Not pulling the ball often enough

Ronnie G

Ronnie G

Star Player
I have been playing ball since I was a kid, up through college, and switched over to softball at 22...for some reason my power alley is RC field, but sometimes I feel like it's all I do...I have plenty of power, and when I do turn on the ball I hit it out consistently, but I seem to just live in RC field...my buddies tell me I should pull the ball more often...

Does anyone else have this problem? is it really a problem since I hit the ball well?

Thanks for any serious input
 
Ronnie G

Ronnie G

Star Player
not at all, i see my teammates blasting balls to left center field consistently and i cant seem to turn on an underhand pitch nearly as much as i should and its annoying, and i wanna know if anyone else has that problem and what they did to fix it
 
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djh88stang

The Veteran
Thats basically the same thing as me. I dont really see it an issue as long as youre hitting it hard and getting on. If there are runners on you want to hit behind them anyhow so if its working why change anything?!
 
Ronnie G

Ronnie G

Star Player
djh88stang said:
Thats basically the same thing as me. I dont really see it an issue as long as youre hitting it hard and getting on. If there are runners on you want to hit behind them anyhow so if its working why change anything?!
Click to expand...

i try not to change much, but i still would like to be able to consistently hit from line to line

i dont know if its swinging at the wrong pitches, or anxiety, cause in BP i will hit it from line to line, but in the games, im all RC field.
 
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zuke 37

Star Player
WHEN IN DOUBT, HIT TO RIGHT....there is no problem hitting the right side...pulling the ball to left is little league mocho bull

when you hit to right: everyone on base advances 2 bases....the right fielder has to throw the ball all the way across the field
if you hit to left the leftfielder has a shorter throw to third then the shortstop has to first plus he is probably charging the ball

with men on base, if you hit to right, you don't even have to get a hit, but you will move the runners

remember when you ever played second base with a runner on second you never tried to get the guy going to third

i played with a team that if you forced out your lead runner at third by hitting to the third baseman you got a $25 fine

we would use the money to have at team party at the end of the season. we never collect any money but we could have made enough to send to team to disney world
 
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pontiacfb78

Star Player
Try hitting pitches that are slightly inside and high. I found that trying to hit these pitches made it inevitable that the ball is pulled hard to the left because you have to get the bat further around in your swing to make contact with the correct portion of the barrel.
 
lmob29

lmob29

swingn' hard just incase
Ronnie G said:
i try not to change much, but i still would like to be able to consistently hit from line to line

i dont know if its swinging at the wrong pitches, or anxiety, cause in BP i will hit it from line to line, but in the games, im all RC field.
Click to expand...

If you can do it during bp & not in games.....it's something upstairs!
:wacko:
 
Worm

Worm

<font color="#FF3030">I'm CrEePy & I'm CrAwLy</fon
Keep doing what you are doing. Pulling the ball is overrated unless you are a lefty.
 
Triple7

Triple7

Addicted to Softballfans
Why would you pull the ball to the better players on the field if you have power to RC. Hit it where they are not... Or where you can hit it on a line hard
 
fierce_gt

fierce_gt

Addicted to Softballfans
when I first started playing I was the same way. RC was 'pull' for me. I hit a lot more right down 1st base line than I ever did to the left of 2nd base. I'm a righty btw.

anyway, after a while I decided it wasn't 'right' and I should learn to pull the ball. can't say I did anything special, I just tried to pull the ball in BP, and learned how to do it. problem was I had 'change' my swing to do it, and then hitting oppo became difficult and weak for me. for about a year I had this issue and trust me, not being able to pull the ball is WAY better than not being able to go oppo.

it's like the fielders just assume you can, so you never see the kind of shifts as you do if you pull everything. not to mention that hitting the ball to RF is so much better than hitting to LF.

anyway, my advice would just to work on it a bit in BP, but don't make it your ultimate goal. make sure you don't lose the ability to hit oppo

if you can do it in BP, pay attention to the pitches. I know exactly what type of pitches I don't hit well, and when I'm thrown those in games it stops me from being able to place my shots. in BP I let them go most of the time, but in games they often get called strikes, so I can't let them go all the time. it's good to be a little picky in BP, but it could be that you're actually being TOO picky. it's easy to spray a ball that comes right down the middle. it's a lot harder to that with one that's hitting a corner
 
Ronnie G

Ronnie G

Star Player
fierce_gt said:
when I first started playing I was the same way. RC was 'pull' for me. I hit a lot more right down 1st base line than I ever did to the left of 2nd base. I'm a righty btw.

