Good hitter slowing down swing

[RichK]

On our 16U team we have a girl who slows down her swing in game conditions...this is not a case of an unschooled girl making a bad swing. She's a very good hitter and has a good, if a bit of a long swing. But she has a tendency to get tentative at times. It feels mental, and she'll look very defensive at the plate. She rarely strikes out, so it's not that (ie, fear of striking out and looking bad). And we'd prefer she'd strike out more often if it would make her be more aggressive anyway.

All the tee and front-toss work can't help when she gets up to the plate and seems to be dealing mainly with her own head. This is a tough one for us to crack. Over-analyzing it doesn't seem to work either.

Any thoughts? Anything we can do?

 

[crankermo]

Sounds to me that she is afraid of striking out during the game and hearing about it from someone on the ride home. Alot of times parents make their kids afraid of situations by reaming them when it doesn't go perfect so the kids will error on the side of caution. It's easy to make contact when you swing half heartedly versus a full swing. I would have a talk with her and her parents and explain what you want and expect out of her. IMO she just needs the room to feel comfortable with striking out, cause it's going to happen no matter how good you are.


I watched a video of Barry Bonds hitting off Jennie Finch one time and all he would do is check swing while Pujols was taking his normal cut and was having trouble just making contact, wish I would've saved that. Bonds was scared to look bad.

 

[straightleg]

Try the reverse hand drill. See if she powers through the ball more


straightleg

 

[Hitter]

Try the reverse hand drill. See if she powers through the ball more


straightleg

I use the Barry Bonds drill as to using the pitching for timing and rhythm only as I do not use a pitching machine for batting practice.

Before that however ask her what in the pitchers motion triggers her swing to begin and what in the pitchers motion triggers her step.

Do not ask her questions she can reply yes or no too and get her engaged in a conversation and LISTEN to her logic and reason for why she is doing what she is doing.

For me the load is continuous and does not stop just like flowing water does not stop.

I use a half full or half empty bottle of water to explain this and have the hitter put their hand under mine and I make the water shift in the bottle by turning it rearward or load or go negative and stop and the water will rebound and go forward on its own from inertia and seeks its own level even with the bottle tilted rearward.

Now I repeat and this time as the water moves rearward at the right time I shift the water forward and control the flow of the water and they can feel it in their hands. Now I have them do it.

Then I have them hold the bottle of water in both hands against their body below the belly button about 2 inches and and ask then to load and step and point out on their hips this is where the flow to the ball is coming from in my opinion and we need to learn how to load up against the back hip and not over the leg and then when we stride we try to land on the inside edge of the lead foot so the weight or flow does not stop until we start rotation and we naturally get to heel plant (some get to heel plant earlier and later).

The Barry Bonds drill simply is starting the hitter beyond where the catcher sets up and stepping forward after each successful hit. If in a public cage be careful not to go beyond the safety area! If in a cage I would not go further than 15 feet in front of the machine as it could bounce off the tire or go back into the feeder tube. Crystl has done this to within 5 feet of the machine that was set at 55 MPH in Westerville Ohio in Feb. of 2009 with about 250 people watching so it is not a myth.

Once you have reached your most forward point reverse your direction and that is considered a cycle.

Then move away for outside pitches and move in for inside pitches.

Again observe what she is doing before you attempt to change anything and let her explain what she thinks she is doing.

Thanks Howard