looking for advice on how to keep positive

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

obbay

Banned
Aug 21, 2008
2,199
0
Boston, MA
Each year I get to see everyone on the team get a little better, while DD seems to get a little worse.

DD is in her junior year of HS, 3rd year as a varsity starter. started out good (batting over .500) but each year has been successively worse. this year after 10 games she's at .206 which is about .250 below last year which was .100+ below the year before. she has struck out more times (3) in these 10 games than she had in the last two seasons, combined.

Freshman year she was the #2 pitcher behind a senior . sophomore year introduced another pitcher into the mix who didn't throw hard, didn't try hard but somehow batters couldn't hit well off her. she edged out DD as THE pitcher (even though she had no desire to-the kid is very nice and supportive of DD) because for reasons no one could figure out, she wasn't getting hit and when she did, they didn't hit her hard. If a kid ever had an Angel watching over her, it's this kid!

DD practices pitching and hitting year round and the other pitcher doesn't touch a softball unless she has to. the other pitcher is no bigger than DD so it's not like she's bigger and stronger. with one of the worst (DBSF) swings on the team, she is probably leading the team in hitting, too. most hits are just hard enough to avoid the outstretched reach of an infielder.

this year DD had some mystery injury/illness (Costochondritis) that started about a month before preseason started. she was unable to practice, play or pitch in the preseason and had to ease back into it. first two games as DH she went 4 for 6 since then its been 3 for 28. There is a drama faction on the team that is loving this, which only makes it worse.

she is feeling better, good enough to play and defensively she's playing well. She pitched a few innings and did well and then pitched a full 7, 2-hit, "almost shutout" (but it was an easy team).

Now that we are halfway thru the season, I expect she will drop down to the lower half of the order and only get to pitch in the easy games.

I know she is trying to keep a strong face, but it's killing her inside. she has been one of the two best players on the team for the past two seasons, and now ....

the only way I can help her out of the hole is to stand back and support her, but I don't want to lie to her either.

any advice/recommendations you can offer is appreciated- thanks!
 
Dec 5, 2012
4,143
63
Mid West
It sounds as if her hitting mechanics have changed... Plus there is the mental factor of it all, she's too stressed to succeed rather than playing fun and loose. As a freshman she was a stud, and now she's trailing off...its like quicksand, the harder she fights the deeper she sinks.
Control what you can control! Stop comparing her to the others. Let her exhale and relax. Visualize success. Talk about what she will do, and not what she's not going to do.
I will stay positive. I will be supportive of my teammates. I will only swing at quality pitches. I will maximize my spin rates when on the rubber. I will ..........etc
Never allow her to think about what she wont do...that's poison, it puts her mind in a negative place.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Each year I get to see everyone on the team get a little better, while DD seems to get a little worse.

DD is in her junior year of HS, 3rd year as a varsity starter. started out good (batting over .500) but each year has been successively worse. this year after 10 games she's at .206 which is about .250 below last year which was .100+ below the year before. she has struck out more times (3) in these 10 games than she had in the last two seasons, combined.

Freshman year she was the #2 pitcher behind a senior . sophomore year introduced another pitcher into the mix who didn't throw hard, didn't try hard but somehow batters couldn't hit well off her. she edged out DD as THE pitcher (even though she had no desire to-the kid is very nice and supportive of DD) because for reasons no one could figure out, she wasn't getting hit and when she did, they didn't hit her hard. If a kid ever had an Angel watching over her, it's this kid!

DD practices pitching and hitting year round and the other pitcher doesn't touch a softball unless she has to. the other pitcher is no bigger than DD so it's not like she's bigger and stronger. with one of the worst (DBSF) swings on the team, she is probably leading the team in hitting, too. most hits are just hard enough to avoid the outstretched reach of an infielder.

this year DD had some mystery injury/illness (Costochondritis) that started about a month before preseason started. she was unable to practice, play or pitch in the preseason and had to ease back into it. first two games as DH she went 4 for 6 since then its been 3 for 28. There is a drama faction on the team that is loving this, which only makes it worse.

she is feeling better, good enough to play and defensively she's playing well. She pitched a few innings and did well and then pitched a full 7, 2-hit, "almost shutout" (but it was an easy team).

Now that we are halfway thru the season, I expect she will drop down to the lower half of the order and only get to pitch in the easy games.

I know she is trying to keep a strong face, but it's killing her inside. she has been one of the two best players on the team for the past two seasons, and now ....

the only way I can help her out of the hole is to stand back and support her, but I don't want to lie to her either.

any advice/recommendations you can offer is appreciated- thanks!

Do you have video of her swings from the past 3 years? If so maybe you can post them in one of the hitting forums if you want. It may help ease some of the stress (for both of you) if you (and her) are able to pinpoint a
problem and then focus on working on that.
 
