What's a good tip for hitting opposite field in slowpitch softball?
I played baseball for years ever since I was 6 and through high school. I recently started a weekend softball team. I just recently got the timing down (I was used to 85 mph fast balls). I can hit great into left field, getting a hit pretty much everytime. The problem is we play the same teams every week and they know where I hit the ball. I have always been a pull hitter my whole life and I want to learn to hit opposite field effectively so in clutch situations, I can bring in the runs. I've always heard wait on the ball, but theres gotta be more to it than that, because I always end up fouling off or hitting one up in the stratosphere to the right fielder. Anyone?
Wow, I am not an expert in any way, but I will share what I do know.
I played league softball for 5 years when I was growing up. I take it from your description that you, like me, are a righty and bat that way as well. I had a hard time, too, because I was bigger than a lot of the girls I was playing with, and I could really whack the ball, but it always went deep into left field. The center fielder would move into left, and between the two of them, they usually managed to catch my ball neatly before it ever got close to the ground. I was really frustrated by it, and my coach taught me some tricks. It took me a while to get them down, but after I did, I was able to better control where I hit the ball with a few small adjustments.
One of the first things he taught me was to change where and how I stood in the batter's box. I know it's a small space, so we all tend to stand in the middle of it. He had me stand as far forward (toward the pitcher) and as far back (toward my back, so away from the first baseline) as possible, and also to angle my body slightly so I was tilted more toward first base than toward the pitcher's mound. It was an awkward stance, and I often sacrificed power for placement, but it seemed to work. My feet ended up on more of a diagonal line in the box than a straight line.
He also taught me to swing a little bit earlier. That was really hard, as it took me a long time to get my timing down so I could get a really good solid hit, and changing my timing ended up with a lot of fouls and strikes in practice. I never did master getting a good solid powerful hit, at least not as good a hit as a sweetie to left field, but again, it was a tradeoff between power and placement. I think if I had worked at it longer and harder, I would naturally have learned over time to transfer my power into the new stance and timing so I could get a really good deep field hit. Along with swinging a bit earlier, he had me drop my right elbow a little bit. I think that part was just to help a little with the timing.
The final thing he did, and the thing that helped me the most, was he had me practice hitting that way until I was ready to drop. Because of my size, my hitting was really important. We had entire practices where I did nothing but practice batting. He had me stand facing a batter's cage, and my best friend stood off the side and tossed balls to me. My goal was to hit the ball so it hit the cage right between the center and the right edge of the back panel. He actually put pieces of paper up for me to hit. Learning to hit the ball there equated to me hitting considerably right of center, but not so far right that it went to the right fielder.
The great thing about the techniques he taught me was that I could choose to place the ball depending on the situation. I was not the best player by any means, but I did have a reputation for hitting deep into left field, and the center fielder would move left quite a bit to help cover there. That left a big hole out in the right part of center field, and that was my target area.
I am not the worlds greatest softball player by any means, but I still hope this will help you in some way
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