Great in the cages, terrible at the plate

Annesdad · Jul 25, 2017

FiveFrameSwing said:
You stated clearly that your daughter "hasn't had enough live pitching situations".

You followed up with excuses ... e.g., no pitching machine, only a few at-bats during team practices, spending time pitching at the expense of hitting, work constraints, etc..

Life is about the choices and the scarifies you make or don't make. You stated clearly that your daughter doesn't face enough pitching situations. You were wise enough to recognize that your daughter's team practice, like most team practices, doesn't provide enough at-bats to become proficient. Seems like you walked yourself dangerously close to getting yourself involved and pitching to your daughter. Unfortunately you are too busy to put in the extra effort and set a good example for your daughter. In a nutshell, that is part of the message behind youth sports. She's not getting involved in youth sports to become a pro softball player. More it's about learning that she has control of her life ... that her focused extra efforts improve her chances of success in life ... that success in life doesn't come easy, and often it comes down to putting in extra effort to succeed, and not expecting success to come simply from attending practices. It comes from putting in extra effort ... show her the way ... or don't show her the way ... it's your choice as the parent.

In a subsequent post you wrote that you were "looking more for ideas of how to help her practice more than changing the swing for now." One way to do that is to pitch to her.

Wow - I guess I should have been more specific about my involvement with my daughter and the situation that has arisen with my work constraints! I spend time every day with her pitching, taking to practice, taking to pitching coach, taking to swing coach, taking to tournaments, taking to camps in the summer. I do pitch to her in the retention area in our neighborhood. I do take her to pitching machine batting cages. I've taken her to a different swing coach in order to see if that would help. I also have 3 other daughters one who plays competitive soccer, the other two (ages 7 and 9) are just getting into softball after having played soccer for a couple of seasons.

What I am looking for is things other than what I do already that may be a better option that others on this board have done and seen improvement. The first few responses were great and I'm thankful for them. She just read the article, which got her (on her own) to take a tee out to the driveway and hit 3 buckets of balls into the net. She videoed them and sent them to me from her ipod. We are now going over what she did and planning what do do next. We'll get her hitting again soon. Thanks for the reply and I'll try to do a better job at explaining myself in my posts!

RichK · Jul 25, 2017

Play whiffle ball with her in the backyard, hitting any moving ball will be a good start for her. Play a ton of it and have her improve over time, ie, go from just making contact to driving the ball, from hitting soft toss to throwing it to her with some speed.

Seems like she also goes to a hitting coach, tell him/her the problem and move the lesson focus from "swinging" to "hitting" for a while. Girls need good swing mechanics but they also need a game-ready swing (ability to understand the strike zone; an ability to be on time vs. late or early, etc) so they can have some success or they'll burn out on failure. Good luck.

FiveFrameSwing · Jul 25, 2017

Annesdad said:
Wow - I guess I should have been more specific about my involvement with my daughter and the situation that has arisen with my work constraints! I spend time every day with her pitching, taking to practice, taking to pitching coach, taking to swing coach, taking to tournaments, taking to camps in the summer. I do pitch to her in the retention area in our neighborhood. I do take her to pitching machine batting cages. I've taken her to a different swing coach in order to see if that would help. I also have 3 other daughters one who plays competitive soccer, the other two (ages 7 and 9) are just getting into softball after having played soccer for a couple of seasons.

What I am looking for is things other than what I do already that may be a better option that others on this board have done and seen improvement. The first few responses were great and I'm thankful for them. She just read the article, which got her (on her own) to take a tee out to the driveway and hit 3 buckets of balls into the net. She videoed them and sent them to me from her ipod. We are now going over what she did and planning what do do next. We'll get her hitting again soon. Thanks for the reply and I'll try to do a better job at explaining myself in my posts!

That a girl!!

That effort alone should make you proud of her.

