Acclimating to better pitching

[grcsftbll]

I don't entirely agree with this. Hitting crappy pitching is a skill and much can be learned. Also, around these parts if your team is good enough and your lineup hits well enough, you better be able to hit junk because smart teams throw junkers at you if you can't.

I disagree too but for a different reason. We play in pretty competitive tournaments. As a first year 10U player facing a lot of A level pitchers, my dd struggled a lot with hitting in the fall. In late fall we played a lower level tournament with slower pitchers. My DD hit will there, and it bolstered her confidence. After that with a little help from pitching machine practice, she started hitting consistently again. It was so mental for her and facing less challenging pitching, even just that one, helped her realize she could do it.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I would focus on timing quite a bit, an oft-neglected ingredient. You can have crap mechanics but if you are on time you at least have a chance. If you are very late, all the mechanics in the world aren't going to save you.

IMO timing is best perfected by perfecting the sequence ... which is mechanically what most should be after.

 

[Mr T]

IMO timing is best perfected by perfecting the sequence ... which is mechanically what most should be after.

OK. If part of your definition of sequence is starting on time then I am on board.

I've seen terrible mechanics crush balls and I've seen hitters overly concerned with mechanics, with poor sense of rhythm and timing, struggle. In fact I saw a kid at an 8U tourney a few years back put a very strange swing on a ball literally over her head, ball went out, opposite field. It went out, then it went over the space between fields, then the adjacent field fence, then over the SS playing on the adjacent field, landed and rolled out to the parking lot behind first base line.