My frustration

[FastPitchCat]

oh, one more thing that I found worked, i promised DD $100 for every OTF home run. she got to work

 

[Ksphenom]

Great stuff in this thread. Just happens to have a couple of items that popped up a a recent practice.
I'll do my best to keep it as short as possible. 1st year 10u team just getting back into live pitching.
2 of the first 3 girls that get up to hit get drilled with pitches. Group hysteria basically overcame the entire team and coaching staff and parents were caught completely off guard. Within minutes a great hitting team had parents calling DD's with middle names coming out, telling DD's to swing no matter what with elevated tone.
The entire team just mentally lost it for an hour. Literally every kid pulled away from pitches during the at bats

Coaches had girls that refused to swing doing push-ups.

Just curious to see if others have had the group hysteria effect at practice.

 

[quincy]

For your DD.

 

[wave_twister]

Same thing happened to us, wouldn't swing the bat no matter what. We'd talk to her, yell at her, make her run laps, etc. I mean...I'm not happy about it but I've lost my temper and I look back and think how stupid I was and still am lol.

I'm not sure what happened but one day on our first travel trip, DD just decided to swing her bat (she's a slapper). She turned and ran about two steps and next thing I know I see her lying down, dirt in the air, like she did a superman...

Since that day DD has watched pitches go by, swung on awful pitches, etc. and has also won a game for her team by bringing in the only score. This was an amazing day for her, hit a single and triple off of an error. It was also the day after her birthday. Good things happen at times we can't control, hopefully you'll be "in the moment" and see it happen for your girl.

You just have to let her work through it, lots of great tips in this thread. And then your DD will have her own day and moment when she hits the ball, hopefully she won't let the chalk line to 1B "jump up and get her"!

 

[DNeeld]

I've found the most common cause at 10U (and yes, it is a common problem with a lot of 10U players) is they are trying to read strike/ball too long. From 35 feet, even with average pitching, the ball gets there pretty damn fast. If the batter with a no, no, no, yes mentality they are rarely going to let a swing rip. In other words, players coming from 10U rec often expect the pitch to be a ball and are reading it to see it if is going to be a strike. They are expecting a ball and looking for a strike. This is reverse of what we want.

They need to learn to expect a strike and read the ball. Develop the yes, yes, yes, no mentality.

 

[WARRIORMIKE]

I lost my temper last night. Here is a little history. My daughter has been pitching for 3 years. She has been going to a pitching coach for a year and a half. Did great last year in rec ball and all-stars. So time to go to travel ball. She has played 11 travel ball games. She has pitched in 8 of those games. She has 7 wins and 1 loss. All great right. Not in my opinion.

I am not like most people and think my daughter is the best. In fact I think my daughter is average at best in talent. She does well because she trains and puts her heart and soul into pitching. Here is the kicker. She will not swing the bat when she is at the plate.

Is this common for pitchers? She isn't going to ever hit it over the fence I understand but swing the bat and take your chances at singles and doubles.

By the way she is only 10. I don't know how to get her to swing the bat. We talk about it on the way to the game. We agree that if we are up by 4 or more she is going to strike out swinging before taking a walk, but it never happens.

What can I do?

Ok I'm just going to be blunt about this . You need to be patient. Take a chill pill, and relax . Just get her into the cages, throw some softoss to her. Have fun, and enjoy.

- If you lost your temper at your dd then you need to yell at a wall. Has the same effect.

- IF you lost your temper at a coach, and embarrassed your dd and the team, you may need to seek a counselor of some sort

 

[Frenchy101010]

Here is my story:

My 10yo is in her 2nd year of travel ball, last year as an '05 she played on a team of all '04 girls except her. She batted .600, and only 6 k's in 170 at bats, she batted 1st or 2nd all season. Not much power in games but a solid hitter. Fast forward to this season.

She's played in 5 tourneys so far in fall and winter, all 10u, and a team of all '05 girls, and she has become a strikeout machine, more swinging than looking by far. She is swinging the bat just missing a lot. She has developed a bad habit of stepping out and head coming off the ball. In tee work great, in front toss great no problems, her hitting coach sees no holes in lessons, but in games these bad habits pop up. Hope she works thru it but it very frustrating.

They played in the championship game this past weekend, she pitched 7 2/3 innings, great job losing in the bottom of the 8th, but she struck out 4 times, 3 swinging 1 looking. If she would have just put ball in play twice we win.

 

[quincy]

DD's story is once I shut my mouth she took off as a hitter.

 

[JAD]

I lost my temper last night. Here is a little history. My daughter has been pitching for 3 years. She has been going to a pitching coach for a year and a half. Did great last year in rec ball and all-stars. So time to go to travel ball. She has played 11 travel ball games. She has pitched in 8 of those games. She has 7 wins and 1 loss. All great right. Not in my opinion.

I am not like most people and think my daughter is the best. In fact I think my daughter is average at best in talent. She does well because she trains and puts her heart and soul into pitching. Here is the kicker. She will not swing the bat when she is at the plate.

Is this common for pitchers? She isn't going to ever hit it over the fence I understand but swing the bat and take your chances at singles and doubles.

By the way she is only 10. I don't know how to get her to swing the bat. We talk about it on the way to the game. We agree that if we are up by 4 or more she is going to strike out swinging before taking a walk, but it never happens.

What can I do?

I do not have any "worldly" advice on how to get your DD to swing the bat, but I will tell you that there are a lot of "pitch and sit" players in high level TB and college, so as long as she is willing to pour her heart and soul into pitching, she does not need to be able to hit....

 

[cuzmail]

She will not swing the bat when she is at the plate. Is this common for pitchers?

No. Afraid not.