- Apr 16, 2013
- 1,113
- 83
Great points by Eric. I can share a few things for my DD from my perspective and also a few things from her perspective. Maybe it'll help, maybe it won't. My DD has always been an excellent 2 strike batter. If she's swung at 2 pitches and missed, admittedly I'm a little bit worried. If she swung at the second one and fouled it off, I'm feeling more confident. If she fouled off both then I'm 90% sure the other team is in trouble. She's figuring the pitcher out and learning from each pitch she sees. You can't pass up how important that is. Every pitcher is different!
The biggest thing is LEARNING the pitcher AND the umpire. She has a REALLY REALLY good eye. So does your DD pay attention to the umpire's strike zone? I guarantee you every single umpire is different. I almost always sit behind the plate and watch where the umpire is calling strikes. I admit I'll have a quick chat with my DD about what she sees and what I see. I'm talking 10 seconds. What does she see though? Watch the game before yours if you can. Talk about what she's seeing. Getting in that mindset is really important. It has her going to the plate with more knowledge. Honestly, the worst thing for my DD is a bad, inconsistent, ump. If your strike zone is low, that's fine. If your strike zone is high, that's fine. If you call something a little off the plate, that's fine. JUST BE CONSISTENT ABOUT IT!!!!
Ok, so you've got two strikes? You can no longer be choosy. You've got to hit the ball hard wherever it is. If it's outside, just off the plate, smack it. If it's inside, turn hard on it. If they throw it down the middle, their loss. It may not work out, but she has to go into a two strike count knowing she's going to nail anything the pitcher gives her. She should be able to see pure junk. "That's way too high, that's in the other batter's box, that's in the dirt." Anything else gets hit. Sometimes you hit it hard, sometimes you hit crap and sometimes you strike out, but sometimes you often kill it. The simple thing is that with two strikes, you can now hit anything that pitcher throws!
That brings me to my last thought. Over and over again, it has to be said that this and baseball is a game of failure!!! You have to accept failure as a result. You WILL get struck out. Balls WILL have bad bounces that you simply can't train for. Umps WILL make bad calls. You must accept failure. This one is pretty hard for my DD. Regardless of outcome, you and your DD have to accept that no matter what you do, sometimes, hell a lot of times, she will fail. Tell her that over and over again. With the successes, will come the failures. There's nothing wrong with it, it's a part of the game!!!
The biggest thing is LEARNING the pitcher AND the umpire. She has a REALLY REALLY good eye. So does your DD pay attention to the umpire's strike zone? I guarantee you every single umpire is different. I almost always sit behind the plate and watch where the umpire is calling strikes. I admit I'll have a quick chat with my DD about what she sees and what I see. I'm talking 10 seconds. What does she see though? Watch the game before yours if you can. Talk about what she's seeing. Getting in that mindset is really important. It has her going to the plate with more knowledge. Honestly, the worst thing for my DD is a bad, inconsistent, ump. If your strike zone is low, that's fine. If your strike zone is high, that's fine. If you call something a little off the plate, that's fine. JUST BE CONSISTENT ABOUT IT!!!!
Ok, so you've got two strikes? You can no longer be choosy. You've got to hit the ball hard wherever it is. If it's outside, just off the plate, smack it. If it's inside, turn hard on it. If they throw it down the middle, their loss. It may not work out, but she has to go into a two strike count knowing she's going to nail anything the pitcher gives her. She should be able to see pure junk. "That's way too high, that's in the other batter's box, that's in the dirt." Anything else gets hit. Sometimes you hit it hard, sometimes you hit crap and sometimes you strike out, but sometimes you often kill it. The simple thing is that with two strikes, you can now hit anything that pitcher throws!
That brings me to my last thought. Over and over again, it has to be said that this and baseball is a game of failure!!! You have to accept failure as a result. You WILL get struck out. Balls WILL have bad bounces that you simply can't train for. Umps WILL make bad calls. You must accept failure. This one is pretty hard for my DD. Regardless of outcome, you and your DD have to accept that no matter what you do, sometimes, hell a lot of times, she will fail. Tell her that over and over again. With the successes, will come the failures. There's nothing wrong with it, it's a part of the game!!!
