10U Girls not Swinging the bat, at all......Help???

[redhotcoach]

At first year 10u I often wondered why shock collars are ok for dogs but not kids. Ok ok I am just kidding. My dd was terrible about swinging the first months of 10u, then cried all the time too. This past season, first year 12u, she struck out 4 times total (and parked 4 balls) out of about 200 at bats. My advice from experience...be patient, and try your best to help them relax, it will get better, and when it does the hits come flooding in.

 

[ykndoit]

Thanks for all the tips. I'm sure it will get better but as a parent and coach, we all want immediate results! Its just tough seeing the girls do so well in practice and then just shut down during games.

Looks like bribes might have to be something we introduce this weekend. I'll put away the tazers and shock collars for now.....

 

[GOINGDEEP]

Thanks for all the tips. I'm sure it will get better but as a parent and coach, we all want immediate results! Its just tough seeing the girls do so well in practice and then just shut down during games.

Looks like bribes might have to be something we introduce this weekend. I'll put away the tazers and shock collars for now.....

Rewards work really good at that age, you'll be surprised.

Word of caution, individual awards seem to inspire the rest to do better. If you put a team goal for a team reward it can backfire. 12 players, and 10 make the goal, the other two will feel pretty bad and the other players will know exactly "who" caused them to not get ice cream ( yes, at 10 they know ).

At 10u I'd do team ice cream as a surprise for a good weekend, not because we met a pre planned goal. Just feeling the moment type stuff.

Let us know how it works and what you used.

 

[Greenmonsters]

At first year 10u I often wondered why shock collars are ok for dogs but not kids. Ok ok I am just kidding. My dd was terrible about swinging the first months of 10u, then cried all the time too. This past season, first year 12u, she struck out 4 times total (and parked 4 balls) out of about 200 at bats. My advice from experience...be patient, and try your best to help them relax, it will get better, and when it does the hits come flooding in.

Shock collars for SB, that's a horrible thing to suggest. Everyone knows they should only be used for soccer at that age.

 

[chinamigarden]

Ok, here is my opinion on why kids at this age don't swing the bat. Its not the kids, its the adults. Maybe not for every one, but when you have a group of kids all doing the same thing you have to look at the parents and the coaches. If you ever hear yourself saying these things, you may be part of the problem

1. why did you swing at that one, it was high. ( I don't mean over the head high, I mean shoulder high)
1a. Why did you swing at that one it was low. (shin high)
2. You are helping out the pitcher swinging at bad pitches
3. don't swing until you see 2 strikes
4. You should be on first right now but you swung at a pitchers pitch
5. A walk is as good as a hit, and a lot better then a strike out
6. Swing like you mean it or don't swing at all

Eventually the kids start to look for a walk, instead of risking being talked to about swinging at a bad pitch. A coach who is looking to cure this problem has to accept that they will swing at bad pitches.

 

[Greenmonsters]

Ok, here is my opinion on why kids at this age don't swing the bat. Its not the kids, its the adults. Maybe not for every one, but when you have a group of kids all doing the same thing you have to look at the parents and the coaches. If you ever hear yourself saying these things, you may be part of the problem

1. why did you swing at that one, it was high. ( I don't mean over the head high, I mean shoulder high)
1a. Why did you swing at that one it was low. (shin high)
2. You are helping out the pitcher swinging at bad pitches
3. don't swing until you see 2 strikes
4. You should be on first right now but you swung at a pitchers pitch
5. A walk is as good as a hit, and a lot better then a strike out
6. Swing like you mean it or don't swing at all

Eventually the kids start to look for a walk, instead of risking being talked to about swinging at a bad pitch. A coach who is looking to cure this problem has to accept that they will swing at bad pitches.

Yes sir China. Many coaches find its less effort to encourage struggling young hitters to walk rather than teach them how to hit and/or are "win" oriented rather than focused on player development.

 

[quincy]

We had a batter that had no chance against the pitcher she was facing, 1st AB she swung at 2 good pitches and struck out swinging on a bad pitch. Her brother yelled to her that she should not have swung, I said I rather her go down swinging. Player’s Dad said “Hear, Hear”.

Next AB the bat never left her shoulders and she struck out looking at 3 nice strikes.

I saw the coach talking to her after her 1st AB, I would love to know what he told her.

 

[ykndoit]

We are instilling in the girls heads that fall ball is just "live practice". We never get down on our girls for trying, just when they don't.

Our team isn't concerned about wins or losses right now but our three words for the fall..... focus, attack, and flush.
Focus-Pay attention at all times while on the field(game or practice)
Attack-Be aggressive at the plate and on the field
Flush-let go of anything bad that happened(strikeout or error)


We worked on front toss from 15-20 feet this week. Worked decent.(little scary without a pitching screen though!!)

(I didn't take the advice from a few of you and ditch the pitching machine, its our only source of consistant pitching at the moment!)
I turned up the pitcing machine to 50mph and the girls actually did well! Afterwards I told the girls that if they can hit that, they can hit any girl pitching to them! They perceived this message very well(at least they told me they did!)

We had a candid 10 minute Q&A session after practice with the girls to see if we could get any response from the them why they weren't swinging before. After they all hit off the 50mph, they agreed that they had no idea why!

We expressed to the girls that a walk only gets them to first, but a hit gets them to first and maybe more!

Hope they transfer all the this stuff to the games today!

 

[Greenmonsters]

Let us know how it worked out!

 

[ykndoit]

Well........

Zero backwards K's! Which was our goal for the tourney!
BUT, several golf swings and two girls I thought for a second that they actually left their feet to reach a ball above their heads!..

We used some jugs lite-flite balls and threw several pitches directly at them to discourage the fear of diving out of the box.
That seemed to help a lot.

I guess our next step is to get the girls to track the ball better. That'll be my next thread topic! "10u girls swinging at EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING!....Please help!!!"