RichK · Jul 25, 2017

Annesdad said:
Wow - I guess I should have been more specific about my involvement with my daughter and the situation that has arisen with my work constraints! I spend time every day with her pitching, taking to practice, taking to pitching coach, taking to swing coach, taking to tournaments, taking to camps in the summer. I do pitch to her in the retention area in our neighborhood. I do take her to pitching machine batting cages. I've taken her to a different swing coach in order to see if that would help. I also have 3 other daughters one who plays competitive soccer, the other two (ages 7 and 9) are just getting into softball after having played soccer for a couple of seasons.

What I am looking for is things other than what I do already that may be a better option that others on this board have done and seen improvement. The first few responses were great and I'm thankful for them. She just read the article, which got her (on her own) to take a tee out to the driveway and hit 3 buckets of balls into the net. She videoed them and sent them to me from her ipod. We are now going over what she did and planning what do do next. We'll get her hitting again soon. Thanks for the reply and I'll try to do a better job at explaining myself in my posts!

That seems like a good level of commitment to helping her

I'd just say a few more things. Be realistic about her talent level today. She might just be on the early side of her learning curve. She's only 10/11. I've seen girls who couldn't hit at 10 and cried after every strike out become college players down the line.

The one thing that parents have to be careful about is wanting it more than their daughters do -- both feeling the pain of failure and wanting success. Put opportunities in front of her, help her understand work ethic and then it's really up to her. She will struggle at some levels and ages. I always looked at fastpitch "seasons" as multiple seasons -- fall ball, winter work, spring/summer. Start with a clean slate each time and keep working to get better. Softball has a TON more failure than soccer -- get used to it and help her learn to work for success. Good luck again

FiveFrameSwing · Jul 25, 2017

_MIA_ · Jul 25, 2017

FiveFrameSwing said:

I like Matt, mainly because we have the same accent, but he isn't exactly saying anything groundbreaking here. Game is harder than bp and bp is harder than front toss which is harder than tee work...failing at any point
means you have a mechanical problem. No way, thanks Matt

I get the point though, stop blaming timing issues when in reality most of the time there is a mechanical flaw.

FiveFrameSwing · Jul 25, 2017

pattar said:
I like Matt, mainly because we have the same accent, but he isn't exactly saying anything groundbreaking here. Game is harder than bp and bp is harder than front toss which is harder than tee work...failing at any point
means you have a mechanical problem. No way, thanks Matt I get the point though, stop blaming timing issues when in reality most of the time there is a mechanical flaw.

That's the message in a nutshell.

What the OP is complaining about is likely a "swing issue" ... ... ... hence the notion of looking for ideas outside of changing the swing may need to be revisited.

_MIA_ · Jul 25, 2017

FiveFrameSwing said:
That's the message in a nutshell.

What the OP is complaining about is likely a "swing issue" ... ... ... hence the notion of looking for ideas outside of changing the swing may need to be revisited.

Right, which is why I asked for video in my first response....

However if she is just not swinging at good pitches then there is obviously some mental stuff going on too.

FP26 · Jul 25, 2017

FiveFrameSwing said:
That's the message in a nutshell.

What the OP is complaining about is likely a "swing issue" ... ... ... hence the notion of looking for ideas outside of changing the swing may need to be revisited.

"Timing" and "Mechanics" are very closely related, IMO.

Strike2 · Jul 26, 2017

I'm not a huge fan of kids going out and doing lots of hitting on their own. Bad habits are easily formed without meaningful feedback. Hitting off the batting T, soft toss, and even machines all have their place, but it's no substitute for seeing the ball come out of the hand and putting the bat on it. The hitting instructor should be throwing front toss during at least part of the lesson.

In an ideal world, you'd be able to throw a solid windmill pitch from the full distance. A couple of years ago, I had an AC who could do that. Failing that, front toss from shorter distance (with a screen) will do the job. It needs to be firmly thrown in an area big enough to judge the hit. Where was the pitch, and how / where was the ball hit?

Quality over quantity; because the first thing to fail when a hitter gets tired is mechanics. Work on pitch recognition and selection with 0/1 and 2 strike situations. Move the ball around...hit your spots! Intentionally throw marginal / bad pitches with a focus on her decision-making, and the goal of going after a good pitch early or when ahead in the count, and then making contact with anything in her "hitting zone" when behind.

Great in the cages, terrible at the plate

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