I was just reading one of Dave’s posts on the Girls Fastpitch Softball, and he hit on something that drives me crazy too: the way hitters will stand and watch good pitches go by for no reason.

Now, if you’re facing a pitcher throwing 65 mph with good movement and a change of speed, and you’re used to hitting 55 mph or less with little or no movement, it’s understandable that you might be a little overwhelmed. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about standing there taking perfectly good and hittable pitches coming in at a comfortable speed. It just makes no sense.

Now, I am an advocate of the Mike Epstein “get a good pitch to hit” philosophy. With a 0-0 count there’s no need to swing at a pitch you don’t hit particularly well. But if you let yourself get into a hole with an 0-2 count, your odds of getting a good hit decrease dramatically. Even MLB players hit sub-.200 with an 0-2 count, and they’re theoretically the best in the world.

Younger pitchers (and their coaches) tend to be obsessed with throwing strikes. Throwing a ball is considered a bad thing, and throwing two in a row usually gets action out in the bullpen. That’s a risk-averse mentality but a lot of people have it. That can be an advantage to a hitter if she knows how to deal with it.

If you’re not one of the first two hitters in the lineup, you should have a pretty good idea of what and where the pitcher is throwing by the time you come up to the plate. If you start out by looking for that pitch, you’ll give yourself an advantage. It’s like blackjack players counting cards in a casino. You only gain a 2% edge over the house, but if you’re smart about your approach it should be enough to carry out some cash.

The first thing to look at is does the pitcher tend to throw high or low? As a pitching coach I can tell you that pitchers are generally taught to keep the ball low. See if she mostly throws waist-high or below. That’s something that’s easy to tell from the on-deck circle, or even from the dugout. If she always starts out with a low pitch, you can cut the strike zone you’re trying to cover in half. Especially if you see that when she tries to go high she tends to throw a ball.

The next thing to look at is whether she tends to go inside, outside, or middle early in the count. The odds are she’ll be looking to go outside first, because most hitters don’t like that pitch and will let it go. But it’s not a certainty. Watch the catcher’s glove and see where she’s getting the ball. Middle is a gimme, so if you can see that she’s throwing mostly inside or outside you can cut the remaining strike zone in half. Now you’re looking for a pitch in 25% of the zone you were before. If she is consistent with her placement, and you’ve observed correctly, you can be looking for the ball in a particular spot as though she announced the location to you. That’s a nice advantage to have.

Suppose your observation tells you the pitch will likely be low and outside, and you don’t like that pitch. Well, you can let it go, but then your covered strike zone gets bigger. Instead, if outside is what bothers you move in closer to the plate and turn that outside pitch into a de facto down the middle pitch. Forget the plate, just see the ball coming down the pipe and pop it! If she likes to start inside, try backing off the plate to give yourself a little more time to get around on the ball. Don’t forget, you don’t have to start there. You can line yourself up normally, and then as she starts her windup creep in or out a bit. Just be sure to give yourself enough time to get set.

The changeup is another tough one. A good change will tend to freeze a hitter who’s not expecting it. But here’s where observation can help you again. First, look to see if she throws it on the same pitch count, then look to see if every batter sees one. If she’s throwing it to everyone, you may want to plan for it, and simply wait until she throws it to crank it. You can also look to see if she telegraphs it, either by playing with the grip, shortening her arm circle, or slowing down the arm. I watched an opposing pitcher last night give away her speed on all pitchers by her arm speed. If you can recognize the subtleties you’ll have a pretty good clue as to what’s coming.

For movement pitches, try to train yourself to recognize the spin. It requires a lot more focus and concentration than the average fastpitch player gives to her at bats, but it does make a difference. Ask your team’s pitchers how they throw movement pitches, or maybe volunteer to catch for them, so you can get used to seeing the motion and the spin. It definitely helps.

Hitting is still a low-percentage activity. Succeeding 3 out of 10 times makes you an All-Star. But you can help increase your odds by paying attention to what the pitcher is doing, learning her patterns, and narrowing down your happy zone. After all, it’s a lot easier to react to a sudden movement if you know what’s coming.

Saw a great article a few days ago on some cool strategies for hitting the changeup.

I have one to add, which is really aimed at getting hitters to wait back on slower pitching than they’re used to. Telling them to “wait on it” is kind of vague. When hitters are used to seeing faster pitching (faster being a relative term), it’s hard for them to know just how long to wait.

