Staying Relaxed and calm.

[Rick M]

When my daughter made the 8U all-star team, I brought my nice camera out to the first tournament they played in to get some good pix of her and her teammates. They were a good team, won a bunch of games. When I put the the pictures on my computer to find some good ones to share with the other parents I noticed something. Every girl -- every girl -- had her eyes closed during the swing, especially as they made contact.

The OP didn't mention if his 8U played coach-pitch or kid-pitch, but it will almost certainly get worse before it gets better. Two things you can count on in the first year or two of kid-pitch: lots of walks, and lots of hit batters. Even if your DD has flawless mechanics, they're going to go out the window until she gets hit a few times and realizes that first, it's not the end of the world; and second, she can recognize when a pitch is coming inside and has time to get out of the way.

Pitchers face a similar dilemma BTW: in the early going they're putting so much effort into throwing the ball hard that they fire all their muscle groups at once and it's generally a disaster. As they settle in and become more confident, their sequencing improves and they come to rely on their mechanics more than brute force. It's a mature response, one that no eight-year-old has the capacity for. It gets better with time.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Not disagreeing with the bold, but in this particular case (8YO hitter), with this particular issue (looking/feeling anxious with a moving ball) then I would tend to think
more reps would improve the situation. Now it is possible that the hitter is starting too late and this is causing the "anxious/panicky" look to the swing, in which case yes, some instruction towards this end would
be useful. However the OP made no mention of this in his post. A video of what he is seeing would be useful.

The reason I asked you for your description of the issue was so that we could be specific and target the issue. Without doing that, we are both making assumptions. As is often the case, assumptions differ.

 

[_MIA_]

The reason I asked you for your description of the issue was so that we could be specific and target the issue. Without doing that, we are both making assumptions. As is often the case, assumptions differ.

Agreed...

 

[FP26]

Guys,

Looking for advice on how to teach my daughter to stay calm when hitting off of actual pitching. You know when hitting off a tee, she's calm and collected. He body control for the most part stays together. She obviously doesn't have ball movement to worry about, but as soon as there is a moving ball involved say front toss that calm and collectedness (is that word) goes out the window. batting becomes a very much overly anticipating and reacting movement. This causes the good mechanics she has on the tee to go away and starts to perform really bad mechanics. Thanks for any advice. I find this one of the hardest things to correct at least for my daughter. She is 8 by the way.

You mention the problem begins when a moving ball is added. Is this more of an issue in game situations, or just any moving ball such as team practices, working in the cage, etc.?

* Game situation -- I am a believer in repetition, especially at the younger ages. When I was coaching DD's 10u team (1st year), we practiced quite a bit. The majority of the team learned to hit 'my pitching' very well. But as soon as they needed to face another pitcher, things went south in a hurry. When it was time to prepare for 2nd year 10u, I spoke with the other coach in our community (we had 2 10u teams). We agreed to have 2 joint practices per week, at which we would scrimmage. In many cases we would swap players between our teams because we rapidly learned that my team was ahead of his. In any event, the extra reps against live pitching was immensely helpful to both teams.
* Live ball, period -- Mix it up a bit. Outside of regular practices, mess around with a wiffle ball and bat. Play some tennis or racquetball. Have her toss the ball up in the air and see how far she can hit it. Anything that you can think of that includes having a stick hit a moving target. Getting her out of the stressful situation (practice, or whatever), may allow her to relax and have fun with it. Then she can more easily replicate that ability in practice and game situations.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

 

[clemenslee1]

You mention the problem begins when a moving ball is added. Is this more of an issue in game situations, or just any moving ball such as team practices, working in the cage, etc.?

* Game situation -- I am a believer in repetition, especially at the younger ages. When I was coaching DD's 10u team (1st year), we practiced quite a bit. The majority of the team learned to hit 'my pitching' very well. But as soon as they needed to face another pitcher, things went south in a hurry. When it was time to prepare for 2nd year 10u, I spoke with the other coach in our community (we had 2 10u teams). We agreed to have 2 joint practices per week, at which we would scrimmage. In many cases we would swap players between our teams because we rapidly learned that my team was ahead of his. In any event, the extra reps against live pitching was immensely helpful to both teams.
* Live ball, period -- Mix it up a bit. Outside of regular practices, mess around with a wiffle ball and bat. Play some tennis or racquetball. Have her toss the ball up in the air and see how far she can hit it. Anything that you can think of that includes having a stick hit a moving target. Getting her out of the stressful situation (practice, or whatever), may allow her to relax and have fun with it. Then she can more easily replicate that ability in practice and game situations.

