Focal Points for More Hits

I find it interesting that so many parents and coaches are very quick to alter this and change that to a young hitter batting mechanics’. The batter is advised to keep their elbows up, keep their elbows down. Batters are told to close their stance, open up their stance, keep their head in there and so on there seems to be no end. Tremendous amount of time and effort on both the coach and the player’s part has to be contributed for a player to successfully become a good hitter not along to become a great hitter.

If a young hitter or has proper mechanics, and there is nothing devastatingly wrong causing them to develop long term mechanical flaws they will be OKAY.

The way to repair flaws and get consistency at the plate is to is to make sure the hitter is seeing the ball properly. Someone once said “see the ball, hit the ball”. To get the eye-hand coordination will that time to become consistence at it. The uses of a batting cage and a good pitching machine can help in this area. A batting cage in your yard can be very convenient, along with one of the Jugs pitching machine from www.prohittingcages.com. Repetition and focus is what we are trying to achieve. The pay off will be confident and more hits at the plate.

You’ve heard some of the great hitters make the statement they are seeing the ball well right now, or the ball is looking like a large fruit. This happens when there a combination of proper tracking, timing and technique shifts focus to the pitcher’s release point. No doubt seeing the ball well correlates directly to a hitter success at the plate for them.

Focusing on a part of the pitcher’s body, say his cap, forehead or chest in doing so the batter establishes proper focal point for their eyes. Proper distance is established as this is the initial stage in the tracking process for a hitter. As the pitcher winds up and begins their delivery to deliver the pitch the hitter’s focal point shifts into the release window, and with proper timing as the pitcher’s hand enters release window, the hitters focus should be on the ball. This split second difference in tracking the ball with the eyes can result in a significant improvement in pitch recognition and translate into greater consistency, contact and hits!

Next time you’re struggling at the plate, first check to see where you are looking before the pitch. With proper practice and coaching instruction on the focal points will go a long way to helping you to become a better hitter.

There’s nothing like that of a live pitcher but the use of a pitching machine when used properly can help with timing and eyes focal point. Look to www.prohittingcages.com for the finest in jugs pitching machines, batting cages, bbcor bats, batting, pitching and training aids.

With your hard work and determination you can achieve your goals and dream.

Submmitted By prohittingcages.com

Developing Your Hitting In the Batting Cage

You can improve your hitting by using the batting cage. The advantages are you can work on your timing, and develop good habits. It is important to know when you are getting good quality hits. A quality hit is not only hitting the ball hard but the type of hits you are getting.  The focus should be on hitting line drives and hitting the ball on the ground. With time, these types of hits will translate into higher hitting average, and there is less chance of these balls being caught as appose to fly balls.

Here are some techniques that have helped many hitters and are practice by many big leaguers. The strategy on hitting a baseball to help keep you focus and meeting you goal is scoring your batting cage practice. All that is needed is a person to keep tracking of your hitting performance as you are batting in the batting cage. To accomplish this

1. 1.   The use of the three point hitting system.  This point system awards 3 points for line drives, 2 points for balls hit on the ground or low to the ground, and 1 point for fly balls.
2. 2.   Create the three hitting Zones.  For the batting cage as well as the practice field, by use of arbitrary markers for each zone. The Zones are to be separated by about 6 yards. The ground ball hitting should have a horizontal zone from the ground to six (6) yards straight up in the air. The line drive hitting zone should be the zone between 6 and 12 yards in the air. Finally the fly ball zone should be the hitting zone between 12 and 18 yards in the air.
3. 3.   Using the Arbitrary markers in the batting cage.  In the batting cages, you can use arbitrary markers such as the top of the pitching machine to mark off each section.  Regardless of your arbitrary markers, you want to star scoring each session in the batting cage.
4. 4.   Recording your result of each session.  It’s important to get in the habit of recording each of your sessions. As you keep this record try to outdo your previous best scores. This will turn batting practice into a game and you will benefit and get more enjoyment out of your practices.
5. 5.   If at the Batting Cage By Yourself the Memory Technique.  At times you will be along at the batting cage, in these instances focus on your scoring by seeing how many times you hit 6in this target zones. Your goal for the next round should be to get at least 7 hits in this area.  This type of concentrated thinking will not require you to see how you scored in the other areas, and still get the maximum benefit and encouraging you to hit in these main zones.

Like most everything in life, you get better at things the more times you do them. Hitting a baseball is no different. The best advice for baseball hitting is practice, practice, and I repeat PRACTICE YOUR SWING. This is the strategy that work for the PROS.

Submitted by www.prohittingcages.com

Coaching Young Players How to Catch the Ball Correctly.

 Many, young and beginner baseball players have not been taught the proper skills for catching the baseball correctly. Here is a technique I have learned and would like to past it on to you as well. Have each player lay flat on his or her back. Have the coach stand over each player with a ball. Explain to the player that if the ball is above their waist they should catch the ball with the fingers up and if the ball is below the waist they should catch the ball with their fingers down. Then have the catch drop the ball into the player’s glove from different positions. This will help the player understand proper glove technique.

