Strike outs

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Jan 5, 2018
385
63
PNW
Everyone gets called out looking. Anxiety is real you don't want to let your team down but you do. We all freeze.

I preach a military adage. You always revert to your lowest level of training. Its always held true

I've used the same...but said differently.

"Under pressure you will revert to your dominate habit"

So what needs to change?.....the dominate habit...that takes work and time.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
Someone else hopefully said this before me (responding before reading the whole thread), but if not, you really need to hear it because you're missing something vital about hitting.

If she strikes out twice per season, she almost certainly has a terrific eye and a great handle of the strike zone. Her approach at the plate works. And it works better than almost anybody else's. What you're trying to do is fundamentally change her as a hitter. You're almost certainly asking her to expand her strike zone, which, as a whole two strikeouts per season should tell you, she probably has a better grasp of than you do.

Twice per season (oh, wait, three times during this most recent one. The horror!) she gets rung up on a bad call from the umpire (think of all those close pitches she's taking and not getting called out on). Or maybe she's just fooled by a perfectly placed pitch. Or maybe the pitch was off-speed and they froze her. It could be a lot of things, but it's not happening too often. And, quite frankly, it doesn't matter all that much.

I'm curious why you're so averse to the strikeout, especially when it occurs so rarely. I'm curious why you want her to start swinging at pitches she probably shouldn't swing at in the first place. Or do you want her to take those close ones in all her other at bats and only swing at them when the umpire's definitely going to call it a strike? And how, exactly, should she know that ahead of time?

Ever consider that maybe she's striking out a little more lately because people (wanna guess who?) have gotten into her head about it and completely messed up a two-strike approach that, previously, any parent or coach would love to have seen?
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
I don't have a problem with the occasional called strike 3 especially if it's a bad call. People who chase pitches are easy to get out. You don't even have to throw them a strike. In the majors the best hitters take that 2 strike slider but sometimes get fooled and will take strike 3 but they couldn't hit it anyway. Simply putting a ball in play is really not that hard but the goal of hitting is to get hits not to not strike out.

A whole bunch of people here would just rather see a weak grounder to second, sacrificing actual quality at bats the rest of the time, because 5% of the time that 2B might bobble the ball or throw it away.

This attitude can only come from people who don't realize just how difficult hitting is. Expecting someone to be a high level hitter who hits the ball hard AND to be someone who just swats at the ball to "put it in play" simultaneously is something I'm not sure most people can do. I'm sure someone will name a player or two who could. Maybe Tony Gwynn? Cool. What he could do was so rare that not even every Major League player named Tony Gwynn could hit like that.
 
Jun 11, 2013
2,619
113
A whole bunch of people here would just rather see a weak grounder to second, sacrificing actual quality at bats the rest of the time, because 5% of the time that 2B might bobble the ball or throw it away.

This attitude can only come from people who don't realize just how difficult hitting is. Expecting someone to be a high level hitter who hits the ball hard AND to be someone who just swats at the ball to "put it in play" simultaneously is something I'm not sure most people can do. I'm sure someone will name a player or two who could. Maybe Tony Gwynn? Cool. What he could do was so rare that not even every Major League player named Tony Gwynn could hit like that.
There were a few more Rod Carew, Ty Cobb, Jeter but I get what you are saying. In the long run if you swing at balls even with 2 strikes you wont' be a great hitter. Again you can find some guys Like Vlad Guerro who could hit ball hard. Even worse than a week grounder to second swinging a some crap pitch in the dirt because you don't want to go down looking.
 
May 12, 2016
4,338
113
Every hitter needs to understand it’s ok to strike out, it’s inevitable, it’s part of the game. Failure is more prevalent than success when it comes to hitting. If a hitter understands strike outS will happen, they will likely be more aggressive and swing the bat. It’s all mental .. why would a hitter swing at strike one and two and let three go by? Because they are afraid to strike out. Crazy right.. but that’s exactly what it is. It let’s then off the hook.

all hitters need to understand striking out is part of the game, telling a kid watching 3rd strike is ultimate sin Is unneeded pressure and focus on the wrong area. Jmho
 
Jul 13, 2019
54
8
I think that what you are describing is pretty common when a girl goes up a level. In your daughter's situation most of the other girls are older and stronger than her. The situation is new to her. It will probably take a little bit of time for her to get her confidence back.

