Softball or Baseball - hitting question

[Aneille]

With all the baseball Mom and Dads chatting in the other thread, I was hoping you guys might be able to give me some advice.

My DD has started travel softball this year. Its her first real season of real ball. Last season she played 1st/2nd grade coach pitch. More like coach lob ball. She swung at every pitch and either fouled it or got on base.

She has good form with her swing and has seen a hitting coach once or twice before. We have a hit-a-way that she likes to hit as well. BUT she is struggling at the plate during the games.

The pitching can be pretty quick or pretty slow. She has good bat speed and can get her bat on the quicker pitchers. But the pitching is also inconsistent and sometimes wild. We see a lot of walks. And the coach will have them take a lot of pitches because of this. The kids have become a very patient bunch at the plate.

Typical at bat for my DD will go, take a strike, swing miss, take a ball, take a ball, foul, strike out swinging. The other option is she gets a walk. Lately more SO's than walks but she is swinging harder while at the plate. She doesn't protect the plate well. How do I help her? I should add that during a hitting practice she makes consistent contact so she can protect but can't do it during games, or maybe doesn't know how to?

She is 8 and playing up with 10 year olds. Would going to a variable speed batting cage help the most? She loves to hit so more hitting practice isn't a chore. Or maybe some sage advice to tell her?

She's the oldest and although I played softball I started much older, was never a great hitter and really am not sure what to expect as she simply gets older.

 

[dejr_8]

Perhaps you expecting too much too early. She is playing up two age groups.

 

[Sinderelli]

It's typical at this age for the pitching to be inconsistent- sometimes it's so boring watching the games (shhh...I'll never tell my kids that!) Batting practice with different speeds will help. One piece of advice I would give is to pay close attention to your DD's form- make sure she is not turning her head away from the ball at the last second, which can cause her to miss the ball completely. Make sure her back leg is planted firmly and that she is stepping into the pitch with her front leg rather than stepping back. Lots of kids do this. Finally- pay close attention to where the balls are going when she does connect- if she is a right handed batter and the balls are consistently going in right field or towards first base that would indicate a late swing. If this is the case she could work on getting the bat around faster. Good luck to her!

 

[Art 1]

My daughter played fast pitch softball all through high school and I played baseball through HS. Practice practice practice is all you can do for hitting, practice with fast pitching to get the timing down. You have to learn the timing and watch the ball all the way to when it hits the bat.

Some people never do learn how to hit. Be ready for that.

 

[Aneille]

It's typical at this age for the pitching to be inconsistent- sometimes it's so boring watching the games (shhh...I'll never tell my kids that!) Batting practice with different speeds will help. One piece of advice I would give is to pay close attention to your DD's form- make sure she is not turning her head away from the ball at the last second, which can cause her to miss the ball completely. Make sure her back leg is planted firmly and that she is stepping into the pitch with her front leg rather than stepping back. Lots of kids do this. Finally- pay close attention to where the balls are going when she does connect- if she is a right handed batter and the balls are consistently going in right field or towards first base that would indicate a late swing. If this is the case she could work on getting the bat around faster. Good luck to her!

Thanks for the hitting tips. The way she was taught to hit is to, plant her feet, load up (lean back), swing and make sure you extend with her belly button to first base (she bats lefty). She could use her legs a bit more to generate power but she's okay for now I think. She certaintly gets her weight forward, just could do it even more.

The only one thing I think she does that you mention is taking her eye off the ball at the last second. I don't see her head move though so I am not sure. I think this because sometimes during coach pitch and with the hit-a-way she will hit the bottom of the ball and not the center.

Maybe with the kids pitching she just has too much on her mind. The signs comming in and everything else. Maybe she will just "get it" at some point. But if there is anything I can do to help I will.

I don't know, the whole kid pitch thing was a hard for her. Earlier in the season I had to teach her the strike zone and tell her to make sure to swing if its in the zone with 2 strikes. I also had to tell her to widen the zone because the umps are inconsistent as well. Not bad umps, just typical. We had umps in coach pitch but all of the kids that had good hand/eye coordination got on base with their 1st or 2nd swing because it went right over the plate. There was no thought to it. Just swing away!

Are there any drills to teach a child to protect the plate though? Besides live pitching? I think more time with the hit-a-way will help find the center of the ball.

Also she can switch hit since she is right handed but bats lefty. Is that something she should work on? She does it for fun with the hit-a-way. Her form isn't so bad batting righty just not as good as her left handed swing. She probably could hit coach pitch right handed.

And thanks for the encouragement. I am surprised she loves softball so much. She hated it last year but something changed this year.

 

[dawson5]

Pull out the tee also. All our coaches (the guys we go to, professionals, not dad coaches) have said you never outgrow it and there is always something you can learn from it.

Youngest had three or four different people offering advice on his swing. Beginning of the season he was all messed up and couldn't hit anything because of all the "advice." We went back to the tee and some soft-toss to get back his form.

 

[kacaju]

I know nothing about the coaching of softball (the is dh's deptment) I just take her to the games! Anyway dh does take our dd10 to the batting cages weekly to work on her hitting.
I will agree, kid pitching at this age is tough!! Those girls are just beginning to really learn to pitch, so it makes it tough.
My dd walks a lot and I was told it is because she has a great eye not to swing at those crazy pitches. Still it would be nice to watch her hit the ball!! LOL!!