Hello Coach,
My question is what can we do about a hitter that is habitually late with her swing? It doesn"t seem to matter if the pitch is fast or slow!! Her mechanics and bat speed are great! She will be a sophomore at UW Whitewater this year. If she doesn't correct this problem soon, I don't think she will make the team this fall.
Thanks Tom
Tom
You're concerns are well-founded, because if the situation is as you describe no matter what pitch speed or type that she is always behind and misses the ball or hits it to the right side I will almost guarantee that
she's thinking too much.Here's a few things that you might try and ask her to do which by the way she has to do you can't do that for her.
1. While she is standing in the on deck circle she is to review several facts so she's not in her mind before she ever gets into the box-- what did this picture to me last time, what's the situation I'm going to be faced
with outs, runners, defensive position anything that could affect my time at bat she needs to have those answered within her mind before she ever gets into the box.
2. During practice she needs to be told to swing at and hit every pitch no matter what. What this is going to do is take away any thought process and you will be amazed many if not all the pages she puts the bat on.
I've even done this as a coach in a game but I'm going tell you right now her coach is not going to allow it during college game but she might pull it off in practice situations, scrimmages, doing our own.
3. Do this drill against the machine or against a real pitcher and that is what the bat down and watch the ball making a decision whether to swing or not mentally and never really doing anything if she could find the
time and the ability to look at 10 to 15 pitches with no bat it will make a big difference in how she's looking at pitches and in making the decision.
Because in a nutshell that's the problem she's thinking too much and therefore always late and always behind so we need to try to get as much of that out of the way before she gets into the box.
I hope some of this create some thought and even some help and best of luck let me know how it all works out.
Coach Arnald Swift
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Dear Coach
My son is 8 years old, he has been playing baseball since he was 4 and I've worked with him since he was 2. My question is he kills the baseball when I throw him BP and when I pitched to him last season in coach
pitch but now he has to hit off of player pitchers and he is pretty much not swinging the bat at all. He just stands there and when I ask him about it he says that the pitches were not strikes. How do I remedy this? He just made a 9 year old select team and I have to fix this before the season starts or he is either going to lead the league in walks or strike outs via looking.... What is frustrating for me is he has a ton of power, he is
4'9" 100lbs and hits lefty, I know how to fix mechanical issues but this one is mental.
Thanks!
Sam
Dear Sam
Let's make sure of one thing first off the bat does he have good mechanical skills and does he batting practice pitching, tee work, soft toss work well and consistently. My guess is you're going to answer yes then I have to agree 100% that it's all mental. What your boys doing is he thinking way too much and not just seeing the ball and hitting it. I don't know if you have control on are not but if I was his coach and I saw these things I would start to correct it by telling him that he has to hit the next pitch no matter what and if there are runners on base and we can collect hit-and-run, but in reality what were trying to do is take the decision-making out of his hands and make him swing at the next pitch the matter where it is. You will actually need to do this for an entire game and yes he may swing at some bad pitches anyway make an easy out or two but he will swing the bat he will make contact I promise you that. It's a very odd thing when you take away the decision-making, batter that actually is pretty decent they almost always get the ball the matter where it is in the strike zone out of the strike zone it doesn't make a difference they will make contact because their swing is good and they're not deciding if I should or shouldn't swing they know that already so they're just trying to get the ball and they will. Now if you can't do that a game because you don't have the control and what you need to do is go in the cage and tell him swing of this one no matter what don't swing at this one no matter what and start to take away the decision-making. You're just trying to get him comfortable with looking at the ball coming at him and swinging at it not whether it's a ball or strike not whether it's a curve or fastball just see the ball and hit. You will be amazed at how effective that is.
Please let me know how turns out.
Coach Arnald Swift
