Opinions on Hitting in a game for a 10U player

[redhotcoach]

I haven't seen officials any worse at 10u then any other age. Sure some pitches at the knees will be called a strike. "Strikes called over their head" that sounds like a comment from a girl's grandma in the stands. I never hear the parents of good hitters complain about the strike zone. Sure blue makes mistakes, but when you get a good pitch, hit it, and stop barfing about what the ump is doing.

 

[Momo'sDad]

I always told my kids that they shouldn't leave strike 3 up to the ump, if you don't like being called out on strikes then you have to hit the ball before then.

As a coach I would rather see kids swing at some marginal pitches, then see them strike out looking.

For 10u, I share your philosophy. I want good, committed swings. The only time you're ever going to see disappointment in my face is when kids aren't giving their best effort and on MY team, that includes looking at a called 3rd strike. There are times when a pitcher will outright freeze a batter, but that's rare compared to the number of times a player just isn't committed to swinging at a hittable pitch.

There are games when an ump might be off, but the vast majority of the time, if we're not getting the results we want, it's because we didn't do our jobs, not because the ump didn't see it our way.

If you've got 2 strikes and it's anywhere near the strike zone, your bat needs to be in motion. That's what I teach from Day One, but your mileage may vary, 02Crush.

 

[02Crush]

For those of you whose posts assume my players are not trying to be aggressive, stop. The girls are trying to hit the ball. They are not standing around watching the good pitches go by only to be in a "surprised" by one close called pitch. Out of ten player we are only struggling with that separate issue with 2 of them.

A realistic example of what is happening often is the following...
A player is 4 pitches into her at bat. 2 obvious balls pitched high, wide or inside where she watched. 2 strikes where they swung and either missed or fouled it off. Then the next pitch is low and beneath their knee. They view it as a ball and hold. It is low and the umpire calls it a strike. They sit down. They were being aggressive: not stupid. We teach them to go after strikes not chase balls. There is a fine line. Vision is a part of the hitting. If a low pitched ball is consistently being called a strike we need not watch them...we need adjust to try and hit them based on what is considered a strike by the umpire.

So I ask again, as I did in my original post....What suggestions to you have to help them have a fighting chance to put a bat on it when it is that low. If it is not a comment to offer an idea for this then find another post where people are complaining about umpire calls. As this is not the thread for that.

 

[02Crush]

Crush,
What I'e always told my DD and other girls on our travel team is this;
I trust your strike zone judgement but the umpire is the one who dictates what that zone is and you must adjust your definition to meet his.... Moving in the box is a simple fix. The main thing is don't let them become afraid of striking out, tell them to be aggressive.

Thanks crankermo. I think you understand. We are trying to adjust. I am just not sure what would work best. Moving around in the box.
Trying a different way to swing at a low pitch like this..I do not know for certain.

 

[02Crush]

At this point DD will swing at anything below the top of her head, she has gotten tired of bad calls by umps. Sometimes balls over her head still get called as strikes, she has learned to live with it and will not swing.

Thx quincy. This was another thought I had. It is merely part of the game and accept these calls, move on and live to play another at bat. But if we can hit these low ones I feel like the girls should try.

 

[softballphreak]

Get a low tee, or front toss low pitches, or even toss full speed low pitches if your goal is to hit pitches in that zone.

The bat WILL reach that low.

Your post seems to say that you have to be able to hit those shin pitches. In that case the simple answer is to practice swinging at shin pitches.

 

[Momo'sDad]

Okay everyone...I have another coaching/parent situation and want your opinions to see how to work this out.
- As many of you know I have a team of new 10U players in TB. We are seeing umpires who are expecting poor pitching b/c this is a developmental age therefore the strike zone is a little loose on a pretty regular basis.
- The strike zone is defined as armpit to knee the width of the plate (from what I remember in ASA and USSSA).
The strike zones we are seeing are not tall enough to match the rule/definition. It is more like slightly above the belly button down to mid shins.
- My players know a pitch below the knees should be a ball so they hold off on it. But after 6 tournaments where it is called often they are frustrated. I am proud of them for beginning to develop the vision to see the ball and expect a low pitch. However it is hard to make this a positive thing with the players when it is being called a strike and they perceive it as a negative. Over time they have decided they want to make a play and attempt to hit it. Watching them try to hit these and seeing the bad form develop is killing me. I am trying to get them to swing properly during 10U not swing a pitching wedge.
So....
Should I move them up in the box to try and catch the ball earlier at a possible higher point as it typically drops off a little at this age?
Should I teach them to let it go even if it strikes them out as we know it was not a strike and maybe hope that at an older age the umpires will be tightening the zone back up based on better pitching? (I wanna do this b/c it will re-enforce bad hitting technique and just chalk it up to the age but feel avoiding the issue won't work either.)
Should I teach them to back up in hopes that umpire will view the pitch in perspective of the players size more and at that point the pitch will be lower over the plate in the flight of the pitch?