I would say it is more just a moving ball in General. Last 2 practices have just front toss. No tee. As suggested by a few. I Agree its all about repetition. Honestly she hasn't hit live pitching from a coach since Late October-Early Nov. Took a break for a bit. No softball period. And slowly has been getting back into it. From watching videos of last spring and fall seasons. She didin't really have an issue with mechanics breaking down too bad. She had a case of Elbow drag which I've been working on. That's really what creeps up again when moving from a tee to something such as front toss. Off the tee she doesn't have the elbow drag and dumping the barrell etc. That's what I really was meaning by mechanics break down. Sorry If I wasn't more clear.

 

[FP26]

I would say it is more just a moving ball in General. Last 2 practices have just front toss. No tee. As suggested by a few. I Agree its all about repetition. Honestly she hasn't hit live pitching from a coach since Late October-Early Nov. Took a break for a bit. No softball period. And slowly has been getting back into it. From watching videos of last spring and fall seasons. She didin't really have an issue with mechanics breaking down too bad. She had a case of Elbow drag which I've been working on. That's really what creeps up again when moving from a tee to something such as front toss. Off the tee she doesn't have the elbow drag and dumping the barrell etc. That's what I really was meaning by mechanics break down. Sorry If I wasn't more clear.

The mechanical issues you are referring to are very common with younger hitters (and some hitters not so young). That's why I really don't use a tee very much. Don't get me wrong, they can be useful for certain things. But I also think they are overused at times.

 

[clemenslee1]

The mechanical issues you are referring to are very common with younger hitters (and some hitters not so young). That's why I really don't use a tee very much. Don't get me wrong, they can be useful for certain things. But I also think they are overused at times.

Agreed. Tee's don't allow a person to really work on rhythm and timing. Which requires body control. Which is vital to staying mechanically sound for the most part. In my daughters case, I believe the elbow drag crept back in during front toss/moving ball because she is not staying relaxed. Which in her case is causing her to be too much back and forward, which turns into more of a lunging sort of thing upper body/arm swing. to give and example. The last session she had, which is a short session. I like to keep them very short because of her age. Out of 40 balls 1 she "Stayed Back" and had no elbow drag etc. The rest of them were pretty much mechanically out of wack. So really its just getting her to feel the proper body control etc. through Repetition off of front toss, moving ball etc.

 

[FP26]

Agreed. Tee's don't allow a person to really work on rhythm and timing. Which requires body control. Which is vital to staying mechanically sound for the most part. In my daughters case, I believe the elbow drag crept back in during front toss/moving ball because she is not staying relaxed. Which in her case is causing her to be too much back and forward, which turns into more of a lunging sort of thing upper body/arm swing. to give and example. The last session she had, which is a short session. I like to keep them very short because of her age. Out of 40 balls 1 she "Stayed Back" and had no elbow drag etc. The rest of them were pretty much mechanically out of wack. So really its just getting her to feel the proper body control etc. through Repetition off of front toss, moving ball etc.

Rhythm and timing are both extremely important concepts. No doubt about it... In my experience, many of the other things you have mentioned are simply a younger hitter's attempt to timing and location. As soon as a moving ball is added to the equation, many will have a tendency to adjust with their hands alone, and fail to utilize other parts of their body correctly (some would refer to this as torso usage). By only using the hands and arms, and not using them in coordination with the torso, many of the other issues will appear. The drill in the attached clip is one that I have used with success with developing hitters. But I only utilize a tee until the student begins to feel the action. Then I will move to very short front toss (perhaps 10 feet away with a screen of course), and then move back to my regular distance of roughly 25 feet.

https://youtu.be/vLbpAoG_dgQ

 

[uncdrew]

Remind her to focus, not calm down.

As others have said, telling her to calm down is just going to make her think about how she's nervous (excited, whatever).

What you really want is for her to maintain focus. Perhaps getting to think "I have to focus" will give her a positive "something" to do and not a negative "something" to not do.

That said, I have a girl who gets super excited/wound up at times. I just have to get her attention and do the two hands "relax" motion and she knows to just step out of the box, take a deep breath, and refocus. It helps her to just take that extra moment to breathe.

Wise men have learned never to tell a woman to "calm down".