Fairly new player and lessons.

[kbailey45us]

My 9 year old has played rec ball since she was old enough. She has natural talent and started to excel this year and we joined a travel team because she absolutely loves it. Started hitting lessons and just started pitching lessons. She has always been a pretty good hitter but couldnt hit a beach ball right now. Lessons took her from a narrow stance with stride to a wide stance and sometimes too much of a stride. It's most likely just in her head because she is so worried every part of her body is in the exact right place and her swing is perfect that she cant make contact. My question is should we stick to the lessons which probably are teaching her great mechanics or let her swing comfortably?

 

[julray]

My 9 year old has played rec ball since she was old enough. She has natural talent and started to excel this year and we joined a travel team because she absolutely loves it. Started hitting lessons and just started pitching lessons. She has always been a pretty good hitter but couldnt hit a beach ball right now. Lessons took her from a narrow stance with stride to a wide stance and sometimes too much of a stride. It's most likely just in her head because she is so worried every part of her body is in the exact right place and her swing is perfect that she cant make contact. My question is should we stick to the lessons which probably are teaching her great mechanics or let her swing comfortably?

It sounds like a very similar journey I went through with my DD. I’ll keep it simple, the most important thing of all at this age is keep it fun, don’t bog her down with technical aspects of the swing. Of course kids are all different, JMHO

 

[Borrowingminds]

My oldest dd (10) receives technical instruction well...to a degree, my youngest dd (9) I have to becareful and "code" it and primarily keep it fun, and my ds (7) loves "technical" talk, as long as it relates to homers, lol. They are all different as Julray mentioned, and I have to be sure to apply in a non exhaustive way...this is hard because I want them to experience success, and to immediately, but the real positive is them learning what it takes for the success, and enjoying that process.

Being uncomfortable is a good thing, and new habits are very uncomfortable. So she may be on the right track. If the instructor is good and she enjoys the instructor, I'd say keep on. Let the uncomfortable habits build at instruction and practice, then allow her to swing "comfortable" at games. Those two will merge positively over time.

But "over time" happens only if she associates it with fun in the beginning.

 

[The Man In Blue]

Admitting my bias up front: specialty coaching for a player just beginning their journey makes me cringe. You don't hire Bobby Flay to teach Intro to Cooking at the local community center for 2 hours on Wednesday nights. You don't hire John Williams to conduct the 6th grade band who is picking up instruments for the first time. You don't enroll your 10-year old in English 405: Topics in Creative Writing at the local university because they like to write. Learning is a progression not a purchase.

That said, what is your hitting coach doing? Is the coach working with your daughter's natural stance and routines and augmenting those with minor changes OR is the coach providing a model they want and trying to force your daughter in to it?

A good instructor is taking what the child is doing and working with that. A good instructor knows the fundamentals and constructs those around what the child is naturally doing. Some changes will need to be made and those will happen over time.

A bad instructor is using a singular ideal (usually a false ideal) and focusing on getting the ideal as fast as possible regardless of the possible outcome. A bad instructor changes everything on day 1 and reinforces that over and over and over.

What goals were set? Where they goals like "Improve batting average by xx%" or "average 2 hits per game"? OR were they goals like "stand in THIS stance THIS far from the plate"?

I know many people fancy themselves specialty coaches because people pay them, but the ones that truly are specialty coaches will turn away students who are not ready yet or are not a good match for their coaching skills.

 

[julray]

Admitting my bias up front: specialty coaching for a player just beginning their journey makes me cringe. You don't hire Bobby Flay to teach Intro to Cooking at the local community center for 2 hours on Wednesday nights. You don't hire John Williams to conduct the 6th grade band who is picking up instruments for the first time. You don't enroll your 10-year old in English 405: Topics in Creative Writing at the local university because they like to write. Learning is a progression not a purchase.

That said, what is your hitting coach doing? Is the coach working with your daughter's natural stance and routines and augmenting those with minor changes OR is the coach providing a model they want and trying to force your daughter in to it?

A good instructor is taking what the child is doing and working with that. A good instructor knows the fundamentals and constructs those around what the child is naturally doing. Some changes will need to be made and those will happen over time.

A bad instructor is using a singular ideal (usually a false ideal) and focusing on getting the ideal as fast as possible regardless of the possible outcome. A bad instructor changes everything on day 1 and reinforces that over and over and over.

What goals were set? Where they goals like "Improve batting average by xx%" or "average 2 hits per game"? OR were they goals like "stand in THIS stance THIS far from the plate"?

I know many people fancy themselves specialty coaches because people pay them, but the ones that truly are specialty coaches will turn away students who are not ready yet or are not a good match for their coaching skills.

