you have to have an account with Facebook to see them, apparently, and since most adults don’t that wasn’t the answer. Then it hit me. I have a blog. Duh!
In any case, it started as a discussion of the back elbow being elevated or down, and then got a bit off track into what the shoulders do.
I’m a back elbow down guy. I really don’t see the value in putting it up, but I do believe it can be restrictive in the swing. As an example of a top baseball player who starts with both elbows down, I show this photo of Albert Pujols:
Notice the green lines, that trace his forearms. They are forming an upside-down V. The back elbow will elevate some as he goes into launch, but this is where he’s starting.
Then came the shoulders. Some advocate keeping them parallel to the ground. I used to also, in fact up to this year. But then I saw evidence of top hitter after top hitter lowering the front shoulder going into toe touch. Here’s a look at Pujols at that point:
The red line traces the angle of his shoulders. While his upper arm does look to be parallel to the ground it seems to me this is due at least in part to the shoulder angle. Notice also that his hands are tied to his back shoulder, not over his back foot as is often advocated.
Like this or not, you can’t argue with the results!
Outs are the clock in softball
“Outs are the clock in softball.” This is a phrase I heard or read earlier in the week. Can’t remember who said it — perhaps my friend and fellow coach Rich — but I think this is a great way to think of outs and what you want to do with them, especially late in the game.
To put it into perspective, let’s think about a different sport that does have a clock. I love football, so let’s look at that.
Let’s say you’re losing by 10 points and you have 2:30 left to play. To tie the game you will need to score twice — at least a touchdown and a field goal. To win you will need a two-point conversion as well.
Two minutes and 30 seconds is not a lot of time, but it’s doable. What it means is you need to score quickly, using as little time as possible, then get the ball back and try again. Ideally you’ll score the touchdown first, which takes some of the pressure off.
There are all kinds of plays you could run to try to advance the ball and score. The smart play is to pass, because generally speaking you can move the ball farther and move it closer to the sidelines to get out of bounds and stop the clock. Also, if you’re unsuccessful the clock stops, giving you more time to plan the next play.
You could also run the ball. But it’s tougher to get the ball out of bounds that way, and a good running play generally goes for about four to five yards. If you have a lot of ground to cover you’re expending a lot of time to try to get that score.
It’s all about clock management. Being able to stop the clock without expending timeouts will give you a better chance of scoring. The clock is your enemy at this point, so you need to conserve as much time as you can.
Now let’s bring it back to softball. Unless you’re playing in a tournament with a time limit, your “clock” is the number of outs. The more of them you use, the fewer you have left to try to score. If you’re in a close game, say down by one run, it may be a good move to trade an out for a run. But if you’re behind by two or more, it may not be such a good idea.
Let’s say it’s the top of the sixth, your team is behind by three runs, and you are the visitors. You now have six outs to try to score a minimum of three runs to tie or four to win. (You also may want a couple more to give yourself some insurance.)
In any case, that’s a lot of runs in two innings. You’re probably going to need every out you can get. What that means is you don’t want to be throwing them away by sacrifice bunting, attempting steals (unless you’re positive you can beat the throw) or using other such strategies. You don’t want to send a runner around third on an iffy play either. You’re going to have to trust your hitters to put the ball in play. It still may not work out, but it’s your best bet. You want to extend the inning as long as you can. That means not using up your outs on purpose.
Of course, one other factor that can have an effect is what the actual score is. There’s a huge difference in offensive potential between being behind 16-13 or 4-1.
In a seven-inning game, both teams start with 21 outs. How you use them from there often determines your fate. If you purposely expend one per inning, and your opponent doesn’t, you’ve just cut your allotted number of outs to 14. That’s a pretty big advantage to hand your opponent for no reason other than you don’t know what else to do, or you’re stuck on a single strategy.
If you were told that the local rules dictated that your team gets two outs per inning while your opponents get three, there’s little doubt you’d either protest or leave the contest entirely. But that’s exactly what you’re doing to yourself when you don’t use your outs more intelligently.
Before you just start giving them away, keep that idea in mind. Outs are the clock in our game of fastpitch softball. Don’t run the time needlessly off of yours.
More on the sacrifice bunt
My pal Rich sent me some information today that further confirms what I said earlier — the sacrifice bunt is way over-used relative to its value.
Here’s a link to an incredible article that really breaks down the chances of scoring with various numbers of baserunners with 0,1, or 2 outs. This is not some guy offering his opinion on the way things should be. It’s an academic type performing a statistical analysis that Billy Beane would be proud of. Be warned — the article (or more accurately academic paper) is long and very mathematical. But it certainly reinforces the points I and others made before.
The basis for this paper is the analysis of the actual outcomes of at bats in Major League Baseball. It talks about how many runs are scored per inning on average in each of the situations. More than that, though, it also breaks it down by who is hitting, i.e. where in the lineup you are. The numbers are a little different for an 8 hitter than a 3 hitter, so this takes it into account. It also accounts for the DH in the American League v. having the pitcher hit in the National.
