How to tell if a bat is "dead" or if its just problems in the swing

[laker]

My DD is a cage hitter too, right now at least. Just crushes in BP too. My HS baseball coach used to call me a 5 o'clock hitter. I never new what it meant until recently when I looked it up. He was right.

 

[JAD]

My DD is a cage hitter too, right now at least. Just crushes in BP too. My HS baseball coach used to call me a 5 o'clock hitter. I never new what it meant until recently when I looked it up. He was right.

 

[laker]

That describes me perfectly, except for the slow pitch league part.

 

[KPower]

My DD is a "cage hitting phenom"....kills the ball in the cage and BP, then struggles in games, and the problem resides in the 6" between her ears. I just need to figure out a way to get her to relax and be as confident in the batters box as she is in the pitchers circle...

This is it exactly! DD is a catcher and is a beast behind the plate. No hesitation, no overthinking, just does what she knows how to do. WHY can't it be the same in the batters box? Ugh!

 

[JAD]

This is it exactly! DD is a catcher and is a beast behind the plate. No hesitation, no overthinking, just does what she knows how to do. WHY can't it be the same in the batters box? Ugh!

My best suggestions would be to do as much BP off live pitching as possible. Another thing we are trying is to have batters stand in while our pitchers are practicing. They wear a batting helmet, but no bat, and they call ball or strike while the pitch is in flight - helps identify which pitches to swing at. Another variation of this drill is to try to have the batters try to identify the pitch - fastball, curve, screw, change, rise....it is good for pitchers and batters because it can let pitchers know if they are tipping their pitches or slowing down their arms on a change up.