8U DD Won't Keep Her Eyes On The Ball

[CobraAssist]

My 8 year old DD WILL NOT watch the ball all the way to the bat. She's taking hitting lessons right now and has soaked up every bit of information that has been shoved her way. Not saying her swing is flawless (cause it's not), but she has come a long way. Soft toss: She's great. When she hits the ball off of a tee, she doesn't even watch where the ball goes because she's so concentrated on watching the bat hit the ball. But, when she starts trying to hit live arm (coach pitch right now), she stares at whoever is pitching her, and continuously fails to track the ball all the way to the bat. Besides just explaining to her the importance of it (which she already knows), are there any drills that focus mainly on this? HELP!!!!!

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I had a similar hitting student. Her folks were really frustrated.

One year later, the girl is great. She just needed to mature a little bit. She didn't have the concentration level, yet, as an 8 yo. So, don't push her. I bet she will be fine.

 

[CobraAssist]

That's what I keep telling myself. She's about 5'1" and 85 lbs. My wife was a catcher in college, so of course, that's all my daughter wants to do. Defensively, she is very good. She's got a cannon for an arm. When she does track the ball, she has hit several balls all the way to a 220' fence. I think my biggest problem is her brilliance. She's a serious braniac (parents can be biased, but she's ridiculously smart). She really does GET IT. We did a tee drill yesterday (inside, outside, middle). The inside pitches, she ripped to the wall. The outside pitches, she kept her hands inside the ball beautifully and smoked it to right field. She pays attention to every little detail about what her hitting instructor (a brilliant man by the way) is teaching her, and she can immediately tell you what she did wrong after a bad swing. I am being patient though. I ride her a little because she does need some nudging now and then to keep her motivated, but for the most part, I'm not beating her up about it. I do keep thinking "be patient." But, we'll play in a tournament, and she'll look like the second coming of Bustos, and then the next three tourneys she strikes out twice a game. I guess it's just more frustration than anything because I REALLY want her to taste continuous success. I know she's going to be good. I THINK she's got a chance at being great. As parents, we just want that for our kids, and she's starting to get frustrated with herself too, and that's the last thing I want is for her to get down on herself.

 

[nanotech14]

I use to number some balls and pitch to the girls and have them tell me what the # was and made a game out of it and give them a prize to who ever called the most right #'s at that age.

 

[softballphreak]

This might help. Have her try some self-toss. At first she will probably fail at it. The self-tosses will be all over the place. Don't quit until she starts hitting at least some of them. Maybe offer her something special if she hits, say 5, or some amount.

What I think this will make her do is try to watch the ball of course. This may carry over to front pitch, especially is she gets something special for a certain number of hits.

Everyone should learn self-toss anyway. Fungo is good practice for batters and fielders.

 

[starsnuffer]

I highly recommend the numbered ball drill that Nanotech mentioned, and the fungo practice.

With the numbered ball drill, make sure they practice "good takes", loading, toe-touch, ect, watching the ball all the way to the catchers mitt.

You can also try the 2 tee drill. Put a ball on a tee 10' in front of the batter, and another on the tee directly in front of the batter. Have her focus on the further tee, then shift her focus to the tee she's hitting off of immediately before and during her swing. Tell her to try to knock the ball off the tee further out with the ball she hits.

-W

 

[CobraAssist]

I thought about the numbered ball thing. My only problem with that is she would probably get to quick about it, and start calling the number out way before the ball gets there. However, the 2 tee drill I didn't even think about. We did that in highschool, and it's amazing what you can forget in 13 years. It's funny though how much we learned back in the day that doesn't even apply today. I told my daughter's hitting instructor the other day that I pretty much need to take everything I ever learned about hitting, and just throw it out the window. And these composite bats are scary too. My daughter's is nice and broke in now, and when she does hit one, it looks like it was shot out of a cannon. Thanks for all the replies folks. I'm hoping to get some video soon and get it up on here. Right now, all I have is that picture of her after she ripped one off of my knee a month ago or so. That ball was hit HARD!!!

 

[SoftSocDad]

Your kid is growing at an incredible rate, but it's barely keeping up with Crazy Daddy's impatience.

She's 8, she's big, and on front pitch, she crushes the ball. Crazy Daddy and everyone else delight in how far the ball travels, so the player has taught herself to start looking out there as well. Instead of concentrating on making contact, she's anticipating where the ball will be when she swings and also excited about where the ball will end up after her swing which will, of course, ignite the crowd and make Crazy Daddy proud.

Kids hate striking out and the more competitive a kid is, the more they hate it. I know you want her to follow all that she's been taught right away, but you also need to keep in mind that failure is a great teacher as well. The more often she strikes out by not following the ball all the way in, the more she will learn to keep her eye on the ball.

 

[CobraAssist]

I do COMPLETELY get the life lesson from failure. She's learning some of that right now, and as a matter of fact, I just finished posting on someone elses about learning from failure. I actually coach a couple of kids that have a Crazy Daddy, and rest assured, I'm not that lunatic that sits behind his daughter and barks at her non-stop. I also don't coddle her either because I don't believe in it. Mine is starting to show frustration as well, which is the main reason why I'm searching high and low for something useful. So, thank you for your response.

 

[Mr T]

I don't know, there's lots of stuff to try of course. The numbers thing. Have her stand in there w/o a bat and just track pitches all the way. Have her umpire someone else, calling balls and strikes so she is concentrating on the exact location of where the ball is crossing the plate. Probably a bunch of other ideas people have.

But yeah the main thing is to relax, she's 8 and 8 year olds take days off. Get used to it and don't get riled.