I am not saying my line of thinking is correct but rather thinking out loud. I would like to do something to instill some confidence in them to at least try and make a play this Spring but am at a loss on how to proceed.

For those of you whose posts assume my players are not trying to be aggressive, stop. The girls are trying to hit the ball. They are not standing around watching the good pitches go by only to be in a "surprised" by one close called pitch. Out of ten player we are only struggling with that separate issue with 2 of them.

A realistic example of what is happening often is the following...
A player is 4 pitches into her at bat. 2 obvious balls pitched high, wide or inside where she watched. 2 strikes where they swung and either missed or fouled it off. Then the next pitch is low and beneath their knee. They view it as a ball and hold. It is low and the umpire calls it a strike. They sit down. They were being aggressive: not stupid. We teach them to go after strikes not chase balls. There is a fine line. Vision is a part of the hitting. If a low pitched ball is consistently being called a strike we need not watch them...we need adjust to try and hit them based on what is considered a strike by the umpire.

So I ask again, as I did in my original post....What suggestions to you have to help them have a fighting chance to put a bat on it when it is that low. If it is not a comment to offer an idea for this then find another post where people are complaining about umpire calls. As this is not the thread for that.

Crush, I'm not sure I understand this response. I think most of us gave our best suggestions based on what you wrote in your original. You did tell us you were just thinking out loud, but at the same time, you indicated you were considering both physical and philosophical changes to improve their chances for success.

No one is saying that your girls are stupid and my saying that I preach aggressiveness is not to say that you don't or that your players aren't. There are many examples of young players who have great-looking swings, because they've been taught by their parents from a very early age. Those same players have generally been taught the textbook definition of the strike zone - just as you explained in your original post - and to the casual observer, they're going to look very disciplined at the plate.

That may or may not describe or partially describe any of your players, but based on the case you laid out, I took it to mean that you've got some very disciplined hitters that you don't want swinging at pitches outside the strike zone or that if you DO want them swinging, that it might be better to move them in the box.

Like Softballphreak said, teach that low swing and hopefully, as they see more of those pitches, they'll be confident about going after them, keeping in mind that you are teaching some of your hitters something that's counter to what they've been taught up 'til now.

 

[cwestwjg]

I would rather take the strike out than swing at bad pitches but when you learn the umpires you will know what they like and can tell the batters what adjustments to make. Usually if they like them low the high pitches are called balls that should be strikes and vice versa.

I can tell you alot of the umpires around here see girls back all the way in the back of the box and if the pitch would have hit the strike zone with the batter on the plate it's a strike. We try to teach all our girls to hit in the front of the box IMO it is the best position to hit breaking pitches like drop balls.

Just use it as a learning experience for the future and keep it positive for the kids!!

 

[CoachAl]

the hitting zone!

Not sure if this will help your team or not but I have quite a bit of 10u TB experience so thought I would share.

Kids this age need to think positive always. We got to the point on our team where we never talked about "the strike zone." we talked about the HITTING ZONE and the hitting zone was different for each player. Through practice most of the girls were able to figure out what pitches they could go after and which ones they needed to watch. We also helped them to understand that as the strikes accumulated, their "hitting zone" needs to get bigger, which means they need to get more aggressive. There was also never any shame attached to going down swinging!

There were countless games where we would tell them "if you get a good look at it and you can hit it hard, go for it!"

With this approach, this took the umpire completely out the equation. The girls would know when to adjust and were not always concerned about what the umpire was calling or not calling. It was not perfect by any means but it helped them focus on what they needed to do.

As for moving up or back in the box. The only time we did that is when we thought we needed to adjust for the speed of the pitcher. You will find 10u (for the most part) is a pitcher dominated game at the TB level. There are not a lot of balls crushed to the outfield or screaming ground balls hit up the middle. If we thought a pitcher was too fast or too slow, we would move the batter accordingly, again nothing to do with the umpire.

Hope this helps. Bottom line, do what you have to do to get your players focused on hitting the ball, not overly concerend where the balls and strikes are being called.

 

[02Crush]

@ softballphreak - Thx. I do not know if a 28" bat can get there. But we will see. We are at an awkward size and age. Probably will go away in six months as they are growing so stinking fast right now.

@ momo'sdad - I am just conflicted. Do I adjust their play or continue to teach what I feel it right and over time hope the zone will tighten up as pitchiing gets better.

It happens enough to be a problem but not every at bat. We just experienced it in TB tournaments 4-5 times a day on different girls. Basically enough to be a nuisance to me as a coach.