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Get Up, Stand Up
by Dave
Monday, May 12, 2008
Someone asked the question over this past weekend as to what the best position in the batters box is. I think the answer is easy enough. The further you are up in the box, the better. As to where you are in relation to the plate, that depends on how the pitcher's pitches are breaking. Let's just take a look at why it is important to be up in the box and then go over considerations with respect to positioning relative to the plate.
In fastpitch softball most pitches have some kind of movement on them. Some few pitchers do throw a fair amount of fastballs but most rely on drops, screws, curves and rises. Even the change has relative break on it. And the questions you have to ask yourself before you decide where in the box is best are what is the typical trajectory of a pitch and where does it hit the zone.
There are two general approaches to throwing a movement pitch. One is the back door and the other is the front door. "Front door," a not very commonly used term, refers to a pitch that begins in the strike zone or close to it and breaks or otherwise moves outside the zone. "Back door" refers to a pitch which begins outside the zone and moves back into it.
The principal problem with back door pitches is the ball ends up in the strike zone from which it is hittable. Using the back door requires the pitcher to fool the batter into not swinging because she thinks the pitch will be a ball. Front door movement pitches usually work better because they entice the batter to swing and then prevent her from centering the ball on her bat. There are plenty of pitchers out there who strike out lots of batters but most have to settle for getting the batter to hit the ball badly. If your aim is to pitch to contact and get grounders and soft linedrives, the front door is a better approach. Also, it is probably easier to strike out hitters swinging when the ball is moving out of the zone rather than it is to get them looking when the pitch is drifting back over the plate.
Whether you agree with the foregoing or not, I think empirical observation will show that more pitches use the front door than the back. The remainder of what I have to say is based upon that assumption. In order to decide where the best place to position yourself, you've got to take a look at some of these pitches and figure out how to adjust to them.
The straight dropball is usually thrown low in the zone and breaks out of it. I have heard pitching coaches tell their students that ideally what you are looking for is a pitch which meets the ground right in back of the plate. When you throw the drop, what you are after is a groundball or, alternatively, a swing and miss. You throw the pitch to look a little fat just above the knees and try to get it to turn down as it approaches the batter, ultimately just grazing the strike zone (or going right below it) and then tumbling to the ground between the plate and the catcher. There are drop which have slight lateral movement on them - drop in, drop out and these complicate the picture a bit but most are thrown low and fall outside the zone.
There are a bunch of different curves out there. Two of the best have either drop or rise on them. A drop curve can look almost like a straight drop but it moves laterally depending on the pitcher. Righties throw a drop curve which breaks away from a righty batter. From this point forward, all movement will be discussed with reference to a righty pitcher and batter.
From the batter's perspective, I suppose you could say that a drop goes 12 o'clock to 6, a sweeping curve goes 9 to 3, and a drop curve kind of goes 10 to 4 or 11 to 5, depending on how much drop it has relative to curve. A drop curve is intended to get you to swing and miss or hit a weak ground ball to the right side. Of all the pitches which might be used through the back door, curves are perhaps the most likely. I think I have seen more sweeping and drop curves brought in via the back door that any other variety of pitch. In those instances, the pitcher is trying to get the hitter to step in the bucket and then either take a strike or swing weakly as she recognizes that the pitch is moving into the zone.
The rise curve is a very interesting animal. This pitch usually has less lateral movement than a sweeping or drop curve, its lateral movement tends to be later, and its upward jump is not as drastic as a true rise ball, which will get to in a moment. The rise curve is usually thrown either down the middle and a little up where it rises up, out of the zone and moves off the plate, or on the outside corner of the zone whwere it becomes unhittable as it approaches the plate. It isn't the easiest pitch to learn. Some girls have trouble enough working on the rise and other curves. They don;t need to mess up their mechanics by working an in between pitch. But as a batter, you have to consider the possibility that you may face it sometime.
The plain vanilla rise ball has backward spin on it and it rises up from inside the zone to out of it as it approaches the plate. Good rise ball pitchers can throw it for a strike but it is a difficult pitch to master and be able to have command over. Most average pitchers throw their rises at the top of the zone or just above it. (As an aside, I wonder if the NFCA decision to lower the top of the strike zone will serve to further reduce the number of pitchers who can effectively throw a rise.)
The screwball, in general terms, moves laterally in the opposite direction to the curve. In fastpitch softball I think what we most commonly see in terms of a screwball is less lateral movement and more angle of the pitch. What I mean is, I haven't seen a lot of screwballs which move a great deal inwards towards the right handed batter. Typically what I see is a pitch which is thrown on an angle from the furthest allowable point to the batter's right inside the pitching lane, to a point in tight to the batter and which moves in slightly towards the batter. The screw can be a downward pitch, flatter, or have some rise to it.
