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Rise Up Yee Batters
by Dave
Monday, June 12, 2006
Over the weekend we had occassion to watch a pretty darn good young rise ball pitcher. So did a lot of batters on the opposing team! Their strategy was to move back in the batter's box and hopefully get a lot of balls called when she threw the rise. Needless to say that strategy did not work.
First off, I want to briefly discuss the riseball. If you've read this blog before, you have seen my words to the effect that the riseball does, in fact, rise. Let me explain that statement before we move on. Every pitch in softball or baseball actually sinks. This because the very powerful force of gravity here on planet Earth makes an object accelerate toward the ground at a rate of 32 feet per second per second. That means a ball dropped will be falling at 32 feet per second after 1 second and 64 feet per second after two. It takes a softball about a half second (depending on speed) to reach homeplate. So, at the end of that half second, it is falling at a speed of 16 feet per second. It's average drop speed over the half second is (0 + 16) / 2 or 8 feet per second and since it drops for half a second, that means just about every pitch drops 4 feet before it comes to the plate. Backward spin (thanks to the magnus effect) will lessen the effect of normal gravitational pull to say around a 3 or so foot drop but before you conclude a riseball drops 3 feet, consider that the trajectory at release must also be factored into the equation.
The point here is, generally speaking, the riseball will be caught by the catcher at a point higher than it was released. Any pitch that is released with sufficient upward trajectory can be caught by the catcher at a point higher than it was released regardless of gravity or magnus effect. Just as a rocket soars into space at least partly because of its trajectory and it is possible to throw a ball upwards, a riseball does go up. Those who claim a riseball merely falls less than a "flat" pitch are correct in as much as the total flight of the ball is concave to the ground. But the ball does cross the plate at a point higher than it was released. If you want to read further on this concept and also take a look at some really good video of a really good riseball, check this out: great rise ball videos and discussion.
Keep in mind that if a fastball is dropping 4 feet throughout its flight, the batter certainly does not consciously see that happen. It appears to be flat. Hitters are conditioned to see a fastball as flat regardless of its 4 foot drop in trajectory. That being the case and because the trajectory of a riseball is usually upwards, the batter will generally swing under the pitch unless she makes some conscious adjustments. And that's what we're here to discuss.
There are several schools of thought on teaching hitting. One popular one teaches a downward swinging motion in order to deal with the downward arc of a fastball, changeup, and various drop pitches. Another one stresses a level swing. Proponents of each claim to deal with the riseball better and have loads of words and logic to spread about why this way or that is far superior when dealing with the rise. I'm not going to deal with that logic because the bottom line in hitting is that it is not a great idea to change swing mechanics which have strong roots in the hitters muscle memory. One should not teach western style hitting to a seventeen year old girl who has never before tried it and has had hitting instruction for the past 12 years. You could do this, I'm sure many coaches do, but unless there is total commitment and a lot of time to work on swing mechanics, the non-western hitter will most likely fail at learning the western style. So the purpose here is not to suggest one style of hitting over another. Rather, I just want to discuss approaching the riseball regardless of which type of hitting style you use.
If you consider the approach the team I watched used, you need to disect the approach and the results. The batters moved back in the box because they supposed the pitch would cross their bodies above the strike zone and be called balls. But the umpire's vantage point on the pitch is different than the batter's. He or she sees the ball from release all the way to the catcher's glove and sees it cross the plate within the strike zone. An experienced ump, at least experienced with older girls, is completely comfortable with the concept of moving pitches. The ump watches the screwball cross the plate while darting inside to the righthand batter, ultimately caught outside the zone. The ump is used to watching a drop break out of the zone after crossing the plate at the knees. The experienced ump is completely aware that the call cannot be made based on where the catcher catches the ball. If an ump cannot deal with movement pitches, then the approach of moving back should work any time a pitcher throws anything besides a fastball or a changeup. The approach of the team I watched, did not work. They were able to only work out a couple of walks for the entire game and those were not worked out because of a riseball rising out of the zone after reaching the plate. Instead what mostly happened is the girls popped up the ball for easy can-of-corn outs.
The conventional wisdom for dealing with a riseball is to move up (not back) in the box. The reason for this is the batter wants to get a hack before the ball moves up and out of the zone. My opinion is this is exactly right because most softball hitters do not do particularly well hitting high pitches and making yourself hit at the highest point is a bad idea. Even if you don't swing and miss, you are going to pop it up a lot if you are deep in the box.
