How To Conquer The Fear

[softballmom0223]

My twelve year old daughter is a beast on the field. She plays third base and catcher and rarely lets anything get by her. When she steps up to the plate, however, it's like a whole different player. She is very nervous and it shows. She looks very timid and I know this excites whatever pitcher she is up against. It's very obvious that she lacks confidence there. I started taking her to a hitting coach in an effort to help build her confidence. When doing tee work, soft toss, and hitting off of the machine, she does great. Her coach says that fundamentally, her mechanics are great and that her problem is strictly mental. When she's facing a live pitcher, it's as if she just loses her mind and does nothing that she's been practicing. She stands far off of the plate and steps out so far that if she does make contact, it's off the end of her bat. When questioned, she either says that she doesn't know why she's doing it, or that she's scared that she's going to get hit by the pitch. I'm not sure why that suddenly frightens her though because she's taken many hits and it's never bothered her before. Her coach has thrown balls at her and taught her how to properly take a hit, and has tried putting things behind her so that she doesn't step out, but she consistently just steps over them. She even steps back when she's just taking a bad pitch...as if it's a habit. At her last hitting lesson, her coach told her that she cannot help her anymore...that her problem is mental and that she is the only one who can change that. My daughter has become very frustrated as she doesn't know how to change it. Any advice or tools that you can recommend that would help her to overcome this? She is getting very discouraged.

 

[CoogansBluff]

At her last hitting lesson, her coach told her that she cannot help her anymore...that her problem is mental and that she is the only one who can change that.

My advice would be patience and faith. Your daughter will figure it out. Making a big deal out of it might make it worse. It's not a character flaw, just a stage of development. Hope your daughter doesn't take her coach's message as a loss of patience and faith.

Her coach has thrown balls at her and taught her how to properly take a hit

This is a good skill to learn, but it's unrealistic IMO to expect this will alleviate the fear. She might hear this instruction as ''you're going to get hit, so prepare for it'' when in reality batters don't get hit that often in travel ball.

In time, your daughter's desire to hit well will be greater than the desire to avoid being hit. Reminds me of my attempts to get my daughter to dive for balls. She couldn't do it in practice because it hurt. But then one day - in a game - she wanted to catch the ball more than she wanted to avoid the discomfort. Laid out and caught a liner in the gap. Now, she dives with no problem, even sometimes when she shouldn't.

Her coach says that fundamentally, her mechanics are great and that her problem is strictly mental.

I don't disagree that it's mental and developmental, but as an aside, I've rarely seen a 12U player with ''great'' mechanics. I wonder again if your DD isn't getting a message from hitting coach that ''I've done my part, it's all your fault.''

 

[quincy]

If you haven’t yet I would armor her up a little bit. Here are some products:

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How often does she face live pitching? Only in games? Does the same thing happen in practice against a live pitcher?

You can also have her hit standing on a board. The board needs to be large enough not to restrict her swing but small enough that she steps off it if she bails. It will provide her immediate feedback without anyone needing to say anything to her.

 

[softballmom0223]

Her mechanics may not be perfect but her whole demeanor changes when she's facing a live pitcher. She's ripping the ball in all others aspects. She's tried having her stand on the board as well as many other drills but if she's pitching live, she steps right off of it. She knows that she's doing it, ; she just doesn't know how to stop. I don't think her coach was meaning to discourage her...I think she was just trying to let her know that physically, She's got this, she just needs to get it mentally and she's the only one that can make the decision to do that. What she needs is some tools or advice on how to mentally overcome this. Thanks for the responses!

 

[Sweet Lou]

As Yogi said, 90% of the game is mental, the other half is physical.

Some success at the plate will go a long way to helping. The positive feedback will build confidence.

I think the hitting coach is correct at this point it probably is mental. I think they are taking the wrong approach on fixing it.

Not sure if this will help or not by try doing some front toss right at her front hit and have her try to drive the ball up the middle. (Strongly suggests being behind a screen for this). It is nearly impossible to hit an inside pitch up the middle if you pull off or step out.

Start slow and work up to faster inside pitches and reinforce (good job, etc.) every time she swings without "stepping in the bucket". Don't focus so much on the result of the hit but more on eliminating the problem you are trying to get rid of.

Then have her face as much live pitching as possible to simulate game situation.

You can also film one or two of her ABs to show her what she is doing. She may acknowledge what she is doing but as they say, seeing is believing. She might not even realize how far from the plate she and that she is stepping out even on takes.

 

[Sweet Lou]

You can also have her go "no stride" for a while. You can't step out if you don't stride the front foot.

 

[Sweet Lou]

By the way, how old is she. Fear of getting hit is very common, especially at the younger ages.
Nevermind. I see she is 12. Still very common at that age and 12s is when you first start to see some real fireballers.

 

[sb03dad]

You can also have her go "no stride" for a while. You can't step out if you don't stride the front foot.

This ^^

We used to threaten DD with cement shoes. Maybe it's mental, but she stopped backing out when she hit a rocket back to the pitchers thigh. At least that seems when she stopped doing it. It was also around the time we went to a new instructor and doesn't teach a stride, but more of a toe touch.

 

[Perfect Circle]

My Plans of Attack Steps

Amy gave me great advice about using a left handed glove.... all though I didn't have the luxury of time ... I stuck with showing her she already had the sheath in place with her glove skills.

Step 2

 

[Sweet Lou]

By saying mental, you are attaching a willfulness to an action, and I can tell by the wording, that what is going on now with the kid is considered willful by both the parent and coach, two role models for the kid!

How? A lot of the mental side is our subconscience fears driving our body. Fear of being hit, fear of failure, etc. I agree with give the hitter a plan to work on and maybe your plan is better. How we overcome them has a lot to do with how successful we'll be.

Also depending on how long this has been going on, it may take a while to re-program her body to NOT do it. Habits both good and bad can be tough to break.

To the OP, has she been hit recently?