Softball Hitting Tips - Is a Good Swing Good Enough?

Softball Hitting Tips - Is a Good Swing Good Enough?
By Marc Dagenais

A lot of softball players place a premium on good swinging that they start to think that it's the only aspect of hitting they need to do in order to become good hitters. However, nothing can be further from the truth than this.

The truth is that, good swinging mechanics is just a part of the entire equation. There are other things that you need to consider if you want to be a good hitter. And that's what we're going to discuss here in this article.

Tracking the Ball

First of all, you need to able to see where the ball is going. This ability is commonly referred to as tracking. To track the ball well means you should be able to see the ball's direction from the time it leaves the pitcher's hand to the time it reaches within your swinging reach.

Just like all skills, tracking is a skill that takes time to develop. At 70mph, the ball is quick enough that it leaves you just little time to react and trace its direction. That is why it's important that coaches should teach their players this skill through various drills.

One of the most common drills to develop tracking is called the Finger Flash. The good thing with this drill is that it doesn't need any equipment for players to perform. All they need to do is have a 'pitcher' who will quickly flash 1, 2, or 3 fingers from a distance, and the 'batter' would then call out the number of fingers that the pitcher flashed.

Making Split-Second Decisions at Bat

Another skill that a good hitter should have is knowing when NOT to hit the ball. There are times when hitting the ball would be too impossible that doing so would cause a strike while during other times, swinging the bat would constitute a ball, to name a few situations.

Pitchers will have a variety of pitches to throw at batters. The key here is for the batter to know whether to swing the bat or not. It may sound easy, but again, with fast balls, it would be pretty difficult to make split-second decisions.

It's therefore important for hitters to be able to approximate whether the ball is in or out of the strike zone. This skill could be developed through a number of drills that simulate pitches to particular zones. And, then, there's experience. As you go on playing the game, it will become much easier to make these decisions for yourself.

Of course, there's nothing that consistent practice can't remedy. As I said earlier, these skills take time to master. It may be a little more difficult to do these things now, but try to remember the time when you were just trying to learn the mechanics of hitting. It was difficult at first, but eventually you developed it into the good swing you have today.

Take the learning of new skills as a challenge. If you're out to compete with the best of the best, you should keep on developing your skills. And in this case, having a good swing is never enough. You should also train yourself to track the ball and make split-second decisions on whether to hit it or not. I hope you find these softball tips helpful and make them part of your regular training routine.

Marc Dagenais is a Softball Peak Performance Coach that helps softball players turn their athletic talent into extraordinary performances and help coaches get more out of their players, turn their struggling team around or get an edge over their opponents. Visit us to sign-up to get our FREE softball pitching tips!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Marc_Dagenais



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