Fake Bunts - Giving up Strikes

[Chicago_Softball_Dad]

Hi there -

Father of a 12U player (and rear't coach on team). My daughter has historically been a strong hitter. High contact rate with decent power. This spring, this has disappeared and she is striking out at a very high rate. In looking at her plate appearances - what I and some other parents have noticed is she is getting down in the count with a mix of take/fake bunt/poorly executed bunt signs. In several PAs yesterday she only had one real swing and was late each time. She's getting down on herself and is starting to get frustrated. She's also the ace pitcher on the team and has shown she can handle adversity well -- but starting to worried at the plate. She went from stat wise the best hitter last spring (also 12U) and is now at the bottom (against similar pitchers).

We are headed to the hitting coach tonight to get some tips on timing and I'm reading up on the in-depth "timing" thread here -- but wanted some practical advice on how to handle situations where coaches are playing smart ball to rattle pitchers and get runners over a base -- but in the process it's giving up nice strikes and then often has 2 (or 1) good pitches to swing on.

BTW - in batting practice with fast paced front toss - it usually takes 2-3 swings and then she starts peppering line drives to the outfield. We've tried batting cages but she's struggled with timing those up. She's very coachable and is diligent in her preparation. Setting aside what the hitting coach will cover tonight -- any advice on how to deal with situations where you are regularly "behind in the count" due to take/bunt signs (and yes - i've told her she needs to be proficient at bunting to play HS)?

thanks

 

[cnardone]

Slumps come and go. Talk to her about that. It is not easy. We've all been there.
Suddenly all those early takes and fake bunts are going to turn into your DD being ahead the count.
Talk to her about how to better prepare her timing. If she can watch the pitcher before game. While sitting the bench in the dugout, practice timing loading her hands. When in the hole, she can stand and practice load timing (both hands and front foot), with no bat in her hands.
On deck is not just randomly swinging with no intention. Work your timing.

 

[YoungBuck]

As the previous poster mentioned "It is not easy."

From the age group your DD is at through college at the upper levels of competition you will see better and better pitching. When you watch some of the best hitters in the country they will go through at bats and games and never see a "good pitch."

Stay positive and continually out-work the competition (and teammates)... it will payoff.

 

[Chicago_Softball_Dad]

Thanks...I keep referring more parents/coaches to this forum as the advice here is always "real world" like.

Once again thanks!!

 

[CoachJD]

Do you think this is a mental thing?

Does she typically jump all over the first (hittable) pitch? Has she historically struggled when going deep into counts?

I wonder if the timing is caused by indecision that comes from all the bunt stuff. Maybe she goes up to the plate already worried about being down 0-1 because of the coach's signs.

 

[Rolling Hard]

Should be able to time up pitching machine. Feeder needs to be consistent and fake a windmill motion.

 

[Agcy]

Like others said, it isn't easy.

I will say that when struggling, my daughter sometimes bunts just to get the bat on the ball and that seems to help her normal swing.

 

[Cornbread]

I can’t stand it when coaches do that stuff. It puts hitters in a bind! Hitting is hard enough when you have at least 3 pitches to hit. All that stuff might be helpful to win games in 12U but it goes out the window as pitching/teams gets better. Hopefully it doesn’t impede the development of your dd. If y’all are winning a bunch of games it will not be easy to get the coach to change those calls.

 

[Westwind]

I hate take signs. There better be a really good reason for it. Better than the coach is guessing the p will throw a ball.

One of the best teams either dd was on did fake bunt/steal a lot. TBH it was a blast, with a rh hitter in the box and a good runner on 2 it was probably going to happen. This was a 16u team…

As far as your dd- has her swing changed at all? Sometimes “bad timing” is an inefficiency in how she initiates her swing. Sometimes it is having to “commit early” to a pitch to get her swing going. A good hitting coach will be able to see that. I saw it constantly with hitters in my area when DD’s were that age because there was an instructor locally that had a lot of hitters swinging very heavy bats against a Jugs machine set too fast. They could crush it but they had to commit to swinging way too early and live pitching would eat them alive…

 

[Chicago_Softball_Dad]

Again great replies -- yes, as she's gotten stronger her swing has changed and in a cage with an instructor or coach - she is solid back net hitter.

As a few of you have mentioned -- I believe it's part mental and part timing mechanism. Adding in having an aggressive coach gets in her head.

On flip side - the prior weekend she played up against a strong pitcher the prior weekend (with a coach giving no signs) and jumped on a first pitch and flew out a good 150 feet out.