Let’s take a look at a classic scenario. The leadoff hitter gets on base, and the #2 hitter in the lineup bunts him to second. If you do that all the time, the probability of scoring at least one run is .439. If you leave the runner on first and have the #2 hitter swing away, the probability of scoring is .483. So you’ve actually hurt your chances of scoring by giving up that out to advance the runner.
Ok, that’s the top of the lineup. Let’s look at the #7 hitter getting on and the #8 hitter at bat. In that case, the probability of scoring from second with one out is .379, while the probability of scoring from first with no outs is .393. Hmmm. So why are we bunting again?
Where the sacrifice bunt does seem to make sense is with no outs and a runner on second. But it seems like a lot of softball coaches never give themselves the chance to get in that situation. They knee-jerk bunt as soon as a runner gets on first and regardless of whether a weak or strong hitter is at the plate. They take themselves out of more innings than they create opportunities.
Now I’m sure there are some who will say softball is not baseball, the bases are shorter, the pitcher is closer, blah blah blah. That argument may have been valid 15 years ago, but it’s not anymore. Today’s athletes are bigger, stronger, faster and better trained. Third basemen in particular make their bones by fielding the bunt and making the play, often times getting the lead runner. Hitters put in more work than they used to, and have bats that are a lot hotter than they used to be too. There is a much greater chance that they’ll put the ball in play and get a big inning started. One check of the local newspapers for high school games or the NCAA Web site will show you that the days of 1-0 15 inning nail biters are long past. Offense is all the rage, and those who can’t generate it by swinging the bats are doomed to wind up on the short end of the stick.
As Mike Hanscom pointed out before it’s a little different at the younger ages. But even there, better teams are starting to play the bunt better. You don’t see as many balls thrown away or as many runners reaching base safely as you used to. The expectations are higher.
Does all this mean you should never bunt? No! When the defense is playing back, or you know you’re playing for one run, or the defense has shown it’s a little sloppy on the bunt you should take advantage of it. It’s still a good weapon. But it’s not the be-all and end-all of fastpitch offense, and it shouldn’t be an automatic. If you’ve trained your hitters to hit then let them do their jobs. In most cases you’ll increase your probability of scoring. Not because I say so, but because the numbers don’t lie.
Bunts, outs and strategy
Of all the offensive strategies in the game of fastpitch softball, none is more time-honored than using the bunt as a means of advancing a runner into scoring position. In fact, you could say that offensive strategy #1 goes like this: get your leadoff hitter on base, then have the next hitter sacrifice bunt her over to second.
That’s the way it’s always been. And for many that’s the way it continues to be. Yet there is a question as to whether it really makes sense to automatically lay down the bunt when you get a runner on base with no outs, no matter the quality of the opposing team or where you are in the lineup.
Major League Baseball once did a study on the chances of scoring a runner from first base with no outs v. from second base with one out. It came from the study of 50 years worth of statistics. (MLB and the people who follow it intensely love to make with the stats.) According to Cindy Bristow’s must-have book Softball Strategies, Coverages, Signals & Charts, the chances of a runner scoring from first with no outs are 43%. The chances of scoring that same runner from second with one out are 45%. Is it really worth giving up an out automatically to increase your chances of scoring by 2%? It’s a good strategy sometimes — like when you’re in a tight, low-scoring game where you need to play for one run, when your team’s hitters are being dominated by the other team’s pitcher, or you’re in the part of your lineup where rallies go to die.
But it may not be such a good idea when you’re early in the game and you know you can hit the opponent’s pitcher. Why not play for a big inning by letting hitter #2 swing away? She may advance the runner a lot further than second, and you still have all three outs left to try to get her home. Even if she only gets to second, the chances of scoring go up to 60% with no outs. If she makes it to third, you stand a 70% chance of getting her in. I’d say 70% looks a lot better than 45% — and 60 feet away looks better than 120 feet. After all, from third all you need is a wild pitch to score.
I’ve even seen some teams waste two outs trying to bunt a runner to third. Let’s look at the stats there. Again, with a runner on first and no outs your chances of scoring that runner are 43%. If you expend an out to bunt her to second and then another to bunt her to third, your situation is two outs and a runner on third. Your chances of scoring now have actually gone down. Statistically, you have a 32% chance of scoring — 11% less than when you started. How does that make sense? Unless your team is so horrible at swinging the bat that they have no chance of putting the ball in play, you are better off trying to hit that runner around and in.
If you follow softball 101 and bunt her to second, you’re still better off swinging the bat and using a hit to advance her to third. The chances of scoring a runner from third with one out are 54%. That’s a slight advantage over the “house” for you gamblers. Does it really make sense to give up 22% to get that runner to third? I don’t think so. Half of 54% is 27%, so you’re basically cutting your chances of scoring almost in half by sac bunting the runner to third. Who in their right minds wants to cut their chances of scoring in half? Yes, you might get lucky with a wild pitch now and then. But the higher a level you play, the less likely you are to get that luck. In the meantime, you’ve given up a lot of outs — and potential runs — for no reason.
Bunting is a great technique for advancing runners when used intelligently. I’ve done it myself lots of times. But it can also be a liability. Do the math. Make your bunts more strategic and you’ll generate a lot more offense.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 