My pitcher is afraid to field her position.HELP

[GunnerShotgun]

I feel bad about these drills...seems kinda mean but I guess it is how you separate then (wo)men from the mice.

Because it is mean and it's ridiculous. I would suggest you not go to your daughter's games and leave it to the coaches.

That would be best for all parties involved.

 

[ckdomingo]

Except I am the coach

 

[_MIA_]

TBH I wouldn't do anything..just keep practicing as you have been. She's 11, she will grow out of it if you don't keep it at the forefront of her mind..

 

[PJR202]

I've been working with my daughter (freshman) on reaction. She loves fielding the position, but she hasn't faced HS hitters yet and I want her to be ready for comebacks. I want her to react instead of just planning or positioning, so I toss tennis balls off a wall 6-8 feet from her and just let her glove them, or we bounce the tennis ball back and forth to each other and I'll call out which hand she needs to catch it with. I've also done some throwing back at her from the catcher position. Stuff like that. See if you can find a way to take the "think" out of it for her. And just tons and tons of reps in-general.

 

[ckdomingo]

I've been working with my daughter (freshman) on reaction. She loves fielding the position, but she hasn't faced HS hitters yet and I want her to be ready for comebacks. I want her to react instead of just planning or positioning, so I toss tennis balls off a wall 6-8 feet from her and just let her glove them, or we bounce the tennis ball back and forth to each other and I'll call out which hand she needs to catch it with. I've also done some throwing back at her from the catcher position. Stuff like that. See if you can find a way to take the "think" out of it for her. And just tons and tons of reps in-general.

This is awesome. Thanks!

 

[PJR202]

This is awesome. Thanks!

No problemo. It's even helped me. I took a horrible line drive (300lb man with a ghost) to the hand/wrist 14 months ago. It's a complete miracle it didn't break but it turned my entire hand and half my arm brown and my grip was so jacked up I couldn't carry anything more than about 5lbs for 6 weeks. It very slowly improved and it's strong again now but I still have residual pain. That taught me a lesson, though. At 42, I didn't have the reflexes I had at 32. I put my bare hand up to protect my face instead of at least getting my glove in front of it, if not just catching it. I think some of it is also just all the bucket time I've got, catching the wild or really high pitches with my bare hand. She throws too hard for that now, but that instinctive reach is still there when something is out to my right...lol.

Anyway, I'm not the type of person to just say "i'm getting older" about things like that, and I knew I could get my reflex/reaction back, so I've done a lot of the tennis ball stuff myself too. It's amazing how quickly you can improve that way. I saw the same thing in her.

 

[ArmWhip]

I would suggest that you play pepper with her. In this video they are using Jugs Lite Flite balls which is wimping out as far as I'm concerned but you might want to start with them. The very last section shows the hitter and with real balls. You can start with easy contact and as she gets comfortable speed it up.

 

[_MIA_]

OP said she was fine in practice right?

 

[Towny9]

Hitting the ball hard at her will not make her more likely to field hard hits in games it will just teach her to run away from them more. There are so many idiot coaches out there who smoke grounders at kids and yell stay down. Makes me cringe.

 

[_MIA_]

Hitting the ball hard at her will not make her more likely to field hard hits in games it will just teach her to run away from them more. There are so many idiot coaches out there who smoke grounders at kids and yell stay down. Makes me cringe.