Afraid of an inside pitch.

[MJs Dad]

My 12 year old DD has developed a fear of inside pitches. She won't admit to it but it is obvious to me and anyone who watches her including the other teams. If the pitch is anywhere near the inside corner she jumps off the plate like someone threw a ball of fire at her! The logical explanation would be that she had been hit really hard at sometime, but I don't think that's what it is. How do I break her of that habit? Because once the smart teams pick up on her fear, all she gets are inside fastballs. They used to be afraid to pitch her inside because it was a garunteeded rip down the third base line, lately it's a garunteeded strike!

 

[calgofo]

If you haven't already, you could tell her if she doesn't stop jumping back, then the inside pitch is pretty much all she is going to see. Another obvious is alot of work in practice on hitting the inside pitch and if she was hitting them before, then she can again. In the cruel old days, they used to put bats in the dirt behind a batter who had happy feet. The theory being they had to decide if they were more afraid of the inside pitch or falling trying to bail out. This was effective but caused injuries, plague, famine and other natural disasters, so has fallen out of favor with the new, kinder,gentler coaches. Another approach would be to teach her how to get out of the way of a pitch that was going to bean her. You could take some incrediballs and throw tight in on her and if she gets hit it won't hurt.

IIRC, you had some earlier postings about your dd playing 14u or 12u, what did you choose?

 

[Wellphyt]

Buy her the McDavid Hex Pad shorts that go from the hip down the outside thigh, almost to the knee. Buy her the McDavid Hex Pad shirt that protects the ribs. Buy her an elbow guard to protect her lead elbow, and maybe even a Hex Pad forearm pad.

Whatever it takes to get her comfortable. Eventually, she will outgrow some of the protection and not want to wear it.

If it's good enough for the pros in baseball, soccer, baskeball, vollyball etc., why not FP. I view 12U FP as a contact sport, because some pitchers don't have pinpoint control. Those of us who have sat on a bucket and caught our daughters, know that the ball hurts when it hits you.

 

[MJs Dad]

If you haven't already, you could tell her if she doesn't stop jumping back, then the inside pitch is pretty much all she is going to see. Another obvious is alot of work in practice on hitting the inside pitch and if she was hitting them before, then she can again. In the cruel old days, they used to put bats in the dirt behind a batter who had happy feet. The theory being they had to decide if they were more afraid of the inside pitch or falling trying to bail out. This was effective but caused injuries, plague, famine and other natural disasters, so has fallen out of favor with the new, kinder,gentler coaches. Another approach would be to teach her how to get out of the way of a pitch that was going to bean her. You could take some incrediballs and throw tight in on her and if she gets hit it won't hurt.

IIRC, you had some earlier postings about your dd playing 14u or 12u, what did you choose?

Thanks for the ideas. After futher discussion with my DD she did take a shot to the inside of her right thigh about the time this all started. I think we gotten her past it however. As for her playing up or staying where she is we are still on the fence for now. We are going to finish out this season then make a decision.

 

[ssarge]

Thanks for the ideas. After futher discussion with my DD she did take a shot to the inside of her right thigh about the time this all started. I think we gotten her past it however. As for her playing up or staying where she is we are still on the fence for now. We are going to finish out this season then make a decision.

MJs Dad:

I think getting hit was fortunate. She either has experienced it and is willing to live with it in the future, or she isn't.


The approaches to this problem which create a scenario where getting hit doesn't HURT have limited long-term value in my experience.


And I'll take the flame hits on this from those who disagree, so feel free to fire away.


But in my experience, the kids who crowd the plate and get hit a lot, or who dive in a full-out prone manner to catch the ball, or slide headfirst, or whatever, are simply wired a little differently than most of us. In their brain, the desire / NEED to perform in a superior matter - to WIN - is simply stronger than their fear of getting hurt.

This can be developed - it's not always a natural phenomenon. And I'd work on that - the mental side of it. Once a kid decides she MUST succeed, she loses her fear. Once a kid who has been padded up or had tennis balls thrown at her in a well-intentioned attempt to demonstrate it "doesn't really hurt," and then inevitably actually gets hit in a game, she ends up saying / thinking, "it does TOO hurt, you jerk."

