top of page
Writer's pictureBrandon Matthews

Success Spotlight: Youth Softball Hitter

This is a summary of the transformation for a youth softball hitter:


In the pretest the hitter showed an ability to hit the ball hard but lacked consistency. At 61 mph exit velocity and 182 feet, the max scores were above average for the age group; however, there was a lot of inconsistency. Only averaging 46 mph and 59 feet of distance would not translate to successful game hitting.


Exit Velocity & Launch Angle Before


Since the hitter has the ability to hit the ball 60+ mph we would want to examine the hard hit balls (50+ mph) in a certain launch angle bucket. At a 10-30 degree launch angle, hitters find the most successful batted ball outcomes. We want our hard hit balls to maximize in this bucket.


In the pretest, the hitter hit a large amount of "mishits" in this bucket. Exit speeds were below 50 mph and consisted of a lot of missed fly balls and even worse, poorly hit dribblers in front of the plate.


Spray Chart Before




As you can see in the spray chart, this hitter was struggling to pull the ball hard into the air.


This is common among young hitters. They usually have poor swing direction and try pull the ball with more horizontal direction (opening of the front side) and a flat bat path that cuts across the zone - creating rollover ground balls.


GROWTH AND PROGRESS




After deliberate training and some adjustments, the hitter is now maximizing hard ball contact. The 10-30 degree launch angle bucket is in the 50+ mph range. These are no longer mishits, but well hit line drives and fly balls as indicated by the spray chart and hit classification graph.






I look forward to seeing this hitter hit her first home run sooner than later!


22 views0 comments

Comments


bottom of page