Winter Hitting Mistakes

Winter workouts can provide a great opportunity for players to work on their swing or to make major changes and create a new swing.  It can also provide an opportunity for kids to get bored and develop bad habits.  As a parent or coach, it's not enough to have winter workouts and hope that kids maximize the time they spend there.  Make sure you work with each player to develop goals for what they want to accomplish and improve on as a hitter and then tailor the batting practice to help each player work on those areas.

A Common Mistake
A team has a time reserved each week at the local batting cage, the coach sets up the pitching machine and has the kids hit.  He walks around and helps the kids with their swings but the pitching is the same week in and week out.  There's no variety to the pitches.  When kids know that the pitch is coming in at a certain speed, it's easy to time.  Poor mechanics can be masked by that simple fact!  I've seen a lot of kids look like great hitters in winter workouts only to see completely different hitters when the season starts and a pitcher is actually trying to get them out.

What to Do?
I think the easiest way to fix this problem is get some live pitching added to your winter workouts.  Move the pitching screen up and have a coach or parent go in and throw batting practice.  This way the players will have to adjust to the motion and the distance while hitting.  Get a few different people to throw batting practice so they see many different speeds and release points.  Get a lefty as well if you can.  Every time I've done this there are some players that will complain and that complaint is almost always the same:

"You're not throwing hard enough" 

Don't fall for it. 

If they can't hit a coach throwing softer than a pitching machine, then they're in trouble.  Those kids are used to picking up the ball out of the machine and swinging at the same time because, guess what, they know how hard the ball is coming in.  They aren't prepared to face a pitcher who varies the speed and location of his pitches, they are only prepared for 8 and 9 year old machine pitch league.

A Time for Pitching Machines
On the other hand, consistency can be great for kids that are trying to learn something new and are in the process of changing their swing.  It's hard to focus on a mechanics when facing a variety of pitches.  So when you have a player that is making a change and they are trying to build that muscle memory, try to provide more consistent pitching until they have it down.

Free Hitting Lessons
If you have players that have struggled in past seasons and would like to make some changes, you might have their parents check out our free backyard hitting lessons on QCBaseball.com.  These are great lessons for revamping the swing in the off-season. 

Until next time,

Don Edlin
Owner
QCBaseball.com