Fear of hit by pitch

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Feb 15, 2017
391
43
When coaching my younger girls going from coach pitch to kid pitch I talked to them about it. Talked to them about turning the correct direction and hopefully how to recognize it and get out of the way. Lastly, I did toss some whiffle balls at them....hard enough to let them know they got hit, but not enough to make any lasting impressions.

Exactly. We teach them how to get hit on the meat of the body with light flights. Lined them up and go through the line several times over several practices. Some will be strikes, some not. Seems like that got a bunch of them over the hump and not afraid. The other ones - just takes time.

My DD playing 10u as an 8u got hit 21 times in 117 ABs one season. Didn’t cry a single time. Even when she took one 50+ off the noggin. That’s when I knew we finally had it whipped. Lol

Good luck!
 
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
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Has anyone else noticed that some kids are HBP magnets? We have one every year! We figured out who she is for this year - one player of ours got hit THREE times by an 04 pitcher (we're an 06 team) in a 45 minute game this weekend. Poor kid. I don't think anyone else got hit at all.
 
Feb 21, 2017
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As mentioned you need to teach them how to take a pitch. In my AAU days I taught the kids around age 9-10 and we would just have a bucket of tennis balls.

Step 1: We would teach them to protect themselves if they are going to get hit was well as working on getting out of the way (sometimes how you move can make it worse).

Step 2: Make it a drill so with numbered tennis balls we would either hit them, throw them inside or throw them over plate. If the ball was a strike they would have to call the number on the ball. They would help tracking pitches. Say throw 20 balls with 10 over plate see how many they get right.

The idea is they have to learn stay in the box without flinching every time, recognize good pitches from bad and know they are ok if they get hit.

It should go without saying you were not whipping the balls at the kids but they should be on a line not so slow it is a rainbow.

Hopefully this helps

CoC


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Apr 16, 2010
924
43
Alabama
You can teach a kid to properly take a pitch. Had a coach on a team use softee type balls and transition into real softballs. Lots of angry parents after that practice. A few bruises and kids were skittish for a few at bats.

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DD learned the exact same thing at camp. They talked about how you will be hit by a pitch but in many instances you can minimize the impact. They worked on getting hit by wiffle balls and it was actually a good lesson.
 
Feb 17, 2014
551
28
Has anyone else noticed that some kids are HBP magnets? We have one every year! We figured out who she is for this year - one player of ours got hit THREE times by an 04 pitcher (we're an 06 team) in a 45 minute game this weekend. Poor kid. I don't think anyone else got hit at all.

I think every team has that kid that gets hit at least once a weekend. Part of it is these kids aren't afraid to get hit so they don't get out of the way. There are a lot of kids that will do everything they can to not get hit.
 
Apr 30, 2018
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Thanks for all the input. I'll have a talk with her and see about working in some HBP practice with some lite flight balls we have. I'll give her a week or two to recover from her road rash though, she had a nasty wipe out on her bike on Sunday. She was really worried about getting hit on her road rash at practice yesterday, but they didn't do any girl pitch, just coach pitch.
 
May 22, 2015
410
28
Illinois
Been there, done that. DD was about that same age and got drilled right off the bat a few times. She started bailing before the ball even got to her. At that age girls are getting bigger and started getting some velocity but control isn't quite there. Every fiber of their body tells them get the heck out of there after getting drilled lol. As mentioned previously in this thread, I worked with DD a lot on how to get hit so it hurts the least. We did quite a bit of bunting and some hit & run during games to make her stay in the box and put the bat on the ball. Eventually the will to succeed overtakes the fear of getting hit.
 
May 6, 2015
2,397
113
they need to learn a new mantra, "bones heal, blood clots, bruises fade, glory lasts forever"

(adaptation of something I used to tell my sons LL as AC, used to substitute of of the first three with "chicks dig scars, politically incorrect I know)
 
Jun 19, 2016
858
63
My 10U DD has been stepping out with her front foot for the past year and half...ever since she got hit by her first kid pitch. I have told her time after time that stepping out is the worst thing she can do because she is exposing her soft belly instead of her hip or her butt. At this point it is just muscle memory I think. I have tried a lot of things....balance beams...putting stuff behind her. It works for a while and then she goes back to her old habits as soon as she gets hit or a teammate gets hit. It is truly frustrating and not an easy fix. The crazy thing is she is a pitcher and throws balls from 35' without fear to the biggest hitters around. If she gets hit as a pitcher she shakes it off and gets right back on the mound. If she gets hit as a batter she will be stepping out for the rest of the tournament.

I wish I could help you. If you figure out how to fix it let me know.
 
Feb 21, 2017
198
28
My 10U DD has been stepping out with her front foot for the past year and half...ever since she got hit by her first kid pitch. I have told her time after time that stepping out is the worst thing she can do because she is exposing her soft belly instead of her hip or her butt. At this point it is just muscle memory I think. I have tried a lot of things....balance beams...putting stuff behind her. It works for a while and then she goes back to her old habits as soon as she gets hit or a teammate gets hit. It is truly frustrating and not an easy fix. The crazy thing is she is a pitcher and throws balls from 35' without fear to the biggest hitters around. If she gets hit as a pitcher she shakes it off and gets right back on the mound. If she gets hit as a batter she will be stepping out for the rest of the tournament.

I wish I could help you. If you figure out how to fix it let me know.

If your daughter is “stepping in the bucket” as they say then start her there and have her stride into plate and towards the pitcher. You make her do the exact opposite of issue you are trying to fix. I get no credit for this, a friend who was MLB hitting coach gave me this moons ago for some young boys I was coaching with exactly that issue.

If you haven’t tried it, probably worth a shot as at that time I had been through the 2x6 and bucket behind front foot and had same results as you. Took a bit but eventually worked. Over time they worked through the getting hit by pitch and didn’t require it anymore.

CoC




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