Last edited:
Aug 19, 2015
1,118
113
Atlanta, GA
Has she had a growth spurt? Increases in height and weight can throw off equilibrium. Maybe consider changing hitting/pitching coach to shake up the system a bit. Sometimes even those coaches get complacent and a fresh set of eyes could be helpful. Even just a couple of lessons with someone new as a second opinion...
 

obbay

Banned
Aug 21, 2008
2,199
0
Boston, MA
there is the mental factor of it all, she's too stressed to succeed rather than playing fun and loose. As a freshman she was a stud, and now she's trailing off...its like quicksand, the harder she fights the deeper she sinks.
Bingo! her mechanics haven't really changed, in fact they may have improved. I see there is too much thinking going on. she is scrambled eggs upstairs, but there is nothing I can do, she needs to figure it out or get coached from somewhere else- and I'm ok with that, just trying to help blow her in the right direction so she can figure it out.

Her hitting coach nailed it when she said " we always teach swing mechanics and getting the components of the swing right, but we don't actually teach how to hit and right now that's what she needs to do."

Stop comparing her to the other pitcher. It does you no good to do so. And it isn't helping your dds improvement.
Excellent advice! I included the comparison only because it is part of the mental game that's in her head. I don't compare their success in her presence, But I will make sure NOT to going forward. she is constantly aware that she is playing 2nd to a kid that absolutely doesn't work at all and has zero passion for the game. she has told me many times of her frustration with the situation. my response to DD has been basically that life isn't fair and to play your own game, have fun doing it and be the best that you can be.
 
Last edited:
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Bingo! her mechanics haven't really changed, in fact they may have improved. I see there is too much thinking going on. she is scrambled eggs upstairs, but there is nothing I can do, she needs to figure it out or get coached from somewhere else- and I'm ok with that, just trying to help blow her in the right direction so she can figure it out.

Her hitting coach nailed it when she said " we always teach swing mechanics and getting the components of the swing right, but we don't actually teach how to hit and right now that's what she needs to do."

So is she not swinging at good pitches? Swinging at too many bad pitches? If it is an approach problem (e.g. mental) then this too should be obvious from her ABs just as bad mechanics are. I mean
not many people don't hit if their mechanics are good and they are swinging at good pitches...
 

obbay

Banned
Aug 21, 2008
2,199
0
Boston, MA
So is she not swinging at good pitches? Swinging at too many bad pitches? If it is an approach problem (e.g. mental) then this too should be obvious from her ABs just as bad mechanics are.

her pitch selection is pretty good, though this year I have seen her chasing a bad pitch on more than 1 occasion. She went from hitting it on the screws to getting under it. no change in mechanics other than actual point of contact. then that leads to other things.

her hitting problem is 99+% mental. she sees a pitch, she knows how to hit it and where to hit it and then she also is aware of the football coach at 3B yelling at her for taking a strike and she's thinking she needs to get out of this slump (we never refer to a "slump" but I guarantee you its in her head) and she's thinking of all the players on her team with terrible swings that are all hitting better than her and laughing about it, etc. (Her "team" is not a team-but that's another story...)

her AB's have been getting better, though the base hits don't show it.
 
Last edited:
Mar 1, 2016
195
18
Told my DD earlier this season (when her average was second worst on the team) that I don't care what her average is as long as she hits the ball hard and helps her team score. She wound up finishing the season first in avg, OPS, slg %, xtra base hits, and HBP, as well as second in BB and RBI. There was too much pressure on her early in the season, so I took it away with my comment, and she thrived. Also, she stopped worrying about where to hit the ball or what pitch to look for or what to do on a certain count - too much thinking. Yogi Berra said, "You can't think and hit at the same time."

As far as pitching goes, I can't relate because my DD is a catcher. I can say this, though. She has been passed over in favor of someone with less talent and poor work ethic before, just like your DD has. All we can do at that point is excel at the secondary position. Better to be on the field playing a secondary position than not playing at all. Better to be in the bottom half of the batting order than sitting on the bench.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
her pitch selection is pretty good, though this year I have seen her chasing a bad pitch on more than 1 occasion. She went from hitting it on the screws to getting under it. no change in mechanics other than actual point of contact. then that leads to other things.

her hitting problem is 99+% mental. she sees a pitch, she knows how to hit it and where to hit it and then she also is aware of the football coach at 3B yelling at her for taking a strike and she's thinking she needs to get out of this slump (we never refer to a "slump" but I guarantee you its in her head) and she's thinking of all the players on her team with terrible swings that are all hitting better than her and laughing about it, etc. (Her "team" is not a team-but that's another story...)

her AB's have been getting better, though the base hits don't show it.

Not to be an rear, or to harp on the subject, but when you say her mechanics haven't changed do you actually have slow motion video evidence of this? It doesn't take much of a change to mess
up your hitting and sometimes the naked eye can't pick up the change. That said, if she is hitting the ball better lately than that is good. If true then her luck will change soon..
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,481
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top