THE ULTIMATE
It is officially my last blog past for Genius Hour. When we first started this project, I thought I needed to work on hitting the outside pitch the most. It actually ended up being that I needed to work on hitting the inside pitch the most. I did not find this out till my mentor started pitching live to me in the hitting cage and he pitched me inside and he told me I was doing it completely wrong and was not getting around quick enough. That was a big problem in my project, because I kind of had to change my project and what I was talking about in each blog post.
At first I did not want to do this project honestly, but I ended up liking it and learned this would help me for my up coming season in softball. Another thing I struggled with is I normally go hit every Tuesday but some weeks it was hard to go or something came up and I could not make time to go. So the next week I would have to both Tuesday and Wednesday to get 2 weeks in. This project also helped me not only with time management but also hitting. I worked really hard on this project. It really payed off working that hard. Now I know how to hit the inside and outside pitch very well. This spring season starts our softball season. It will be good because I practiced hitting the inside pitch against faster pitching so I know I will be able to hit the inside pitch off a faster pitcher. That also goes for hitting the outside pitch.
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It is really hard to believe that there is only one more week left working on hitting. I feel like I have really worked hard to be where I am now. I came into this project and I was going to be working on the outside pitch which it did not take long for me to get the outside pitch mastered and how to hit it. I learn I struggled with the outside pitch more then the outside pitch and have been working on that a lot recently.
My previous week when I came to hit I did really well. Last week my mentor started throwing to me harder because he said I needed to get use to faster. That is what I will see in high school softball which is coming up this spring. He wanted to get me ready because like I said in previously weeks when you get older the pitchers get better and they are able to pitch you inside and outside. You will rarely see a pitch right down the middle which is the best pitch to hit. This week I did the same stuff, started hitting off the tee. Then I got to hitting like regular just him pitching to me in the cage. He continued to thrown me inside pitches and throw them harder like how the pitchers I will face in high school. He said the way I was hitting the inside pitches was excellent, just I need to keep working on it to keep it where I am hitting the inside pitch well, so then I do not get bad habits from not doing anything at all. It is week 10 now. There is only 2 more weeks left to fully have hitting the inside and outside pitch properly the way I want too. Last week I was really struggling with the inside pitch. I worked really hard with my time off. I want to be able to hit the inside and outside pitch like I am suppose too.
So I got into the hitting cage today just like normal we started hitting off the tee. He then started soft tossing to me I did really well with this. I knew I would do good when he pitched to me live. This is literally all I have done is work on this so much to fully get this swing down. He said I needed to get my hands around a little quicker because when I face a faster pitcher it will go where it is suppose to go. He started to pitch to me live faster then usual. He was pitching only inside. He said he would be pitching to me faster to see how I reacted to the faster pitch because he said that is what I will be going against in high school. It was like 5 to 10 mph faster which I hit it well and he thought I hit good too. You will be able to see me hitting the inside pitch in my videos posted. So last week I really struggled with hitting the inside pitch. I went home and practiced a lot so hopefully when I go and hit I will being doing it right. I wasn't getting my hands around fast enough and I was working on that with my dad pitching to me. I was ready to go hit with my instructor to show him what I had done this week and how long I have come along.
I got there and told him I had worked all week with my dad on the inside pitch. He sat up the tee just for me to warm up. He then started pitching to me. He threw outside which I hit really well then he pitched down the middle which is the easiest pitch to hit so I did well on that. He then started to throw inside, he just wanted to see how I did hitting it. Within the first couple of pitches he noticed a big difference. He said I was getting my hands around pretty quick but not quick enough. I was hitting them to the left side of the net which was good but he said he wanted me to hit more in the center like up the middle. He said because I will face a faster pitcher and hitting it in the center will help me prepare for a more faster pitcher. He said next week he will throw to me a little faster and see how well I do with that. It is now week 8 of my project. This week I was pretty stressed out about going to hit. I was stressed out because I feel like I am not where I am suppose to be, we only have a couple more weeks left. I really have my swing perfected.
When I went to hit I told my hitting instructor that I only had 3 more weeks of coming to hit and I asked what he thought about my new swing. He said he thought I have done really well but I could perfect it a little better. The inside is what I was struggling with the most right now. He said he would set up the tee then he would pitch to me. I got done hitting off the tee. Last week I struggled with him pitching to me live inside and he taught me this new swing that I was going to work on. He started to pitch to me throwing all inside. Inside is really difficult because you have to have quick hands and get your hands quick enough to the ball. That is what I struggled with I was always a little late, but at home I had been working on getting my hands around quick enough. I was hitting well and getting around pretty fast, he said he saw a lot of improvement. It is week 7. I am getting closer and closer to having my final swing figured out. I got there today and told my hitting coach that I only have a couple more weeks and I really need to work hard to get to the point I want to be at. He said I was doing good and I was on the right track and would have everything figured out by the end of the 12 weeks.
Today we started out doing our usual thing, after we got done talking about where I was at 7 weeks. We started hitting off the tee, we sat the tee up inside because that is what I was struggling with in the previous weeks. I thought I really needed to work on the outside pitch but I seemed to finally get the hang of that. He wanted to remind me to keep my arms and hands inside to hit the inside pitch where it is suppose to go. In the videos I have posted you will be able to see how it is suppose to look. It is sorta hard to describe in words. I did what he told me to do, and it was going where it was suppose to go, either to the left side of the field or up the middle. After I got done hitting off the tee, he started pitching to me live. This time he only threw me inside pitches. I thought I was going to hit really bad. At first I did not do that great but he made me stop and came to talk to me and show me what I needed to be doing and how my hands needed to be. He then went back to pitch to me and I started doing really good. Just him telling me how to keep my hands made me do way better then when I first started hitting. He said next week I would be getting inside and outside pitches random and see how I would adjust to each pitch. I did really well with the inside pitch this week. I am officially half way through of making my goal. I have been working really hard to get where I am. I am pretty close to officially meeting my goal. I went to my hitting coach, Spencer this week. When I got there we first started talking about where I needed to be for this project. He told me he has though I have really been working hard, but he knows I can become even better at doing it.