What I will often do is draw a line in the dirt in front of home plate, and tell them not to start their swings until the ball crosses that line. Sometimes it’s just 10 feet in front of home, other times it’s further out. Sometimes I guess wrong and it has to move. But the principle still holds.

One of the most common problems I see with hitting is an affliction called “bat drag.” It occurs when the elbow on the back arm gets ahead of the hands during the swing. This puts you into a weak position, with the bat flat and stuck way behind. As the body turns, the bat has to be pulled from that back position all the way to the front. As you might expect, this makes the bat late getting through the zone.

It’s not that difficult to cure. It just takes a little time. Step one is to maintain the “box” that is formed with the shoulders and the elbows. Bat drag usually begins when, on the beginning of the turn, the hands push back and the lead arm straightens out. As the shoulders begin to turn the hands remain back. But the hitter knows she should be moving forward, so the back elbow starts moving forward instead of the hands. At that point it’s going to be tough to get a good, quick, compact swing.

To fix it, set the bat down and grab your shirt by the back shoulder. Practice taking “swings” by striding and turning while hanging on to the shirt. Be very aware of what your back elbow is doing. Once you start getting the hang of it, move to the bat. Go slowly at first, then gradually pick up speed. If you can do it in a mirror, or video yourself doing it, it will help you check to make sure you’re on the right track.

From there, move to the tee, then either to soft toss, the pitching machine, or live pitching. Feel the back elbow come more into the side than past the hands, then extend through.

It may take some work to get it fixed. But it’s worth it. You’ll pick up bat speed, shorten your swing — and most importantly start hitting the heck out of the ball!

One of the most frustrating things for both coaches and parents is watching your player kick butt in the batting cages, ripping balls left and right, only to go into a game and wimp out. You know they can hit. You’ve seen it. But they don’t. Why?

A lot of it comes down to consequences. In the batting cages, there are no consequences. If you miss a ball, you get another one. There’s no runners on base to be brought around, no coaches or parents screaming encouragement and/or advice, no win or loss at stake.

In the game, however, there are all kinds of consequences. And of course, with softball being a game built on failure, those consequences can be dire. You can strike out leaving runners on base. You can pop up, or ground into a double play. The more a player thinks about it, the more fearsome it becomes. And the more fear of consequences there is, the more players start tensing up, swinging to avoid a mistake rather than make a play.

It can be difficult to overcome, but not impossible. The key is to encourage hitters to be aggressive and not worry about outcomes. Instead of trying to avoid mistakes, they need to go into each at bat with the intent to hit the ball hard, consequences be damned. Coaches need to be sure they create an atmosphere where hitters can focus on doing their best without worrying about being yelled at for “failing.” Remember that even a strikeout can be a great at-bat if the hitter has taken the right approach.

Keep hitters focused on swinging the bat, and playing the game one pitch at a time. Soon you’ll see that great batting cage swing out on the field.

It’s an inescapable fact that the earlier in an athletic movement a mistake occurs, the greater the effect on everything else it will have.

That’s what is puzzling about the tendency for fastpitch softball hitters to flatten out their bats at the start of their swings. I see it a lot with girls. The second they begin their swings, their first move with their hands is to lower the bat head until it is parallel with the ground, or nearly so.

That’s a terrible mistake. You need to maintain a roughly 45 degree angle on the bat as you begin to rotate into the ball. Otherwise it’s a pretty random chance that you will be able to get the head of the bat to the ball. Instead, you’ll enter a condition called “bat drag” which is just as bad as it sounds. You’ll be pulling the knob forward, but the bat will not be getting into the hitting zone. If it’s a low pitch it’s unlikely the hitter will be able to get to it.

If a hitter is striking out a lot, or hitting wimpy little ground balls, start by looking to see if she’s flattening her bat before launch. Help her maintain the proper angle and you’ll see a lot more well-hit balls.

This is a companion piece to my previous post. The longer you hang around this game, the more you’ll learn all the “helpful” cliches. One of these is “keep your head in” or the negative version “you’re pulling your head out.” Generally speaking it’s true, but the statement ignores the root cause.

The head pulls out because the body stands straight up and the front shoulder pulls out. But no one ever tells hitters to keep their front shoulders in. If they keep their weight in and let the front shoulder get knocked out by the back shoulder on the swing, the head will stay in where it belongs. And the hitter will be able to see the ball just fine, because the eyes will be closer to the ball, instead of moving away from it.