Posted on 04/02/2013 10:00:23 AM PDT by DariusBane
I coach 11 U Baseball. My team, like most in this age group just can't hit. We do fine against pitchers that don't throw strikes. If they throw strikes we don't hit. Usually without even swinging. These guys hit in practice and in the cage. But in games they go down just looking. How to get them swinging in games?
Little help please?
Can you change the title from “battling” to the intended “batting”? Posted on BlackBerry and auto-complete once again threw a curve : )
Might be a psychology-thing. Fear of failure, and all that. I’d try to figure out a way to tell them that it’s better to go down swinging. Maybe set up a reward system?
They could probably still outhit the Cleveland Indians.
Parents at the games sometimes put real pressure on the Children
LOL
Parents can be great. They can also be real shiites at times!
Have a high school kid come in and let him throw some of his good stuff.
They may be focusing on the machine, which gives them some opportunity to guess where the ball is going to be.
If a high school kid comes in and is use to messing with batters he change things up and even point out how they might have hit that thing.
He can then encourage them to swing and you might double the number of times at bat practicing in one session.
Say from 10 opportunities to 20.
The Indians have cy young winner RA Dickey tonight at the Rogers Center. The knuckler can be a fickle pitch, if its on it’s awesome, if not it’s batting practice. Dickey is supposedly pretty good in domes.
Freegards
Squish the bug. Look it up. Tell them the fans showed up to see them hit not walk. Swing the bat.
Nice! I have a highschool pitcher in mind now!
Not a coach, but can tell you what worked for me: Change the mindset to that of catching the ball with the bat. If you can catch you can hit. I was an 0 for season type little leaguer, but I could catch. Once I trained my mind to think of reaching out with the bat to catch the approaching ball, I was good. Or, maybe I simply concentrated better in connecting with the ball.
I also remember helpful was my coach telling us to pay attention to pitcher speed (do a 1-2 count, 2 being when the ball snaps into the catchers glove).
Thx! It wasn’t auto complete as it was “ Battiing”. We can chalk that up to 44 year old eyes using a blackberry.
!
Make them run laps for every strike they take.
That should get them swinging.
Teach them to look at the feet of the short stop and not the mound. This will get them to use their peripheral vision. This in tun bypasses the normal visual processes of the brain and lets the eye hand coordination take over instead of “thinking about it”.
In effect, you are teaching them to NOT watch the ball.
Teach them to feel it instead. I know it sounds crazy but it works.
I will be watching. Our game is rained out tonight.
That scares the hell out of me. Have you done this?
I have coached my kid’s baseball teams for many years and still keep stats for my youngest son’s middle school team. I can tell you the WORST thing for kids this age is a machine unless it is to warm them up. They get used to a ball coming in the same place and get complacent. What a machine can never duplicate is a kid with no control, which is what 90% of the pitchers at that age are. Even the best pitchers usually overpower hitters with fastballs that they can’t catch up to, but if you watch them throwing, they can’t hit the strike zone more than 50% of the time. Kids have to learn how to watch the ball and be patient. They have to learn to watch the pitcher throughout the game, especially while in the on deck circle. If they do and can learn when he throws something other than a fastball (which I hope most are not throwing anything but a fastball at that age), they will spot his tendencies and learn how to “think” at the plate. THAT is 90% of the battle. Learn how to be smart and be patient and your team will be a better batting team.
Here’s what YOU will have a hard time getting them to learn about being smarter, though: They WANT to hit. They see ESPN highlights of Josh Hamilton and dream of hitting a grand slam to win the game. As a result, they strike out more. With my son, that was one of his biggest problems. When I showed him stats on guys like Pete Rose and Babe Ruth, he was shocked to learn that Rose got on base a LOT more than did Babe and that Babe struck out so much. It also helped that I showed him how important his greatest asset (speed) was when he was on base. He never once got caught stealing last season and led the league in batting average at .626 for the season. He had ONE triple, 6 doubles and a ton of singles. BUT, he struck out only 4 times all season and walked or got hit by a pitch almost as many times as he hit singles. His biggest area of improvement was with 2 strikes on him. Even with a full count, he either made contact for a foul, got a hit to the opposite side of the field or walked. When he figured out getting on base was way more important to his team winning than him belting one to the fence, his hitting greatly improved. He had plenty of hard hit balls, but he has never once put it over the fence. He has one hopped it to the fence a few times, but never over.
Here is a great site for some tips:
http://www.beabetterhitter.com/index.html
I have used a lot of this stuff before and it really helps with the “mental” part of the game. It has been my experience coaching baseball at this age that kids who can learn to be patient and smart at the plate will get on base a whole lot more. Plus, I can tell you from personal experience that this mental “grooming” right now will help them tremendously when the get older and the pitchers get better.
I hope this helps!
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