Today instead we started off with a soft toss drill. Normally I start doing a warm up hitting off a tee but he said soft toss would help me a little more. He threw me some outside and I hit those where they are supposed to go. Then after he threw me some outside he said I should still work on inside pitches too. I hit an inside pitch well too. He said I was doing really good at both pitches so we should start doing some live pitches to see if I still do well at this. So he started to pitch to me, he first threw me down the middle. When you start playing in high school you stop seeing a pitch thrown right down the middle. The pitchers are more consistent and really know how to place the ball. That is why I need to know how to hit the inside and outside pitch just as well as one right down the middle. He then threw me outside, I did really well at hitting an outside pitch. This was really the best I have done in the whole 6 weeks. So he said we can move onto an inside pitch. The inside pitch I struggled with, I could not get the bat around fast enough to hit it. He said I am not going to learn this right away so next week I am going to work on it. I have 6 more weeks to completely learn how to hit the inside and outside pitch. I know I will have it done by the end of these 12 weeks. This is my fifth week of going to hit. I am about half way through of making my goal. My goal was to become a more accurate hitter and be able to place the ball where ever I was told to. I am also suppose to be able to hit an inside and outside pitch where it is suppose to go. An inside pitch is suppose to go to the left or center of the field. An outside pitch is suppose to go to the right side or center of the field. I have mentioned that in the previous blogs.
So when I went to see my mentor he told we would just be hitting off the tee and moving the tee from inside to outside then just a pitch down the middle. Obviously a pitch right down the middle is the easiest pitch to hit and when you get to high school you are hitting against really great pitchers. They are not going to throw the ball right down the middle, that is why this project is so important to learn. The pitch will almost all the time be an inside pitch or an outside pitch. We started working on the tee drill, it was really easy. I kept my hands and arms inside to hit the inside pitch. Then when we moved the tee for an outside pitch I kept my hands extended and hit the ball to the right side. If you do not keep your hands and arms extended to hit an outside pitch and try and pull it to the left side of the field, then it will be an awful hit. You will have no power if you try and pull an outside pitch. This is my 4th week of going to hit. This previous week all I have been doing is practicing in my back yard working on this this new swing. I really want to show him how much I have improved sense the last time I came to him to hit. I went yesterday to my hitting instructor. We first started our typical dills that we do. He told me he had already saw a big change in my swing. Working everyday on this all last week really payed off.
He had the tee set up like an outside pitch because that is the main pitch I am working on hitting. I messed up a few times on hitting the outside pitch where it is suppose to go, it is suppose to go up and to the right side of the field. I would hit it on the left side which is not good because you lose all your power hitting an outside pitch to the left side of the field. It is basically an out every time. The ball is not hit hard at all because you are trying to pull it to the wrong side of the field. He told me to keep my hands inside the ball. This helped me out a lot and I hit it where I was suppose to. After I got done with my tee drill he started soft tossing the ball to me. He said tee work and soft toss was the only thing we were going to do this week because I really need to know how to keep my hands inside the ball to hit the outside pitch where it is suppose to go. He said there was no point in hitting live pitching if I couldn't have the swing down. He said this would take me back to doing my normal bad habit of trying to pull an outside pitch. He said simply doing a drill this easy will help me when he does do live pitching. He said if I can master where to place the ball doing soft toss then I should have no problem when hitting the pitch live. I just have to keep my swing and hands the exact same as if I were hitting off the tee or him just simply throwing up balls for me to hit. Well it is my third week going to hit and try out my new swing. This whole week I really have been practicing what Spencer had told me to do the previous weeks. I thought at this lesson I would really show him how I improved. We started out with the typical thing hitting off the tee, just to get me warmed up. When I started hitting off the tee he said it looked like I was kind of getting the hang out of it.
So then we started to hit around 2 buckets of balls off the tee, then he started just tossing the ball up to me. He did this to see if I kept my swing the same when I was not hitting off the tee. He said I still was doing pretty good with it. He then started pitching from where he normally pitches from. So I started doing more live hitting. He watched me hit several times without saying anything. He then started calling out places he wanted me to hit it too. This was one of the hardest things, I could not hit the ball where he was telling me to place it because I went back to doing my old swing. This was making me very aggravated. This was definitely something that was very hard to me, I knew this would be something I struggled with. My lessons are only 30 minute lessons with him so he said I needed to work on this at home and just see a target and try and adjust my hands to hit in that direction. He wanted me to try and aim for that certain object or target I was trying to hit, So that is what I plan on practicing this week at home. I think the biggest thing about this new swing that is the hardest thing is adjusting your hands to make the ball go in the right direction. I definitely struggle with this. I am hoping though I will be able to place the ball where he wants me too in a few weeks. |
AuthorI'm Shea Woody. This is my genius hour project. This is a 12 week project. Over these next 12 weeks I will be developing a new swing. This new swing will make me a better hitter. I will be uploading videos of me going to hit each week.
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