Another consideration I want you to at least consider is where you are relative to the plate. Great pitchers can put the rise wherever they want, high, low, inside and out. But less-that-great riseball pitchers have more difficulty locating this pitch. If a riseball pitcher is hitting the zone, she probably is hitting it in one general location, inside, down the middle, or outside. And likely she'll tend to be up in the zone. When she tries to follow up her inside strike with an outside one, she'll probably miss and likely miss by a fair amount. You have to judge which spot she's having the most success with and you should move your position in the box accordingly. You want to get as good a side view of the rise pitcher as you can so your brain can vector it best. In order to do this, the furthest point from the plate you can achieve without positioning yourself to far awy to hit is probably the best.
Next, if you stand erect in the batter's box while awaiting the pitch, you can probably see the riseball fairly well but if when you swing, your body and, therefore, head drop, you are going to pop it up if you hit it at all. If you, on the other hand, tend to crouch and your head lifts just slightly, you probably have a better cantage point to follow the riseball as it approaches your hitting zone. If you watch good riseball hitters (if there really is such an animal), I think you will see that many of these tend to crouch a little more than other hitters. But aside from that opinion, this should accomplish what moving backwards in the batter's box was supposed to accomplish. Fact is the umpire is supposed to judge the strike zone based upon what he or she perceives is the batter's "natural stance." If you are crouched a few inches lower than normal for the riseball pitcher, you have a better chance of getting a ball called on her out pitch.
If you are lucky enough to know in advance that you will be facing decent riseball pitchers, you can do some things to be prepared. We often do soft tossing for batting practie in order to work on swings and contact. The drill usually involves a player or a coach softly tossing the ball and the hitter making contact on the downward arc of the ball. To prepare for a rise ball pitcher, try hitting on the upward motion of a tossed ball. Tell the hitters to try to hit on the top of the ball rather than the bottom half. You still want them to swing level but the object is to hit the ball on the top while it is on its way up.
Another approach to training the eyes and bat for the riseball pitcher can be accomplished using the Hit-N-Stik. While the use of the stik is usually a stationery one which simulates a batting tee when there is no room to use the tee, you can move the stik around to simulate pitches. The holder of the stik can move it through the zone on an upward trajectory and thereby simulate the rise. This takes some practice but is well worth doing. Again, the swing should be level and the object is to hit the top of the ball object at the end of the stik.
Finally, whereas a lot of batting practice is machine thrown balls at high speeds, in certain circumstances you can use pitching machines to get rise ball hitting practice. Some machines throw a rise ball with the proper spin. Many machines can be set up to throw on an upward trajectory. But even if your available machine can do neither, you can at least try to simulate a rise. Move your machine closer to the batter (hopefully you have a screen to protect the machine) and point it as high as you can. If your machine does not point high enough for this, try putting a phone book or other object with sufficient height underneath the front leg. Now adjust the speed as necessary and try to get an upward trajectory around the height of the top of the strike zone. Anything you can do to get a pitch across the plate at around the armpits which is pointing upwards should help a batter adjust to hitting the rise.
Aside from understanding what is happening on a riseball, adjusting your stance or your position in the box, or practicing with a rising pitch, Hit-N-Stik or toss, the final aspect to understanding how to approach the riseball is mental. You certainly can hit it unless it is a world class rise. Batters need to understand that they can hit it. Most of the biggest homeruns in softball come off of riseballs thrown in bad locations by hitters who recognize when they are thrown and are prepared to hit them. If you get the opportunity to watch a lot of softball in TV and can tape it, try to copy as many examples of homeruns hit on riseballs as you can. Show this to hitters so they understand that the rise is not quite the monster it has been made out to be.
Hitters also need as much experience seeing a rise as they can get. Video can provide at least some of that opportunity. The link I provided early in this piece is a good place to see a top quality riseball. Copy this video and view it often. There are a number of segments which show it from the batter's point of view which should be very helpful.
Finally, I assume you have taught your hitters to pick up the ball at the hip of the pitcher. But if your hitter can see the ball before it is released un the downward swing of the pitcher's arm, chances are it is either goig to be a rise or a screwball. Pitchers hold the ball facing outwards when they are throwing the rise and the screw because they have to get their hand underneath the ball. There are curves thrown with the hand underneath and this can confuse things but if you see a pitcher who does not throw a variety of pitches from underneath, the view of the ball pointing outwards late in the downward swing can be a clue that the pitch is a rise. Also, riseball pitchers generally throw it high in the zone so if the pitch is coming in high, it is probably either a rise or a fastball. And a riseball batting approach to a high fastball is probably not such a bad thing. The object is going to be to get on top of the pitch and swing level. So knowing that a riseball is coming shouldn't change too much about your batter's approach.
Well, time to end this discussion. I hope it is helpful. Remember, the way to get to a riseball pitcher is not to work out walks by standing deep in the box. If you want to neutralize her high rise, crouch a little. But don't count on the ump handing it to you. Instead know that it is a hittable pitch, stand a little further from the plate, crouch a little deeper, look for the pitch, stay on top of it and drive it out of the yard.
 
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