How to overcome fear of being hit by the ball.

[lhowser]

A well respected pitching coach in our area told a pitcher on my team years ago - "If you don't want them to hit it up the middle...don't throw it down the middle". I told that to my DD and she buys into it. When she makes her pitches rarely do the come up the middle. When she misses and is flat and catching the plate she is ready and expects it will be hit hard. She is 14. Just a thought.

 

[Jojo]

I agree with everyone has to learn to deal with the fear in their own way.
You either give up, or train yourself better defensively. No matter how hard you train, there is always going to be that pitch and that hit.
When my DD went off to college, she exclaimed, "These are WOMEN I'm pitching too!" She went through a little nervous time her first fall season.
She kidded a lot about how she pitched especially to the bigger girls. INSIDE, INSIDE, INSIDE, SPIN, SPIN, SPIN, STAY SKINNY!
And when you throw it out, you throw it OUT!

And by skinny she meant, she didn't pull around into a fielders position, she said she let her self stay pretty much sideways making herself as narrow a target as possible.

In 4yrs she only had one hard hit that got her. It was to her pitching hand, came back so fast near her ribcage she was able to get hand on it before glove. It sent it to her the ER with a severely swollen hand (thought it was broken) but it wasn't, thank goodness.

 

[sleepwalker]

I took my dd to College Softball games every year. We attended D1, D2, NAIA and Juco games. I'd guess, somewhere around 13 or 14 years old, she started showing enough interest to start watching the games, instead of spending all my money at the snackbar. But in attending the games, she noticed that the batters didn't get out of the way of pitched balls. Especially during the last 3 or 4 years, when there was a rule change in college where the batter didn't have to make an attempt to get out of the way. She would watch some of the better hitters get jammed and not move. She would watch girls take 60+ mph pitches to the body and then trot down to first base and take their walk. We would talk about those situations and why the girls would let the ball hit them, and I would ask her something like, "Do you like pitching when you have runners on base?"

We would watch the Softball College World Series every year. There are several opportunities to watch hitters get plunked without the hitter ever making an attempt to get out of the way of an inside pitch. As my dd watched the older, collegiate players, play the game, she must have had a light bulb moment. Ever since she has been around 14 or 15 years old, it was rare that she went a weekend where she wasn't struck by a pitch and took her base. When I would ask her about getting hit by pitches, she would say that she wanted to put the pressure on the pitcher and get her to think about her pitches and control. She would also say that is how the older girls play.

During my dd's 1st year of college softball(fall ball), she was pitching and had a line drive come back and tatoo her in her left thigh. Contrary to what has been heard, written and talked about at the ball fields for years, that pitches that are left over the middle of the plate are hit up the middle. She was hit by a line drive that she and her catcher both stated, that the drop ball was a good 6 to 8 inches off of the outside corner of the plate. Her coach ran out onto the field after the incident and asked if she was ok. She told the coach that she'd been hit before and to give her the ball.

Later in the fall ball season, while batting, my dd took a 60+ mph pitch to the body from a very accomplished pitcher. She jogged down to 1st base, where the HC pulled her, put in a pinch runner and scolded her for not getting out of the way of the pitch. I am guessing that my dd won't get to bat this Spring.

Amidst all the above rambling is that, my dd more than likely overcame her fear of getting hit by the ball by watching the College Softball game in person and on television and emulating the older, more experienced and skilled players trying to take every advantage that the game had to offer.

Just my $.02.

 

[bucket pinata]

something along the lines of this might work.