Posted by: Ken Haubiel (kennyha@aol.com) on Tue Feb 3 04:58:39 2004

I am a coach of a traveling 13 year old team and we have differing opinions on the use of batting Ts and speed of the pitching machine. A couple coaches want to set the pitching machine at 80 MPH and force kids to learn to hit it. While a few can, I believe it forces them to cheat, knowing the pitch will come to the same place at the same speed everytime, they start their swings early and hit it. I think this hurts them in games where no 13 year old will see an 80 mph fastball, and pitches come at different speeds and in different locations. While I think that throwing harder can help develop quicker hands, is this the best use of our time? Also, shouldn't a swing be perfected through repetition, such as off a T or at slower speeds, before we speed them up. This pitching machine was set at 80 at the second practice in January, in the gym.