Softball Hitting Tip for Low Ball - Stick Your Nose in There

Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog

Late last week I got an email from a parent asking me if I could help his daughter with her softball hitting. He told me she’s been struggling with the low pitch. Sure, I said, and arranged a time to get together.

His daughter is very tall – at least six feet tall, and she just graduated eighth grade – so I had a pretty good idea of what was likely happening.

On the appointed day we got together, I set up a tee about knee high and had her swing. She proceeded to take several swings, all of which weakly went on the ground to the backstop, and I had her stop.

The problem she had, which many girls of all sizes have, is she was pulling her head and shoulders up as she would swing – essentially standing up as she got to contact. She was also dropping her hands pretty far down to reach the ball, essentially winding up with very little bat angle, i.e. it was pretty close to parallel to the ground despite the ball being low.

I told her what I saw, then suggested she try something different. I told her to try keeping her hands closer to her shoulder as she turned, and take her back shoulder forward then down. But the key phrase that really made it work for her was “stick your nose in there.” In other words, instead of standing tall and reaching down, bring your head (and eyes) closer to the ball, lean in, and swing from there.

Suddenly what had been weak ground balls off the tee started turning into line drives. It was a quick turnaround. She had a better bat angle, was seeing the ball better and driving it.

From the tee we went to soft toss from the side. She was still hitting the low pitches hard, but was now having a little more trouble with the higher ones, getting under them too much. That was an easy correction too, though. By the end of our session she was hitting the ball hard.

It’s going to more than one session to really get it to lock in. But it was a good start. If you know a hitter who is struggling with the low pitch, try telling her to stick her nose in there as the ball comes in. It just may help.