Lastly, let me say that the objects of any pitcher throwing a change-up are two fold. First of all, her primary objective is going to be to confuse you with the speed and spin of the ball. Her second ojective is going to be to "keep it out of your eyes" which means, she wants it to be in the bottom of the zome, preferably breaking out of it as it approaches the plate.
So that's enough about the way pitches generally move. The next part of this analysis is to take a look at the plate. If you stand over the plate and with your imagination, cut off the back end, you are left with a square. Now bisect the plate into four equal sized quarters. Not many pitchers are even a little concerned with the back two squares you have made. What they view as the strike zone they are interested in is the little tiny outside corners of the front two boxes. These are the places any good pitcher is going to throw the ball.
In terms of up and down, it is a little harder to visualize but in general a good pitcher is going to try to stay in the upper or lower couple of inches, that is when she wants to throw a strike. The rest of the time, she is going to be preoccupied with throwing poitches which look like they might hit those corners but which move off the plate.
So, if we could create a three dimensional strike zone made out of some material and then sit and watch a good pitcher pitch to it, what we would see is a gradual wearing away of the material only in the front corners, only at the top or bottom. The best pitchers will wear away very little material. They will never hit the main part of your imaginary strike zone unless they make some sort of pitch execution mistake.
The only logical conclusion I can make, based on the foregoing analysis, is if you want to hit, you must be up in the box. If you're going to protect the plate and prevent the pitcher from putting anything past you which touches the zone, you want to meet the ball before it breaks out of the zone. As I said, that's simple enough but it requires the hitter to react faster and make good judgments in less time.
As to where one should stand relatives to the plate, I think that depends on variables over which you, the hitter, have little control. You want to position yourself so as to protect both corners, though whether that is actually possible is a subject for another debate. Most of your decision with respect to this depend upon where the ump is calling balls and strikes. if the ump is giving the pitcher the outside corner, chances are decent she isn't giving her the inside one and obviously, you need to crowd the plate more.
Some umps don't give pitchers that much of the plate unless and until they earn it by showing command of the zone through the first couple of innings. if a pitcher isn't nibbling too much but she is hitting corners, the ump will generally broaden the zone in the middle innings. Batters need to adjust accordingly. Further along in the game, different umps have different tendencies. Some shrink and some expand depending on their particular habit and possibly the game situation. No ump will ever admit to shrinking or expanding the zone but I think we've all seen this done at various times for various reasons. As the batter, you have to at least be aware that the zone could shift furing the game.
Further, the batter must also be aware of the pitcher's tendencies. Some pitchers earn their living on the outside corner and off of it. They will only come in when they want to push you back so they can sneak one over the outside on the next pitch or the one after that. Some pitchers earn their keep by working mainly the inside corner. These often are the screwball pitchers. A select few pitchers will work both corners with equal ease. A smaller set will work the middle of the plate with risers. And an even smaller set will work both corners, up and down with a broad mix of pitches.
What I don't want to convey to you is a habit of shifting your foot position in and out according to the pitch you just saw. If that starts happening, you're dead. But if you know you are battling with a pitcher who throws all drop curves on the outside corner, you should adjust to that. And when she comes in on you after the first pitch strike, you should know that this is just an attempt to get you off the plate so she can throw one for a strike on the outside corner. That's probably going to be the one you want to hit. So don't move back away from the plate. Stay in there and be ready when she throws the pitch on the corner.
Also, when you set your feet up, you want to be consciously aware of where you are. If you are used to setting up in the box to where you can just cover the outside corner with about 3 inches of metal, and you move closer to the plate, you have to recognize that the strike zoine has shifted relative to you. It is closer. So when that pitch with the spin looks like it might just nick the outside corner, it probably is three or more inches off the plate and that's not the one you were looking for. This is true when you move up in the box towards the pitcher and her out pitch is the straight drop. The pitch look up a bit from where it would have been if you were sitting deep. You have to adjust your perceptions of the strike zone when you take up a new position there. Experience will make you better at this but, for now, at least be aware that when you move inside the box, the strike zone stays pretty much where it was - in other words it moves relative to you.
Finally, as a hitter you must be aware that if the pitcher can get you out without ever throwing a strike, that's what she's gonna do. One of the best pitchers I have ever observed throw maybe one true strike per hitter. That may be her first pitch, her second, or her third. Most of the rest of the time she is trying to throw something that looks like a strike but isn't. Sometimes umps give her strikes. Sometimes they don't. When they do, hitters need to adjust but they cannot adjust by swinging at every ball that is six inches or more out of the zone. They have to be aware of an expanded zone and act accordingly but I don't want to be blamed for encouraging batters to become bad ball hitters. When the umps are pinching the pitcher, batters are going to have something better to swing at but, here, I don't want you to become overly choosey. You have to figure out what pitches you want to hit and then go after them. This is a cat and mouse game. Which would you prefer to be, the cat or the mouse?Labels: batting
 
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