DD freezing up during games while at the plate

[guero_gordo]

Try to give her one thought only(none if possible) and it needs to be a thought about what she WILL do, rather than about what she won't do.
"Swing at every pitch" vs. "Don't look at strike 3".

 

[pctrips]

My DD went through this right about the same age. It really was a confidence problem for my DD. She didn't think she could hit it so she wouldn't swing. About that time we really got focused on hitting and practiced...a whole lot. We hit at least 3 nights a week for 2 months and worked on some mechanical things with some help from DFP. The extra work she started putting in gave her the confidence to go ahead and start trying to hit the ball. I still wish she'd hit 3 nights a week but most weeks we're lucky to get 2 in outside of 2 team practices. She no longer has the confidence issue though.

 

[JAD]

I started having my DD get her batting helmet when some of our pitchers were warming up, and she would stand in the batters box and call "ball" or "strike" about the time that she would have to make a "swing" "no swing" decision. It also helped her keep her eye on the ball all the way to the catchers mitt.

 

[NVfishing]

Chris, im kinda curious about this picture. Is it something to just give a visual strikezone or was it actually used during live pitching practice?

A little backstory: We have a 10U rec team and a month before the season started we took them to the city and let them play in several tournaments. Facing pitchers throwing a high volume of strikes and 45-55 mph the girls hit the ball unbelievably well (team average .542). We get back home, and start playing rec league and they cant hit at all. We have racked our brains, watched videos of them hitting before, and hitting now and it is unbelievable how different their swings are. They went from line drives in teh grass, to grounding out to 1st and 2nd base.

I think the biggest culprit is the pitching (or lack there of in rec league) where your lucky if you get a pitcher that can throw 40% strikes and the average speed is probably 30-35 mph, maybe a couple low 40s. In the travel tournaments, our girls expected a strike and with the ball on them very quickly, muscle memory kicks in and you saw the nice fluid swing. In rec ball though, rather than drooling over a 35 mph meatball and waiting on it, they are expecting a ball and by the time they realize its a strike, they just fan at it.

We have tried alot of hand drills (pitcher full motion, flashes number at release point of pitch) and they do great at it but hasnt seemed to help their hitting. I was just curious about your contraption and its application. Seeing the ball at the release point is one thing (hip), having a better understanding of the balls path and plane during its flight is another. Im wondering if that tool couldnt be set up say 15-ft. (modified of course) from the pitcher to give the girls a better understanding of where a ball should be at half way if its going to hit or miss the strike zone.

Hell, maybe im the one now overthinking it, lol. As i said before, our biggest problem seems to be recognition of a hittable pitch soon enough, any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

My DD is a good hitter. She tells me slow pitching is harder to hit than faster more accurate pitching.

 

[BuckeyeGuy]

If your objective is to have her SWING, start by rewarding her for every SWING!

Took exactly 3 games and about 15 nights of wiffle ball front toss. She started swinging as soon as I offered her money to do so lol! Last game - 1st hit in 2 seasons, I kid you not. She ripped it to right center and had 2 other excellent at bats (swinging at strikes, looking at balls).

 

[Tom]

IMO, you are jumping the gun by putting the reward not on the desired action, but the result of the desired action. If your objective is to have her SWING, start by rewarding her for every SWING! An escalating reward system can be added for the RESULT of the swing or at bat. But, and its a huge but, it MUST start with the mental approach that once she's in the box she will be swinging at EVERY pitch unless she sees it is a pitch she "can't hit". With time/experience/confidence, "can't hit" changes to "a ball", which ultimately evolves to "a pitch I can't hit well given the count/game situation".

What Greenmonsters said is what really worked for my DD. She was going through same thing early this season. Once she figured out good pitchers don't throw too many fat strikes and really good pitchers throw mostly borderline balls/strikes, and that she is looking for what she can hit (not what is just an obvious strike) seemed to really click with her.

The other thing that really helped was to stop doing a lot of front/side toss. We replaced front/side workouts with live pitching, and when she hits on her own now it is primarily off a tee to work on form. Nothing is going to dial a hitter's eye in more than facing someone who is trying to strike them out. With only 10-15 ABs per tournament increasing the amount of live pitching helped tremendously. What we discovered is that there are a lot of decent #2 & #3 pitchers on teams out there who don't get to face a lot of live batters and were eager to combine workouts with us so they could pitch "for real" while DD got to practice against live pitching. Both players seemed to get a lot out of this. Is great to split cage fees with another dad too.

 

[okie]

Personally, my DD has the opposite problem, we cant get her to stop swinging! In 107 plate appearances this year she has only walked twice. By comparison, my #1, #2 and #4 hole hitters around her, have walked 26-48 times. I am not exaggerating when i say i've seen her swing (and hit) ball 4 as it bounces in the dirt in front of the plate or a ball 6" above her head with a mean tomahawk chop. Fixing this problem has been even more complicated because shes had success, hitting .676 in league and .417 in travel ball.

Trying to get her to understand that hitting better pitches typically equals better hits has not worked.

 

[BuckeyeGuy]

Personally, my DD has the opposite problem, we cant get her to stop swinging! In 107 plate appearances this year she has only walked twice. By comparison, my #1, #2 and #4 hole hitters around her, have walked 26-48 times. I am not exaggerating when i say i've seen her swing (and hit) ball 4 as it bounces in the dirt in front of the plate or a ball 6" above her head with a mean tomahawk chop. Fixing this problem has been even more complicated because shes had success, hitting .676 in league and .417 in travel ball.

Trying to get her to understand that hitting better pitches typically equals better hits has not worked.

My 4-hole hitter does the same thing. I keep telling her to be patient, wait on a pitch, but when she hits an inside the park HR on a pitch 6" over her head it's hard to get the message through.

 

[okie]

My 4-hole hitter does the same thing. I keep telling her to be patient, wait on a pitch, but when she hits an inside the park HR on a pitch 6" over her head it's hard to get the message through.

They are very receptive when they are struggling, but its hard to get them to acknowledge and work on things when they are having success. We see this alot more with our pitchers, even moreso the parents of those pitchers.

 

[Pitching Dad]

The biggest issue I have see on girls who appear flat footed and extremely stiff in the box and unsure of weather to swing or not is no pre-swing movement /routine they just get in there grip the bat as tight as the can and hope for a walk. Make them develop a routine for each time they get in the box, weight on the balls of their feet, knees bent, a little movement (rhythm) while waiting on the pitch. Hands moving small circles, Have them go to toe touch and load as the pitcher is releasing the ball EVERYTIME!!! If you arent seeing this loose Rhythm and loading on every pitch they will NEVER be good hitters. With girls this young I will have the team spread out down 1st baseline and 3rd baseline facing me at the pitchers rubber with their bats and as I make a fake pitch I am looking for this movement and loading each time. We just think hitting should be natural but very few of us teach the steps prior to a swing. This is a way to show all of them at a team practice in minimal time then during games in the on-deck circle have them doing the same load/toe touch and swing to time that individual pitcher.
I also have miniture plastic golfballs, some have small blue dots some have small red dots, I will make it a game they MUST swing at the red dots and leave the blue dots alone. This not only gets them loading every pitch then deciding NOT to swing but it also MAKES them watch the ball..... Hope this helps.

NOT ONE OF US IS AS SMART AS ALL OF US!!!!