I second small changes over time vs major overhaul. Again talking about a 9 year old enjoying the game and having fun. Major overhaul during the season generally results in very poor game results, which will probably make your DD unhappy. Good instructors implement small changes and then revaluate... otherwise too much at once leads to not knowing where things went wrong and harder to revert back to previous swing if necessary, just my two cents

 

[Mudders Brudder]

It might just be that your DD is seeing the wrong type of the two types of instructors you'll find out there...the "cookie cutter" instructor vs the "teach to proprioception (natural movements)" instructor for her needs.

Sounds like she might just be getting the same instruction that the instructor gives to all of his/her students...which while fine for some whose body wants to move naturally like that, doesn't suit the natural "proprioception" of how your DD's body is telling her it wants or needs to move athletically to hit said ball with said bat.

As I posted in another thread recently on a similar topic/situation talking about barrel path...

Yes, as stated here...

It's just a matter of how people naturally swing an object, depending on how they want to strike another object with it ...moving or not.

When given a goal of where a hitter should hit the ball (LD, GB, FB...), the body will organize itself to accomplish that.

...with stance and stride replacing the barrel path in this situation.

So while a wide stance and/or long stride might be good for some hitters, it can be a swing killer in others. That's why you see so many different styles of hitters at the upper levels, and not them all looking the same.

Finally, you're ultimately going to have to be your DD's hitting instructor just by default, because you're going to be spending the most time with her individual in a cage or on the field practicing whatever skills she'll be working on. So you should be in the instructors back pocket, asking about the "hows" and "whys" of what being instructed.

IOWs, s/he should be instructing you almost as much as your DD, because unless you can assess whether or not you're DD is doing as previously instructed. As such, the instructor should be able to explain exactly why s/he is teaching what s/he is, and should have a good explanation as to why s/he so drastically changed your DD's stance, and stride.

This goes for everything any instructor instructs, and if the answer(s) you get don't jive with what you're seeing other high level hitters are doing, or is something that your DD is so uncomfortable with that it's doing more harm than good - players should never need to regress to progress, that's just an instructor trying to string you along collecting your money while s/he hope their "cookie cutter" instruction will, like some miracle, eventually happen (or you forget how good your DD once hit before them) - then it's time to start looking for another instructor.

 

[kbailey45us]

Admitting my bias up front: specialty coaching for a player just beginning their journey makes me cringe. You don't hire Bobby Flay to teach Intro to Cooking at the local community center for 2 hours on Wednesday nights. You don't hire John Williams to conduct the 6th grade band who is picking up instruments for the first time. You don't enroll your 10-year old in English 405: Topics in Creative Writing at the local university because they like to write. Learning is a progression not a purchase.

That said, what is your hitting coach doing? Is the coach working with your daughter's natural stance and routines and augmenting those with minor changes OR is the coach providing a model they want and trying to force your daughter in to it?

A good instructor is taking what the child is doing and working with that. A good instructor knows the fundamentals and constructs those around what the child is naturally doing. Some changes will need to be made and those will happen over time.

A bad instructor is using a singular ideal (usually a false ideal) and focusing on getting the ideal as fast as possible regardless of the possible outcome. A bad instructor changes everything on day 1 and reinforces that over and over and over.

What goals were set? Where they goals like "Improve batting average by xx%" or "average 2 hits per game"? OR were they goals like "stand in THIS stance THIS far from the plate"?

I know many people fancy themselves specialty coaches because people pay them, but the ones that truly are specialty coaches will turn away students who are not ready yet or are not a good match for their coaching skills.

The more narrow stance was something I showed her early on because she had to have a pretty large stride. She loves her hitting coach and says she is more comfortable wider. Her swing actually looks pretty dang good for a 9 year old it's just she is being super picky that everything is perfect. I was basically just wondering if the lessons may have her so worried about perfection that it is causing her to remember the most important thing which is the bat has to contact the ball. Jist got back from doing a little work in the cage just us and I told her swing how ever you want to and dont worry about your feet or anything. I didnt correct her on anything just let her hit the ball. She hit like she used to. Thing is she was still doing everything her instructor told her only she wasnt thinking about it. I'm pretty sure it's just in her head.

 

[quincy]

I turned DD into a no stride hitter so I am not a good person to give an opinion about stride.

Your DD and you should talk to your coach and get thier opinion. Just leave her alone because I want them to hit for me now is not necessarily a good anwser. I can give her hitting lessons might not be a good anwser either. You and your DD Need to navigate all that.

You want them to know what she is doing anyways so you can kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

This is fielding but applies to hitting too. Pitching DD would air mail ball to 1st. Our parents knew her so they were ducking and hiding when the ball was hit to her because there was a good chance ball was going to end up in the stands. I worked with her on her back foot. I did not care were the ball went but your back foot needs to be like this. She was concentrating on that 1 thing so much she got out of her own head and our parents stopped having to Duck and cover.

Same as hitting 1 thing at a time. Move to next thing. Might have to circle back which is fine. She hopefully has time in abundance and I wish you luck in her long and successful journey.

(I did not notice this was softball hitting technical, thinking about deleting post before I am ridaqued more then usual.)