One that we have done is when we do hitting in the cage we do one round where the girl has an 0-2 count and then we pitch to them. Usually I like to put the first couple of balls right down the middle and let them hit the ball to give them confidence and then make it a little more challenging. We try to do this almost every time we hit in the cage. I guess I should tell you that I am working with my granddaughter one on one. The coach might not be able to devote that much time. Another thing we do later in the 0-2 round is I tell her that there are 2 outs the bases are loaded and her team is down by a run and then we play the situation.

Last season we had an umpire that was a pretty good ump but his strike zone was very wide. He would regularly call the girls out on pitches that were in the opposite batter's box. We would do an 0-2 with him as the ump just to get her ready for that situation

Bottom line is that most good hitters are confident hitters and confident hitter are relaxed hitters. Do whatever you can to build up her confidence. I know this won't always be easy to do.

Good luck to you and your daughter!
 
Jul 6, 2016
5
3
My daughter is struggling with strike outs this season. I went back and looked at her stats over the last few years and she rarely strikes out. It's at most maybe 2 a season. Her most recent travel season she did not strike out at all.

She's on the Varsity team this year (up from JV last season) and so far she has struck out 3 times already - all looking. And when I checked older seasons, the majority of her strike outs are looking.

We've told her time and time again, if it's close she needs to get her bat on it and foul it off if she can. And she knows all of this but once she's up to bat, she kind of forgets I guess. Last night, was 2 balls, 2 swinging strikes and then the last a called strike.

Is there anything we can do to help her so she gets more confident trying to foul off pitches on 2 strikes? It's one of my husband's pet peeves when she does it and her coach hates it too. Two other girls last night struck out looking too (both of them were seniors so I felt a little better).

thx
Many, if not most times, a strike out “looking” is related to the batter‘s approach. EVERY successful hitter plans on swinging at every pitch, AND also begins their swing on every pitch. If the ball is not within the zone, they hold up.

Does DD begin her swing, then hold up on every pitch? If not, often times, it’s too late to make contact within the strike zone or even get the bat off the shoulders.

Many times we hear the following: make it be your pitch or only swing if it’s a strike. The reality is, one should only NOT swing if the pitch is not within the zone.

Be aggressive. Plan on swinging at every pitch. If it’s not a strike, stop your bat. This approach also gives the umpire a better perspective of where the pitch the crossed the plate within your hitting zone (based on your height and your stance).

Good luck!
 
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Aug 10, 2016
686
63
Georgia
So update: She did end up doing okay the rest of the season. More strikeouts than normal for her but again - like others have said - she's playing seniors now who are really good.
Travel started after hs finished - she's doing pretty well. Her coach usually bats her 1st, 3rd or 4th. So I guess she likes that DD gets on a lot.

Most recent tournament - the first game. She hadn't hit well with live hitting since her last tournament in Nov. She was batting 4th in the first game. Her first at-bat she got down in the count. But then fouled off a few. She managed a ok roller to SS with a bad throw so she got a ROE. 7 pitch AB. Next time up - new faster pitcher. Gets down again and fouls off more. Finally manage a nice line drive to CF to score a run. Even if she had struck out or gotten out either time I was just very happy with her battling through. Coach ended up batting her 1st the rest of the tournament. She did get on in every game as well. Only struck out once but this was during a game where the pitcher struck out our team 16 times. (We did play a full 7 innings in pool play since both teams did well defensively - it was 0-0 going into the 7th inning :/
Our team was pitching a freshman and they had a committed player pitching :) Good experience for our team)
 
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sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,133
113
Dallas, Texas
So update: She did end up doing okay the rest of the season. More strikeouts than normal for her but again - like others have said - she's playing seniors now who are really good.
Travel started after hs finished - she's doing pretty well. Her coach usually bats her 1st, 3rd or 4th. So I guess she likes that DD gets on a lot.

Before her TB season is out, she is going to want to hit against better pitching...
 
Nov 26, 2010
4,784
113
Michigan
My advice is stay out of her head. You are worried about 3 strikeouts after she moved up a level. I don’t know how many at bats she has. But the more you fuss over it the more strikeouts she will have. Let her coach do the coaching on this one.
 
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