We can also accomplish these by the drills.

1.) To improve the players overall conditioning.

2.) To improve the player's ability to move laterally and to assume a good defensive position in fielding a ground ball.

The drill has one to toss and one player, who are 6-7 feet apart facing each other. (Pairs) Drill can have as many groups as desired.

The person, who does the tossing, rolls a ball about 5-6 feet out to the side. The player moves on a semicircular path to field the ball. After picking-up the ball, the player throws the ball back to the player doing the tossing. The ball is then tossed about 5-6 feet out to the opposite side, and the player fields the ball in a similar manner. The drill sequence is repeated from five to 10 times depending on the player's conditioning level. The number of repetitions is increased as the players conditioning level improves. It is important for the player to field the ball by moving on a semicircular path in order for the drill to be effective.

Working on the outfielder ball and have them making the throw into the infield. Working on your base running and sliding drill.

Line up three, four or five players at the following positions, right field, first base, and third base.

The player’s at first base take turns as base-runners and tries to make it safely to third base. On the coach’s signal, the player from first takes off running, heading for third base. Every time the running gets to third base they need to go in sliding. The coach hits the ball behind the runner to the right fielder, the right fielder makes the stop and try's to throw the runner out at third. The third baseman needs to stop the ball and make a low tag. Rotate the players after each turn. Player plays the same position - runner, right field or third base, through two rotations, before moving to another position.

A drill that gives each players an opportunity to field plenty of ground balls.

Drill has one fielder, who stands 40-60 feet in front of the hitter (depending on their age), and one shaggier, who stands on the right side of the hitter. Drill can have as many groups as desired.

The hitter hits 10 ground balls to the fielder. The field fields the ground balls and throws them to the shaggier. After fielding 10 ground balls, the fielder becomes the shaggier, the shaggier becomes the hitter, and the hitter becomes the new fielder. The drill continues to proceed in this manner for as long as desired.

This is a good drill for getting a lot of grounders in, in a short amount of time.

Great for working the infield quickly and as a warming up drill, it also teaching players how to back up throws. If you can't see the player making the throw, you are too close to back up the play.

Position a player at each infield position excluding pitcher and shortstop. Each base excluding the catcher has a backup who is positioned behind the base. Begin the drill with the catcher throwing to first, first throws to second, second throws to home. Continue around five or more times seeing how quickly they can get the ball around. Then reverse and go from home to third, to second to first and back home.

To help base runners learn to read the trajectory of a pitched ball.

Set players up at all three bases. They are independent of each other because each base has different rules for a ball in the dirt. A coach pitches from the mound and mixes in good and bad pitches to the catcher. Any time a ball is about to bounce the whole team yells "DIRT". This helps you make sure everyone in paying attention. Base runners on first should automatically go when the ball is in the dirt. Runners on second should react to the ball in the dirt by getting a good lead and deciding if they can make third safely. If the baseball gets away from the catcher they should go, if the catcher digs the ball out of the dirt, they should return to second. Runners at third should follow the same principles as the runner at second, get a good lead, gets a crow hop as the ball nears the catcher and then react to the weather the catcher digs the ball out of the dirt or not.

To replicate throws under game conditions. Work on proper execution of throwing and relay mechanics.

Divide the team into groups of four. Place members of each group between 60 and 90 feet apart depending on age. Place first person on the first base foul line and spread the balance of player towards left field. Infielders should be in the middle two "relay men" positions so they can practice relay moves. Player at the beginning of the line has a ball. On coaches command player throw the ball down and back a predetermined number of times. If an overthrow occurs or relay man is missed, the ball must be returned and the throw made accurately before ball can be advanced. The winning group is the group who throws the ball down and back within the predetermined number of times the fastest. The "relay men" should turn to their glove hand side.

We can reinforce the mechanics of throwing, and teach each player to pick up a dead ball with their throwing hand.

Place players in single file at third base, shortstop, second base and home. Place two coaches at first base. Place balls at each infield position and in front of home plate. Place balls in normal fielding positions. The third baseman starts the drill by picking up a "dead ball", crow hopping and throwing to first base, the shortstop follows the third baseman, then second base, followed by home plate. The coach at first base receiving the throws should roll the ball back to the thrower. The thrower will place the ball in its proper position and go to the back of the line. Rotate player groups from position to position after each player has thrown two or three times. A good gloveis a most in these drills.

Transferring the baseball can and will lead to more plays

The technique of transfer of the baseball for quicker throws resulting in more players at the bases is often neglected by so coaching staff. In today game of baseball, when players are faster and ever out can make the difference, the technique of glove hand transfer is important.

I have become aware of a great practice aid endorsed by Billy and Cal Ripkin jr. called the QUICK HANDS TRAINER by RAWLINGS. This training aid is inexpensive but it is a great teaching and training tool for today player of any age. http://www.prohittingcages.com/quick.hands.trainer.by.rawlings.html