Hitting Tips

Question
Hi,

Can you recommend a good hitting DVD that I could use with my daughter? She is 9 years old and was a really good hitter in coach pitch but she has been struggling this year in 10U girl pitch. She has very good hand eye coordination, but she struggles with the really fast pitches and does not put her body into the swing. She is swinging with her arms only and lately she's not been keeping her head down and eye on the pitch. I keep trying to tell her that she needs to put her hips into it as well. I would like to get her some hitting lessons, but she is already taking pitching lessons so I don't know that we can do both at the same time. Can you suggest a couple of good DVDs that show the proper mechanics as well as work on some drills to get her to use her body in the swing as well as improve her speed of the swing etc. With the faster pitchers, she isn't swinging soon enough so she will usually hit a foul ball to the right.

One of the parents from her team suggested getting my daughter a hit away that you attach to a pole. Would you recommend using this? Another parent on our team has a device called a Hurricane. She brought it one night for all of the girls to use at practice. All of my kids liked using it, but it was a lot more expensive, and I wasn't certain if it would be worth the price.

Answer
Hello LC,

I personally got a lot from some of Sue Enquist's videos. (former UCLA head coach)  She has produced several and you can go to her website to determine which one best suits your needs. You can find a list of her videos at the following link:

http://www.sueenquist.com/product/instructional_videos.html

I would also recommend a hitting video released by Ralph Weekly who Coaches the Tennessee Lady Vols along with his wife.  

Fastpitch Hitting & Circuit Drills with Ralph Weekly

Check Ebay and Amazon before purchasing them in a store and you'll probably find them cheaper.

I like the Hit-A-Ways.  It is a cheap way for her to work on her mechanics without any help.  I'm not familiar with the Hurricane so I want comment on it.  Let me know how your video study works out.

Coach Mike