"Brain telling hands to swing, arms not doing it" says DD

[callaforniashunshine]

I used to have this problem in high school as a slapper. I wanted to swing, and I knew I should have, but I just couldn't pull the trigger. One drill that is extremely helpful, even as a right-handed hitter is to just have her stand in the box and swing at EVERYTHING. Not only will this get her bat going, but she'll be able to react to pitches that are inside and outside. You can either have her let high and low balls go, in case you are worried that she is going to create a bad habit of swinging at everything, but she should be able to discern the difference come game time. Tell her it's a drill. It's a green light drill. The comments above are great, she always has to think - "expect a strike, and react to a ball.." she should never go up there anticipating a ball or wanting to be walked, she has to be aggressive and the green light drill (swinging at everything) will do just that. Try it out and let me know how it work. If it doesn't, I'll keep thinking.

 

[Dave D]

Two things--first, DD is a pitcher, and I know she over-analyzes every pitch. She draws a lot of walks, because she has a good eye--great bunter, but the decision process has historically been too slow to get the bat in front of the ball. Lots of late swings. Over the past few months, she's been swinging at absolutely everything that is within bat's reach of the plate. She's triggering much faster, but still only sees my weak live pitching. I'll be interested to see what happens when school ball practice starts.

Second--I know I've read this on this forum before, but it bears repeating on this thread-- the inner monologue of the batter should be "yes yes yes yes yes NO!" (hold up) or "yes yes yes yes YES!" (swing). I've used that successfully with lots of players over time.

 

[cshilt]

Whenever I have hitting practice I instruct the hitters to attack every ball as if it is a two strike count. This includes swinging at balls that are marginally out of the strike zone. I tell them that it is their job to call balls and strikes and we want the umpire to just worry about saying "safe".

I do not chide a player for swinging at a pitch out of the strike zone, as that would be counter productive to an attack mode mentality I want. Usually they know anyway and don't need me to remind them. If they are continually swinging at (and missing) balls out of the strike zone I look to see if they are getting a good two-eyed look at the ball. Are they tracking the ball as it comes in? Are there any mechanical things that need corrected? You'd be surprised how a simple thing like the grip on the bat can affect everything else.

If there is nothing mechanically wrong, they should be swinging at anything close during practice. This is the time to make mistakes and learn their limits. Praise them when they foul off a ball just outside the strike zone. Chide them for not swinging at a ball on the black (this is as negative as I get). Make sure that they know that they are in charge and if it is close enough for an umpire to call it a strike then they probably should have been swinging at it in the first place.

 

[Westwind]

Thank you all!

Thanks for some great info. We will work through everything here, I am creating a list to work off of.

I DO think I have unintentionally taught an unintended lesson that she has taken to heart. Instead of "attack" it was "get on base". I haven't trained many softball players, but I have trained enough dogs to know that you must be vigilant for the message you don't even realize you are teaching.

Folks- we are going on the attack! Green light! Go, go go!

Thanks again, ww.

 

[Shawn]

It sounds like there might be an afraid of the ball issue.

 

[Lozza]

Does she play with white balls? If so, that could be an issue. I have a holy hatred of the white balls I've been given for my rep team, as these are girls who have and for the foreseeable future, always will, play with optic yellow balls. If she plays with yellow balls, she needs to train with yellow balls.

 

[softballphreak]

Does she play with white balls? If so, that could be an issue. I have a holy hatred of the white balls I've been given for my rep team, as these are girls who have and for the foreseeable future, always will, play with optic yellow balls. If she plays with yellow balls, she needs to train with yellow balls.

I remember way back when we started using the yellow balls. We had a lot of white balls that we still used for practice. I hated it when we finally wore out all the white balls. When using the white balls for practice it made the yellow balls really easier to hit in games. I think the white balls require more focus so the yellow balls look like a big grapefruit coming down the line.