Hitting Fast Pitchers

Question
Hi.  This is my first year coaching fast-pitch high school softball.  I have a baseball background.  My girls have been working so hard and tonight faced a very fast pitcher.  We had one hit.  What can I do to prepare them for fast pitchers?  I noticed they were all up in the box and they explained to me it was to take away the pitcher's movement on the ball.  But in baseball if you are facing a flame-thrower you should sit on the fastball and adjust to the breaking balls, NOT move up in the box.

Answer
I agree if the batter can抰 catch up to the pitchers speed - moving up in the box certainly isn抰 going to help. I would only recommend standing slightly back from the center of the batters box if the batter is struggling with hitting the speed. Standing too far in the back of the box makes it more likely for the batter to hit foul balls (of course this may be better than not hitting anything).

There isn't much you can do once the game is on. It's better to work in practice on bat speed, reaction time, and/or working on short game techniques like slapping and bunting. With the shorter base distances vs baseball, good things happen when you can put the ball in play.