My 8U Daughter has started swinging late...

[Jbruner51]

My Daughter was hitting very good and consistently down the middle or the gap between short and 2nd (8U coach pitch) all season until the last 3-4 games we've played. I don't know how it happened but she has started waiting until the ball has completely passed the plate and she is looking at the catcher almost before she swings, which has resulted in a lot of strikeouts and when she does make contact it goes straight down 1st baseline 90% of the time resulting in an out. I've tried all I know on how to break her of it and nothing has worked. I would love to hear some suggestions from y'all. She is getting frustrated and starting to not have fun because she hasn't been able to get on base in the last couple of games. I'd really appreciate any drills or tips you can help my daughter and I with.

 

[canyonjoe]

The pitching guru's are going blame it on the coach going from HE to IR

I would suggest moving up to 20 feet and pitch some at a decent clip relative to 8U. Get her used to committing early. I'm guessing
she isn't swing late rather she is deciding to swing late. Maybe the coach pitch isn't that accurate and she swung at a few bad pitches
and someone told her to wait for a good one. But the time she realizes it's good it's too late.

 

[Jbruner51]

Ugh... My wife constantly hollers at her and the other girls to wait on a good pitch, that makes sense that she is waiting to long to see if it's a good pitch or not.

 

[Jbruner51]

Anything else besides pitching to her faster that will get her to swing sooner or realize it's a good pitch sooner?

 

[Jbruner51]

She is 8. She does not need "drills" or for you to constantly fix things. She just needs hitting and to have a dad who enjoys doing that hitting with her. If you go down this road at 8, what will you be like when she is 13, 16? Twice as frantic?

Who cares if an 8 year old strikes out. Just enjoy the time together and the hits, when they come. Teach things, don't correct things...

I do enjoy hitting with her, we practice as much as we can and it's always positive. I was asking for advice on how to help her not swing late because we've tried everything we can think of and she just started doing it for some reason.. She loves softball and I don't want her losing interest in it because she is not hitting the ball. "Who cares if she strikes out"? She cares if she strikes out. I wouldn't care if she struck out every time as long as she was having fun and giving it her all, that's all I ask of all my girls. The hits have happened all year up until the last couple of games.

 

[guero_gordo]

Get her to "swing at everything": start her swing on every pitch, then check her swing on the junk. Try having her think YES-YES-YES on good ones and YES-YES-NO to hold off, see if it helps.
Try to stick to either "good take" or "good rip" when appropriate and just don't say anything otherwise.

btw, this might be more of a practical hitting question since you don't want a critical breakdown of her mechanics as a means to solve the problem.

 

[smddad]

Ugh... My wife constantly hollers at her and the other girls to wait on a good pitch, that makes sense that she is waiting to long to see if it's a good pitch or not.

With this cue, they hear the word 'wait'. Instead, try telling them to drive their pitch. Another term I like to use it to hit it out front, rather than telling them to swing early. Also, the 'YES, YES, YES' and 'YES, YES, NO' works well. In other words, you're swinging at every pitch....until it's a ball.

Anyway...that's what seems to work for many of the girls I've worked with.

 

[TimothyJ]

think YES-YES-YES on good ones and YES-YES-NO to hold off,

This

She's thinking "maybe-maybe-yes/no"
By the time she gets to yes or no, it's too late

 

[bullethead]

Wait on a good pitch = cringe w young hitter. Heck, to flip this switch maybe even tell her she is swinging at the first 3 pitches no matter what. Just take the deliberation out of the equation for a while. Reading bt the lines it sounds like she has good hand eye coordination. Pretty sure she will connect on one of them every at bat