Anyway, from my perspective, probably good she got hit. She may well be past it now.

Best regards,

Scott

 

[a softball life for me]

This reminds me of a funny story and the point I knew my DD was no longer afraid of getting hit with a pitch. It was a long hot double header over 90 degrees and very humid. She had pitched the whole game and was up to bat in the last inning. The pitch came right at her and she let out this "ooh" before it even got to her. She just turned toward the backstop and let it hit her. All she did was turn and take it, she never moved back to get out of the way. Everyone just laughed at her and when asked why, she just answered that she saw it coming and was too tired to get out of the way!

 

[ifubuildit]

MJ's Dad

You could take some incrediballs and throw tight in on her and if she gets hit it won't hurt.

This has worked for me to some degree. I have also used tennis balls and with much younger kids wiffle balls to help them get over the fear. Takes some time but often I get positive results from it.

Until they actually get hit and understand that the pain does go away in a short period of time they are still going to want to jump back.

Dana.

 

[coach D'E]

My DD had the same problem. It just developed over a course of a long schoolball,Town little league and Travel ball season (about 75 games). In the next off season, we tried everything including the "old bat behind the feet" and using a small piece of carpet in the proper stance. Than an old baseball coach told me to underhand soft toss at her at about 10 feet in front of her. Then throw the balls, at various speed, towards her and have her bunt and/or defend her self with only the bat. We started out using the softest indoor balls, then used tennis balls, nerf balls and real softballs. We then mixed all the balls in a bucket and I tossed random balls at her. It became a very fun experience. It took about 3 sessions a week for about 3 weeks to get her out of the foot in the bucket funk. It also gave her confidence at the plate and better bat control. Her amount of strike outs decreased and she became a better bunter in the process. She now takes her stance as close to the plate as possible. It must also be noted that in a course of about 250 games over 4 years she has only been hit by a wild pitch 2 times.

 

[halskinner]

My DD had the same problem. It just developed over a course of a long schoolball,Town little league and Travel ball season (about 75 games). In the next off season, we tried everything including the "old bat behind the feet" and using a small piece of carpet in the proper stance. Than an old baseball coach told me to underhand soft toss at her at about 10 feet in front of her. Then throw the balls, at various speed, towards her and have her bunt and/or defend her self with only the bat. We started out using the softest indoor balls, then used tennis balls, nerf balls and real softballs. We then mixed all the balls in a bucket and I tossed random balls at her. It became a very fun experience. It took about 3 sessions a week for about 3 weeks to get her out of the foot in the bucket funk. It also gave her confidence at the plate and better bat control. Her amount of strike outs decreased and she became a better bunter in the process. She now takes her stance as close to the plate as possible. It must also be noted that in a course of about 250 games over 4 years she has only been hit by a wild pitch 2 times.

At the academy where I used to instruct pitching, I would also be asked to throw batting practice ocassionaly, to individual players, small groups and teams.

I would have a bucket of softballs sitting on top of an upside down bucket on my throwing side. I would always secret the ball into my glove so the batter could not see it until I started the pitch.

In with all the regular softballs, there would be 2 or 3 wiffle balls the same color.

All the batters were taught to get out of the way IF they had the time. If not, they were taught to turn away and take the hit in the side.

Every several pitches, I would secret one of the wiffle balls into my glave and throw right at them so the hitting instructor could evaluate how well (or IF) they responded to the self-defense situations as trained. Most of the time they did well, once in awhile, not so good and they needed to focus on that part a little more. I would attack them high, mid level and at ther ankles with no forewarning at all.

Some had been hit and had a fear of it. Some of the young ones would scream and even cry once in awhile. However, it did not take many of THOSE sessions for them to realize they COULD get out of the way and their reaction times to the self-defense situations improved dramatically.

Their problem was not they were not moving quickly enough, their problem was NOT recognizing it as a self-defense situation, they had not seen it enough in games.

I wrote an article on Pitcher / Batter self-defense drills that was featured in the NFCA's Fast Pitch Delivery Newspaper.