How to help my talented young players overcome fear in the batters box

I am not sure if this will help or hurt, but you may want to teach them the proper way of "wearing one". However at the end of the day it will take time and be up to each individual girl to overcome whatever
fear they have.

marriard said:

This is a temporary fix for a temporary problem.

You get three strikes so you can use one of them for this. If you are facing a pitcher who is throwing enough strikes, choose either the first or second pitch of the at-bat and give them a 'swing' sign. It doesn't matter - ball or strike doesn't matter - they are to go after THAT pitch. Takes all the decision making out of their hands. And hey, they still have at least one more strike - probably two.

Once they get a few hits, you move over to the 'YES until NO' approach where everything is YES and swing until it is clearly a ball.

These are the first plans of batting I teach the younger ages. I have found it a good place to start.

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Thanks for the advice, that's a good approach. I've been doing something similar to this, but not explicitly saying "swing at this next pitch no matter what". If we're facing a pitcher who is throwing quite a few strikes I'll do this.

The approach up until now has been trying to get them to start their swing (load, hands, stride) no matter what, adjust to a high or low ball, or check it on a bad pitch -- just like they do when a coach pitches front toss to them. They all do it fine with a coach, but when they face a live pitcher some of them aren't even starting their swing, they just freeze and hope they get a walk.

Rocketech1 said:

Have them face as much live pitching as possible in practice. Warm up your pitchers and have them pitch to your players every practice. Lots of reps in practice and games will get them comfortable over time. I don't think its something you can rush...Also, not a big fan of pitching machines. I would focus a lot more on live pitching and coach pitch front toss.

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Yep, I think live pitching is a must. Thanks.

Frame it differently. They know it hurts and it sucks already. Rational, normal people avoid things that hurt and they need to know that is normal. Teach them how to correctly turn out of a pitch. Use a “rag ball” or a foam ball to teach them what to do. Helps more than you would think. Tell them that eventually the only kids that will get hit much are the ones that WANT to get hit. (Just plant that seed and let it sink in) And do what Marriard and RT1 said.

I like to tell them this: Courage isn’t not being afraid, it is the ability to control your fear and not let it keep you from doing what you want to do. You might not think they “get it” but they do... might take time to put it into practice but they get it....

Glamorize it. It is hero stuff .

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