Mental Hitting Tips

MY DD is first year 10U. She was great hitter in coach pitch and machine pitch with a lot power and confidence. Now were struggling and I knows it all in her head. I cant get her to swing the bat. She was just staring at strikes but this past tourney she started check swinging some. Can anybody share some tips or advice of worked for your DD? Thanks

Quality of pitchers matters,

You can try the you need to swing at the 2nd pitch no matter where it is.

catmaster said:

MY DD is first year 10U. She was great hitter in coach pitch and machine pitch with a lot power and confidence. Now were struggling and I knows it all in her head. I cant get her to swing the bat. She was just staring at strikes but this past tourney she started check swinging some. Can anybody share some tips or advice of worked for your DD? Thanks

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Often what some consider to be a 'great' swing at the younger levels ends up being a swing that won't scale at the next level.

Not uncommon for a hitter that is overwhelmed ... and suddenly finds themselves armed with tools that aren't effective for their current level of play ... to go through a freeze-up period and stare at strikes.

Not uncommon at one level for a hitter to rely on fully timing the ball, and then find themselves ineffective at the next level when they haven't been trained to time the pitcher.

Sounds like right now you would be happy to simply get her swinging ....

Timing and just swinging that bat is the issues. She's scared and has admitted to that. A hitting coach has changed her swing to be quicker to the ball. I was kinda hesitant at first but after him explaining everything to me I was on board. It could also be a lack of confidence in her new swing but I believe it's just fear

We a bad a breakthrough lastnight. I used the video posted above as our approach practicing this week. We had a rec game lastnight and finally swinging the bat. She struck out first time swinging. 2nd at bat hit a nice shot over right fielders head. Timing is still a tad behind but confidence at the plate is looking better. We have a tourney this weekend hopefully it continues.

It has been pulled in a little bit but DD never got in trouble for striking out swinging, she swung at some balls 10' over her head.

I would much rather have them swing and work back towards the strike zone then them just staying there.

So yes strike outs will happen and she will swing at bad pitches.

catmaster said:

We a bad a breakthrough lastnight. I used the video posted above as our approach practicing this week. We had a rec game lastnight and finally swinging the bat. She struck out first time swinging. 2nd at bat hit a nice shot over right fielders head. Timing is still a tad behind but confidence at the plate is looking better. We have a tourney this weekend hopefully it continues.

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Interesting that the coach changed her swing to make her quicker to the ball but she is now behind. Perhaps the change didn't have the intended effect.

She might be thinking too much, do this, do this, it swing changes can take time. Thier head can get in the way.

I have never seen fear coached out of a hitter, but perhaps there is a "swing whisperer" out there who can cure such ills. In absence of that, it's patience on your part, and the hitter must overcome it.

My DD was also a big hitter in 8U who struggled a lot at the beginning of 10U. We are still first year 10U but she finally started hitting in the last tournament of the fall and is consistent now (close to 500 average which I think is pretty good esp since it includes fall, where she struck out looking aaallllll the time). We did a couple of things. One was took her to the cage to hit, and cranked the speed way up. Started her at about 40mph, which she hit no problem. Ended up around 70 mph which she wasn't hitting much but she did hit a couple and fouled off a bunch. At 65 she was hitting. So we pointed out that there were exactly zero 10U pitchers who were going to pitch anywhere close to 65 so obviously she could hit off anybody we face. That helped with her confidence.

Then in actual games we encouraged her to THINK SWING. She needed to assume she'd swing at every pitch, then check her swing if it was a bad pitch. We assured her we'd never be upset with her for swinging and missing, but that we really didn't like watching her stand there and watch 3 strikes sail by. It was like she just needed permission. In coach pitch, you wait on the perfect pitch. Your coach knows what you like, and does his/her best to pitch that to you. In fastpitch they're trying to strike you out. I think she had just gotten used to waiting on that perfect pitch, which never came. Once we convinced her it was OK to swing and miss, she started swinging. And of course, we stuck to what we said: never a bad word for swinging and missing. Which is not to say we don't tell her why she missed - usually, it's pulling her head out or dropping her shoulder. But we keep it positive, and she keeps swinging (and, usually, hitting).