Mental block?

My DD recently had a bad experience at a college showcase tournament where her coach who she just met said she was "out of her league" without seeing her play, and only let her play 5 innings out of the 7 games they played. She got nervous when she finally got playing time, and didn't do her best at the plate. She is normally a very good hitter--she had the 5th highest average in her high school league. Since that tournament though, she can't hit even the slowest pitchers. I try to encourage her, and take her to the batting cages. She hits all line drives in the cage, but completely loses it against live pitching. Her swing looks the same, but something isn't right. How can I help her overcome her mental block and help her hit again?

what I do when my daughter is in a slump #1 is use a batting tee and have her take the swing but stop before contact with the ball, put the focus on watching the ball, after a round of 30 swings I let her go all the way through with contact. The other thing I do is in a game I have her bunt for a couple of innings to focus on the ball and watch it come in. It seems to help her find her stroke again.

Hitting again is less important than learning the lesson of not letting others, especially jerks, define her. She will face this sort of thing in other areas her whole life from time to time. This is an opportunity to help her see this sort of thing from another point of view.

This is a tough situation but certainly not uncommon. I will offer my two cents and let you do what you want with it.

Sounds very much like she is over-thinking at the plate. You said she is ripping it in the cage but isn't hitting against live pitching with what you see as pretty much the same swing. To me, that says she is thinking way too much about the outcome. It's like hitting balls on the driving range versus on the course. Hit a bad one on the range, no problem, I'll just pull another ball over from the bucket and hit it again.

Same thing in the cage. The outcome or results don't matter because there's really nothing riding on it. Bad swing, swing and miss, oh well...here comes another ball.

So a couple of suggestions:

1. In the cage, have something riding on her swings. Challenge her to pull one, go oppo with another, hit a certain part of the cage, something that puts a little bit of pressure on her and makes each swing count.

2. Help her change her definition of a positive outcome for a while. Instead of making success a base hit, or a hard-hit ball, see if you can help her change it to making good, aggressive swings while she's at bat. Whatever happens, happens.

Good luck with whatever you end up doing.

I have found that one of the best ways to restore a hitters confidence is to have them bunt. Even a slumping offensive player should be able to put one in play 90% of the time and it forces them to watch the ball into contact which will help them when they aren't bunting the next time.

Mental problems aren't as easy to fix as physical problems. You must now form a strategy for your daughter. One that is of support and one that she buys into. My daughter went to a college camp a couple of years ago. One of the coaches wanted to talk to the girl my dd was playing catch with and so, replaced that girl with a very young girl. The first throw my dd made hit that girl. So, the coach yelled at my dd. My dd then couldn't hit a barn playing catch. We developed a strategy for her to fall back on. Now, we don't worry about it at all. Recently she was in tryouts with some 80 girls. She was chucking that ball around using that strategy and I was just laughing.

Some ideas, some routine that she does on deck to mentally prepare her. For example, practicing hitting the up ball, gut shot ball and low and away in a routine. Thus not thinking about anything else. My DD sings songs but she's always done that. She is as loose as can be when she enters the box. Then, watch out. You can tell when she's through singing.

I don't know your daughter. I do know mental health. You have to be very careful on how you approach this. You can become the problem. I wish you luck.