I am way passed my playing days, but I still love going to the batting cages 2-3 times a week. It is my meditation place, my happy place. There is nothing like hitting balls until I get exhausted to clear my mind and soul.
As a private and college batting coach, I also go to the cages to teach and to try out, and make sure that drills and advice that I have given my players work and make sense. I love to see the cages crowded with young players and families. But rarely, I see players practicing for real. Often, I see players of all ages, and well-meaning parents with a lack of understanding of swing mechanics creating bad habits and judging degrees of success by degrees of contact with the ball.
At the batting cages, hitting a ball is not that difficult. Our brains are wired to solve problems. It doesn’t take much time and just a moderate amount of effort and athleticism to figure out a way to hit after we see a ball approaching approximately at the same speed and plane repeatedly. This does not mean that we are going to hit it efficiently, and consistently with power, though.
I have seen players of all ages “practicing” hitting speeds that they will never see in a game, trying to create shortcuts to hit 3 out of 15 balls . I see them entering the cage without warming up and start "practicing" without a goal, repeating patterns of mistakes. They miss balls left and right but feel great when they hit one. They are not working on improving their swings, but chasing self-gratification and approval of the people around them, and solidifying their shortcomings one swing at a time. After more than 15 years of coaching, it's hard to witness such a waste of time and energy.
I just saw a 10u player who barely knew how to hold a bat correctly “practicing” hitting 60 mph balls. The kid and his father were beaming with pride each time he touched one, but beyond his excellent eye to hand coordination and lack of fear, everything else in his swing was so mechanically wrong, that it hurt me watch him swing. His brain had registered a successful pattern to hit the ball, and he repeated it again and again even when he was missing 80% of the pitches and the ones that he was hitting were dribbles and pop ups. I would have loved to help them, but offering unsolicited advice is not good cage etiquette. Undoubtfully, this was a great day for them as a family, and probably, the kid gained a lot of confidence and love for the game which is a very positive result. However, it was a waste of time and money as practice time, and detrimental to his swing mechanics from an instructional and developmental point of view.
Swing mechanics are a sequence of steps that happen during the swing. It is not impossible, but it is very hard to learn to execute a correct swing sequence by swinging at a moving ball no matter the speed. This is better accomplished with a ball on a Tee. Learning to perform the sequence of steps properly and consistently is extremely important at a young age.
Although players come in all sizes and shapes and there is a lot of room for unique and individualized swing variations, understanding and learning the common steps of a successful swing makes the difference between a bad or average hitter and good hitter. Even great hitters, athletes with tuned-in swing mechanics to their individual patterns of movements, all look similar from the moment the barrel enters the pitch plane to contact. I believe that paying attention to what great hitters’ swings have in common is all players need to learn on the tee first at a basic level. The cage/machine-pitched drills are a progression tool in the process of accomplishing that goal.
I don't meet with my clients at the cages that much. I work with them in a cycle of 2-3 sessions using Tee and soft toss drills and 1 session on the cages to make sure the drills are translating to game speeds. I'd rather do front toss drills and live pitching drills where they can use a more natural timing mechanism to swing than machine pitch. With my fastpitch college team, we use a Hack Attack pitching machine to prepare for games based on pitchers’ scouting reports besides to sharpen skills with different drills tailored to specific team goals. We use tees, soft toss, front toss, machine pitch and live BPs to work on drills to develop skills to use in the game. Machine pitch drills should be limited to the developmental needs of players because too much of it and a player might get out of sync or hurt.
Players, coaches and parents who despite their best intentions, spend time doing general batting drills without the purpose of correcting, learning and understanding something specific that will translate to a game skill are going to be stuck in a frustrating pattern of very slow improvement at best, and at worst, are wasting time, energy and money creating bad habits. Going to the batting cages to let young players “figure it out” when they hardly can swing correctly on a tee, will result in more bad than good. There is no argument that to improve your swing you should use machine-pitched balls as an instructional and practice tool with the caveat that being good in the control environment of a batting cage might mean little once you step in the chaotic environment of a batter’s box.
SAMPLE PRACTICE PLAN FOR THE BATTING CAGES:
Level: middle to advance Time: 20-30 minutes
Stretch and Warm up (5 minutes)
Round 1 (10-15 pitches, machine speed: low, pitch height: middle)
Lead Hand Swings (5-8 swings): From load position stride to launch position, swing with your lead hand using a short bat or choke 5-7” on your bat. If you need to stabilize the angle of your bat, rest your bat on your back shoulder keeping the knob towards the “catcher” and start at launch position. Level your swing with your front elbow trying to control the barrel approach/attack angle at 10-15 degrees in relationship to the ground. Keep your head and chest on the contact area. Focus: Strengthening lead hand, control the rotation of a “level” swing path
Top Hand Swings (5-8 swings): From load position stride to launch position, swing with your top hand using a short bat or choke 8-10” on your bat. If you need to stabilize the angle of your bat, rest your bat on your back shoulder keeping the knob towards the “catcher” and start at launch position. Your back elbow should be at the height of your regular swing keeping your scapula loaded. (There’s no point of doing a drill that won’t incorporate your regular movements) Level your swing path with your back shoulder trying to control the barrel approach/attack angle at 10-15 degrees in relationship to the ground. Finish your extension towards the head of the “pitcher”. Focus: Strengthening top hand, control extension through a “level” swing path.
Round 2 (10-15 pitches, machine speed: medium, pitch height: middle)
45 degrees hip and barrel turns (5-8 swings): Place your feet on a 45-degree open stance. “Sit down” and load/coil the hip as deep as you can with the front shoulder pointing towards the “pitcher”. DO NOT WRAP FRONT SHOULDER. Swing using the hip and shoulders through the pitch plane without moving your feet, hit the ball towards center field. Focus: hip coiling/loading, keep hands loaded/behind hip rotation, swing sequence, keep front shoulder and both eyes towards the pitcher.
Split Grip extension swings (5-8 swings): Hold your bat using a split grip (lead hand at regular position and top 8-10” above), knob towards “catcher”. Swing through extension using your hip and legs to push through contact. Focus: wide and balanced stride distance, transfer of power from back to front, stay behind and through the ball when swinging.
Round 3 (1 -2 sets of 10-15 pitches, machine speed: regular game speed pitch height: middle)
1 Bunt 1 Swing: With a machine set at a comfortable game speed, alternate a bunt and a swing. Focus: tracking, contact, and timing
Round 4 (1-2 sets 10-15 pitches, machine speed: at top game speed, pitch height: low at the first/further plate)
3 Plate Swings: Take 1st swing at the first “plate” furthest distance from the machine, take 2nd swing at second “plate”4-6’ closer to the machine than previous swing, take 3rd swing at the third “plate” 4-6’ closer than last swing, take 4th swing on the second “plate”, take 5th at the first “plate” and repeat progression 2-3 times. Focus: mimicking game variability of speed and location, timing, contact, increase hand and barrel speed,
Round 5 (10-15 pitches, machine speed: optional, pitch height: optional)
Feel Good Swings: adjust machine speed and height to your favorite setting and crush the ball. Focus: build confidence
Comments