anyway, after a while I decided it wasn't 'right' and I should learn to pull the ball. can't say I did anything special, I just tried to pull the ball in BP, and learned how to do it. problem was I had 'change' my swing to do it, and then hitting oppo became difficult and weak for me. for about a year I had this issue and trust me, not being able to pull the ball is WAY better than not being able to go oppo.

it's like the fielders just assume you can, so you never see the kind of shifts as you do if you pull everything. not to mention that hitting the ball to RF is so much better than hitting to LF.

anyway, my advice would just to work on it a bit in BP, but don't make it your ultimate goal. make sure you don't lose the ability to hit oppo

if you can do it in BP, pay attention to the pitches. I know exactly what type of pitches I don't hit well, and when I'm thrown those in games it stops me from being able to place my shots. in BP I let them go most of the time, but in games they often get called strikes, so I can't let them go all the time. it's good to be a little picky in BP, but it could be that you're actually being TOO picky. it's easy to spray a ball that comes right down the middle. it's a lot harder to that with one that's hitting a corner
Click to expand...

thanks. im thinking it could have a lot to do with pitch selection
 
edvedsfb

edvedsfb

Addicted to Softballfans
Ronnie G said:
i try not to change much, but i still would like to be able to consistently hit from line to line

i dont know if its swinging at the wrong pitches, or anxiety, cause in BP i will hit it from line to line, but in the games, im all RC field.
Click to expand...

I would be trying to hit gap to gap if I were you. When I first started playing softball I had a traditional baseball stance and it was open and I pulled everything. As we moved up in divisions I realized that teams found it pretty easy to shift and take away any holes I had b/c I basically could not hit it right of center. So now I stand more upright, I'm further from the plate, and I'm up further forward in the box. My power used to be LC to L, last week I hit 3 HRs, one to LF, one to C, and one to RC. I found that when I try to hit gap to gap I hit the ball much harder than I ever did pulling everything. I don't hit as many HRs as I once did but I get out much less too becasue everything is on a line.

If you hit the ball hard and get on base doing what you're doing, don't worry about changing a thing.
 
Superstar555

Superstar555

Addicted to Softballfans
The pitch location determines where I put it more than anything else.

Inside pitch? Pull it.
Outside pitch? Drive it up the middle.
 
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elan6148

Addicted to Softballfans
I am exactly the same way. All my power is to center or right center. When i try to pull the ball I cant. Funny thing is though when i do pull the ball (usually on accident) its gone almost every time. Just cant do it on purpose lol
 
phxraida15

phxraida15

Addicted to Softballfans
Why would you want to pull the ball when your a righty anyways?.. Pushing the ball is a better option...

I remember a tournament we played in last year... Bases loaded, down 2... LF had a hose... We had the first 2 guys come up and pull the ball, both popped up to left field... We only tagged up from third to home... The dude at 2nd couldn't tag up to head to 3rd... 3rd out was a pop out to shallow outfield... The dude in RF had a decent arm... Anyhow 2 pop flies to RF ties the game... If people are on base and you hit backside its the most productive hit or out you could make with people on base....
 
BAWags06

BAWags06

Addicted to Softballfans
Ronnie G said:
I have been playing ball since I was a kid, up through college, and switched over to softball at 22...for some reason my power alley is RC field, but sometimes I feel like it's all I do...I have plenty of power, and when I do turn on the ball I hit it out consistently, but I seem to just live in RC field...my buddies tell me I should pull the ball more often...

Does anyone else have this problem? is it really a problem since I hit the ball well?

Thanks for any serious input
Click to expand...

How old are you now?

It takes several years to become a well-rounded slow pitch hitter. I started playing slow pitch at 16 (34 now) and have learned to hit hard line to line, but I don't have a lot of home run power.

Over time, your approach e.g. stance, step, swing will look totally different than anything you ever did in baseball. And it should. The timing is totally different, and that just comes with doing it and going with where the ball is pitched. But work on it!... Take BP and try to pull every inside pitch.

If your natural power alley in slow pitch is Right Center, it's a built in advantage. But it really does take a few seasons to put it all together.
 
fierce_gt

fierce_gt

Addicted to Softballfans
zuke 37 said:
THERE IS NEVER NEVER NEVER ANY REASON TO PULL THE BALL (unless your left handed hitter)
Click to expand...

I like to pull the ball the first time I play against a team so that they think that's the way I want to go.

I find if my first 2 or 3 at bats I go oppo, teams will put a shift on me, and then I need to aim for the LC gap instead of RC. if I pull a ball my first at bat, they rarely shift on me, and I have the RC gap to hit at all day
 
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