I am looking for advice on how to best prepare my dd for learning to hit FP and making the transition from 8u to 10u. What has proven to be the most effective method of learning to hit the faster pitching in your experience? Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Hitting: Transition from 8u Coach pitch to 10u FP
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Continuously emphasize to them that their swing shouldn't change (assuming its good). The tendency will be to digress to an armsy swing to swat at the ball and try to put it in play, which is obviously counterproductive. I'm going through this for the 3rd time with my 8YO. I like to pitch from a screen 20-25 feet away (helps me simulate the speed) and gradually crank up the speed. They get used to it without noticing.
Now this still won't help them when they get in their against a real pitcher who throws it all over the place and is likely to hit them. Unfortunately, time in the box against live pitches is required to get over the nervousness of that situation but having a solid foundation of knowing they can hit it helps.
Now this still won't help them when they get in their against a real pitcher who throws it all over the place and is likely to hit them. Unfortunately, time in the box against live pitches is required to get over the nervousness of that situation but having a solid foundation of knowing they can hit it helps.
DD played Player pitch, with coach rescue, in 8u. Being the hitting coach I am DD was taught to swing at strikes. We learned that what a strike is very subjective when the umpire expands their strike zone to avoid a walk feast, 10U was not much better.
DD’s HC liked watching me when DD was called out on a called 3rd strike over her head, I think my face turned red.
It is the same swing but move the ball around more when pitching to your DD. DD ended up with she swung at anything in the same area code of the plate and was still called out for watched 3rd strikes. If you do not swing you are in trouble, if you do swing you are trouble.
For 10U Rec. you both need a have lot of patience and try not to develop too many bad habits.
DD’s HC liked watching me when DD was called out on a called 3rd strike over her head, I think my face turned red.
It is the same swing but move the ball around more when pitching to your DD. DD ended up with she swung at anything in the same area code of the plate and was still called out for watched 3rd strikes. If you do not swing you are in trouble, if you do swing you are trouble.
For 10U Rec. you both need a have lot of patience and try not to develop too many bad habits.
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We started our DD on soft toss and color coded her balls (stars red and black and some blank) and had her swing hit the red hit the black no blank ones. You get the idea. Move to the front soft toss when she gets this down. And don't keep them all at the same height to help with strike recognition.
Not sure if this is good advice or not but she liked the game and it was all about making batting fun and hand eye coordination and teaching her to watch the ball and not swing at every pitch.
Not sure if this is good advice or not but she liked the game and it was all about making batting fun and hand eye coordination and teaching her to watch the ball and not swing at every pitch.
