Chloe 8u Hitting Help

[stox]

Hello DFP,

My daughter Chloe just finished up her first season of summer all stars and wanted to get some more eyes on her swing.

She has no problem with putting the ball into play on coach pitch but seems to often hit the ball off the end of her bat. It looks like she's not extending properly through contact. Also looks like she's bringing the bat around the body so it leaves the zone quickly and leads to these mishits.

Any advice would be appreciated. I'm just a new dad without any baseball/softball experience but I wanted to get my DD on the right track regarding swing mechanics.





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[Towny9]

It’s not a bad swing for her age at all. It is void of a lot of the common hitting flaws I usually see in kids her age. I wouldn’t worry to much about making any major changes.

What I would do is tell her to swing hard, take a hack, and let it rip. Praise her when she does this. Especially on swings that have a bad result. At her age you have a short period to build intent into her swing. Intent to do damage. I tell kids her age that “hit” is not a nice word. Usually you get in trouble when you hit something. So many kids her age that are over coached have this intent drilled out of them.

 

[stox]

Thanks for the advice! I try hard not to overcoach her too much, but she's 6yo playing up with the 8u girls and was upset with grounding out a lot during all stars. Combine that with being small for her age as well so she really can only muscle a 27/14 bat without mechanics falling apart.

When I do tell her to hit hard I think she just rotates her body around too quickly, making the problem I describe worse, then it hits off the end of the 14oz bat and puts a lot of sting on her hands.

She has really good control of her gross motor skills for her age and can translate instructions to body movements quickly. I'm just having a tough time identifying the source of this current problem.

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[Towny9]

Thanks for the advice! I try hard not to overcoach her too much, but she's 6yo playing up with the 8u girls and was upset with grounding out a lot during all stars. Combine that with being small for her age as well so she really can only muscle a 27/14 bat without mechanics falling apart.

When I do tell her to hit hard I think she just rotates her body around too quickly, making the problem I describe worse, then it hits off the end of the 14oz bat and puts a lot of sting on her hands.

She has really good control of her gross motor skills for her age and can translate instructions to body movements quickly. I'm just having a tough time identifying the source of this current problem.

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She is spinning off the ball some on those 2 swings and running out of bat. At her age though you will probably do more harm than good trying to fix it IMO. I would hit wiffle balls and tennis balls so she doesn’t get the hand stinging. Kids also like the way tennis balls jump off the bat. Go to a field with a fence and get close enough so she can hit it over. Encourage her to hit it over the fence. She will figure out how to do that given the goal. Once she does backup a little.

 

[CoachCeetar]

I've got no credentials, so grain of salt, but she looks just so far away here. Like she's consciously trying to hit it with the barrel instead of just whipping the hands through. or "spinning off" as Towny9 said, that sounds like what I mean.

it'll sting less when she hits the sweet spot, and builds up speed/strength. I agree about the more harm than good trying to "fix" it.

Maybe just stand half a step closer to the plate? Did you notice that the better hits were inside pitches?

 

[_MIA_]

That’s a lot better than my DD’s swing when she was 6…on second thought that isn’t very helpful forget I said it

I agree with @Towny..just let her hit.

 

[Rolling Hard]

She is already on the right track.

 

[stox]

Thanks everyone! This is helpful. I'll spend some time having her hit wiffle and tennis balls.

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