Out By a Step?

I wanted to share a screen capture from last Summer's Elite Showcase held in Plano that I took from Right View Pro with one of our lefties. Kristin, per NFCA guidelines, is a sub 3.0 to 1B. What I mean by that is that from the RH batters box, when her foot lands on her first step it takes her about 2.95 seconds before she reaches 1B. For a HS Junior, this is very acceptable speed. So now let's take into consideration that when she plays the short game from the left side of the plate she is trying to gain an advantage and drastically reduce the 2.95 time. The first key is to build momentum with good Attack Posture and footwork to generate the potential for speed. The second key, and the one I see very under utilized even at the Gold level of amateur ball is to reduce the 60 foot run down to about a 58 foot run. Beginning lefties please understand that your pre-swing movement consists of A.) Drop Step and then B.) Cross Over Step. We don't want to take a cross over step from the back of the batters box to the front, it would be way too big and impossible. The goal is to land the back foot as close to the front of the batters box as possible. In our picture above, if Kristin is out by one step, then we can attribute being out by one step, to being too far back in the box at Cross Over.

The solution is very simple. You should stand in the same spot in the batters box if you play the short game whether you are going to swing away, bunt or slap. Begin in a position where you can reach the front of the batters box on your cross over step with the back foot. The cross over, if done properly, should see your back leg land in a position where you're on the ball of the foot, and the knee is forward of the ankle to create a good position to accelerate from on your back leg. By the way, the back leg is very important since it's the only foundation at the time of contact since the front (right) leg will actually be in the air at the time of contact on the better slappers/bunters.

In the coming weeks I'll be sharing a lot of information regarding the Left Side Speed Game.

Mark Mulvany

Coach@Fastpitchtrainer.com