Hitting during practice

[_MIA_]

Yes.

Yes.

400 swings at once for a nine year old is a golden ticket to a different sport and maybe burnout. For parents, Less is more when you do less more often.

And make sure your parents understand that your soon to be awesome hitting practice is not a replacement for lessons and hitting outside of practice.

Not only will they burnout, they will tire and their mechanics will break down. Heck I would say that whether you are 9 or 19, more than 100 to 150 swings in a session is too much. With my 9 YO DD I typically throw her about 15 to 20 balls and then let her get a drink for a few minutes.

 

[Westwind]

Completely agree.

Too many swings in a session and taking tired swings is a detriment to the player and undoes lessons and improvement. I see it at all levels.

It took me a long time to learn that btw, and I still sometimes struggle with it!

Edited to add: tired swings can be minimized with good practice planning, examples mixing in bunt stations, ultralight bats with whiffle balls, etc

 

[CoachJB55]

We have a couple hitting cages and place to do tee work right beside our softball field, so that makes it easy. The biggest key is having people to help you run stations, and being able to trust them to run it right.

We always split into groups and they will be different each time. Sometimes we may group them by their position groups and do infielders, outfielders, and pitchers/catchers. We would have one group hitting live on the field, one group shagging, and one group at the cages hitting live there and tee work as well. Another option you can do is just do the hitting at the cages, and then do some sort of fielding drills on the field and concentrate on the different groups you will have each time.

 

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

I'm finding it very hard to get through 12 girls and accomplish anything hitting wise in our 2 hour practice time. There just doesnt seem to be enough time to spend with each one of them and still get other stuff done. I would love to hear any suggestions or how you guys handle trying to develop good hitters during 2 hour practices 2 days a week. 9 year olds.

#1 - Figure out a split for your practice. it will pay off in the end (work outfield and hitting one practice and then the next is infield and baserunning - just throwing ideas out there but the splits have to make sense) You can actually accomplish quite a bit in 4 hours.
#2 - At 9 years old i would focus more on good habits which will lead to being good hitters
#3 - If available you might want to see what kind of clinics are out there on the weekend. Bring it up to the parents and see if you can get a group to go. The girls will enjoy it more.

 

[quincy]

Other thing we did is most Sundays DD and I would go hit balls on the field. We would sometimes ask 2 other random players if they wanted to join us.

Wasn't required for anyone but we were going to be there anyways, and no means an optional Team practice because I wanted the number low so DD would get a lot of reps and it was our time.

The players might have had more at bats on these Sundays then they had all year in practice.

 

[CoachJD]

Your goal is to have players practice what they are learning in lessons and get quality reps.

Most softball players do not take private lessons, and I'm not sure the assumption that they do is all that helpful. It is telling though.

 

[Eric F]

Most softball players do not take private lessons, and I'm not sure the assumption that they do is all that helpful. It is telling though.

In my experience, this depends on the level of play. In 10U rec ball, I would agree that very few players are working with a private coach, a handful more are doing work at home between team practices and games. When my DD moved to 10U travel ball, EVERY player was doing extra work.

 

[_MIA_]

Most softball players do not take private lessons, and I'm not sure the assumption that they do is all that helpful. It is telling though.

I took his comment as to mean work outside of practice but yes the word lessons does seem to imply paying for it. My DD just hits with me, but there are probably at least 1/2 of the kids on her 10U TB team
which take lessons of some kind (hitting, pitching, catching) and I don't think that is out of the ordinary here in OK. I do agree though today's culture where kids don't play amongst themselves anymore makes it
difficult for a kid who doesn't necessarily have the means nor parents able or willing to work them, to succeed in softball. Basketball, on the otherhand, is a lot easier to practice on your own..

 

[Westwind]

Most softball players do not take private lessons, and I'm not sure the assumption that they do is all that helpful. It is telling though.

It must vary by area- I think most 10u and up players on competitive teams in my area did go somewhere to hit. Some “lessons” in my area were pitching machine based and cost $10. (The price has since skyrocketed to $15 I’m told, lol) some paid $35 for a longer actual one on one lesson. We only did that a few times before I discovered DFP and figured out I could do it well myself.

I live in the country, have a shed with a cage in it so my kids and a few others have not had much in the way of a paid lesson in many years.

I’m curious what is telling about my comment... I don’t follow.

I do agree though today's culture where kids don't play amongst themselves anymore makes it
difficult for a kid who doesn't necessarily have the means nor parents able or willing to work them, to succeed in softball. Basketball, on the otherhand, is a lot easier to practice on your own..

I agree and it is a shame that it is this way. I can’t think of any players off the top of my head that don’t have significant parental involvement.

 

[Cannonball]

You have a 2 hour practice. You should have infielders, outfielders and pitcher/catchers. You can take each of these groups and make your own hitting groups. I don't know the facilities but it should be easy enough to have at least OF and IF hit as groups. If you can have, for example, 5 stations, you can get a lot done. With pitchers and catcher, once they get their work in, they rotate into one of these two hitting groups.