How To Conquer The Fear

[quincy]

DD was hit by a pitch a fracture her finger, she had no interest in being in the batter’s box.

I was very frustrated with her and came up with a new plan besides telling her to stay in there. I didn’t say a thing about her bailing out and pitched her 100s of balls and the issue slowly went away.

 

[pctrips]

My daughter has struggled at the plate mentally quite a bit. She would step out at times but that was never really a problem. What I've found to work best for her was to simplify things. No thinking about mechanics or whether the pitcher throws hard or whether there's bases loaded and 2 outs. When she is struggling now her attitude and all she is supposed to think about is "I can't wait to knock the crap out of this ball". It is an attitude as much as a thought and it definitely helps my daughter when she is struggling. Maybe that can work for you.

 

[FP26]

How accurate are the pichers on her team? If they consistently throw strikes, try to find out their practice schedules. Ask if you could have your dd stand in against them at practice to work on timing. Have her time the pitch and start to swing, but dont swing. In many cases this fear can be overcome just by repetition. It may just be comfort level.

 

[CoogansBluff]

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

Never thought of that. Worth a try.

My daugher lately has begun stepping in too much, and though it seems minor, she's had trouble breaking it. Might try that in batting practice and see what happens.

 

[softballmom0223]

Very wrong.

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!

You are also not giving the player something positive to do to change the current situation. For my example, thinking about hitting opposite field, or learning where a pitch is going, as goals takes care of the mental and physical aspects. It takes the pressure off where you foot or toe or head is. It replaces fear with a plan, an action, and a way to judge the action, all taken care of by the kid. Full control.

Now I know people get sport pyschs these days, but they will also tell you, you have to do something practical. But if you don't want any help or think saying mental or wearing armor are the answer, then nothing I can do.

I say mental because this seems to be caused by fear or something obviously not physical as she can hit strong all day long until she is facing a live pitcher. Her old hitting coach always used a pitching machine that pitched all sorts of pitches...inside, outside, drop, curve, etc... my daughter would kill it so she always had a hard time understanding why my daughter struggled ab in her games when I would show her videos. She always dismissed it as her just being nervous. Yes, she's nervous about being hit...she doesn't have to worry about that with the machine. Her new coach doesn't use the machine, she actually pitches to her so she gets a firsthand look at exactly what she does game time.

I like the idea of giving her something positive to do to redirect her attention. Obviously, I want to help her succeed, that's why I'm here asking for advice. She has had many successful hits in the past and has only started doing this the last month or two. As a parent, it's painful to watch, particularly when other parts of her game are so good. Thanks for the tips!

 

[softballmom0223]

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?

No, she hasn't...that's what's so odd to me. As a matter of fact, she was once on a team that required all players to stay in and take a hit for the team. She used to never have a problem taking a hit and never even cried. Everyone always talked about how tough she was. I do think that this has become a habit...now to figure out a way to break it!

 

[softballmom0223]

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

Thanks! That's exactly what I told her after practice last night.

 

[Sweet Lou]

Has she seen someone who go drilled who got hurt recently? That might be all it took. Who know what causes this? Glad you're working with her to try get through it.

 

[sb03dad]

One last thing... How's her vision? Been checked lately?

 

[softballmom0223]

Has she seen someone who go drilled who got hurt recently? That might be all it took. Who know what causes this? Glad you're working with her to try get through it.

Not that I'm aware of.