DD wimps out at the plate

sorry slugger, but wrong- I had them lapping all year(entire team) for called strike 3. Helped only slightly.

Running doesn't help. It only makes the hitter feel worse because now the whole team pays the price for her mistake - which will only kill her confidence more.

Notice I posted to this a month ago - here is what seems to be working for my daughter:

Bottom line ... swings, swings, swings. Just like pitching, its a muscle memory thing. 50-100 quality swings per day/everyday for a couple weeks and she'll be fine. Set goals and provide encouragement each and every at-bat. The first time she hits one in the face (a ball that is), and everything will take care of itself.

Another suggestion - move her up in the line-up. I know, sounds counter-intuitive, but it works. Tell Suzie shes been working hard and her swing looks good and now its time to put it to use. Sort of a reward for her hard work. Tell her "I need you to hit the ball hard." Don't feed her the old "I don't care if you strike out - just swing hard" line. You don't believe that nonsense and neither does she! She needs to know you have expectations of her and she needs to know what those expectations are.

Bottom line - you have to show confidence in her before she can have confidence in herself.

For what it's worth.

I'm with madskilz on this one - running doesn't help. I tried team laps for looking 3rd strikes and then moved to sprints for everyone except the girl who looked at the 3rd strike. These were not my finer moments. Nothing constructive came of these tactics. For laps we didn't even call out names of those who went down looking, but the girls aren't dumb. They remember during games and start talking about who is gonna make them run at the next practice. It causes finger pointing and hard feelings. I wish I could take it back, but I made mistakes doing that and have learnedd not to do it again.