Hitting and Hitters Discussion 10U Hitting Question

My DD just turned 10. She can make some really good contact with the ball and is well on her way to a nice rotational hitting form. She will hit the ball all day long from a machine @ 48+mph, but you put her against a pitcher throwing 40+ she is late on her swing. How do you get her to track the ball better and fix her timing? I know it is all mental.

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You always have to be carefull in the cage as it is a training tool and may not alone lead to similar success on the field. I have seen many hitters that are great in the cage and struggle mightly in the box.

Enough of the same cage and and anyone can time it up perfectly. When I do cage work with my 10U I go to faster and slower cages, I have her move close to plate for inside pitches, away for outside forward and back etc. The machines will grove them in there same speed and location in most cases they just get good at hitting that spot.
I also have the luxury of having three hitting cage facilities with different machines so I like to mix it up as each delivers the ball differently and they have to time it up.
One big thing to remember is that there is no fear in the cage.

There could be lots of techinical corrections but to keep the topic simple I would make sure they are mixing it up as I said above and would also look at their pre-bat routines. They may have a good swing but arent good at studying the pitcher.

CUTR77 said:

My DD just turned 10. She can make some really good contact with the ball and is well on her way to a nice rotational hitting form. She will hit the ball all day long from a machine @ 48+mph, but you put her against a pitcher throwing 40+ she is late on her swing. How do you get her to track the ball better and fix her timing? I know it is all mental.

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Does she see the ball well? Stand her in front of a mirror so her shoulder is pointing towards the pitcher...get her normal stance and have her get ready to hit....observe where her feet are IE feet even, closed or open? Can you see the white area around her left eye as a right handed batter? If not force her to turn her neck and head a little more until you can see the white area around the eye which normally gives you a better two eyed look at the ball. Ask if she feels uncomfortable in her neck or shoulder area and if the answer is yes have her move her back foot about two inches closer to home plate and if that takes away the neck/ shoulder discomfort great and if not try another two inches or go back to even and move the lead foot in two inches. One method usually works better than the other and unless they have had lazy left eye surgery open works better than closed has been my experience.

Now stand behind her and towards home plate with a ball in your hand and make sure you have enough room so she does not hit you when she swings and go through a pitchers wind up and she will see you in the mirror.

Depending on the hitters athleticism have them load as the arm is about at the top of the K position and step at the pitchers release window at the hip...some hitters may load on the hand coming up however being at toe touch prior to the release seems to help most kids.

When the hitter is working in front of the mirror look for the lead shoulder and see if she is rolling it in too far or the hands to be going back behind her head and she will not see her hands which will cause her to be late, Her seeing what she does in front of a mirror really seems to help them understand better than just telling them what to do in my opinion.

Doing the Barry Bonds drill will teach her timing and rhythm and we use it on our advanced hitters and it is somewhere on the OFC and Dan can probably help you find it.

I'll tell you one thing, I was invited to help coach one of our local 10u teams this past Monday... "rough" doesn't begin to cover it. Providing these girls with a list of things that are "quick" and "easy" to learn... and this is all relative... they were doing things they didn't think they could do. Having them get proper feet position, measuring off, getting the proper view of the ball as Hitter is talking about, "soft at the waste-bend at the knees", proper hand position at the shoulders, capable of positioning and locating the bat off the pony tail, a small toe touch, and some TLC at the plate made a huge difference. I've never applied the tools to so many so fast and never expected to get anywhere and I was wrong. Now, would they compete at travel level, not in one night, but... giving them a program and understanding of how to approach the plate and properly setup WAS HUGE and that is my point. If she doesn't have any basic "DNA" as a certain someone says, she has to develop it and at 10u there is "no time like the present". These comments are short-hand to say the least...

First, let me say that all of the previous posts are full of excellent points. Our 10U team has the benefit of working with a former major leaguer at his hitting school. He totally took apart each girl's swing and started from scratch over the off season. His primary teaching involves getting the bat through the hitting zone as quickly as possible with as little movement as possible. The "Violin Technique" (taking the bat right down the neck line moving the hand towards the ball) keeps unnecessary movement to a minimum and gets the bat to the ball faster, giving the girls the greatest opportunity for consistent contact. To your question about the cage versus real life, I have always argued that the only way to truly improve is to face live pitching. In the cage, the release point is identical pitch after pitch where with a girl, it could dramatically vary with each pitch. Obviously, picking up the pitch and seeing it into the bat is where the war is won or lost. Too much work in the cage can actually impair one's ability to do this. Good luck!

WarCatCoach said:

First, let me say that all of the previous posts are full of excellent points. Our 10U team has the benefit of working with a former major leaguer at his hitting school. He totally took apart each girl's swing and started from scratch over the off season. His primary teaching involves getting the bat through the hitting zone as quickly as possible with as little movement as possible. The "Violin Technique" (taking the bat right down the neck line moving the hand towards the ball) keeps unnecessary movement to a minimum and gets the bat to the ball faster, giving the girls the greatest opportunity for consistent contact. To your question about the cage versus real life, I have always argued that the only way to truly improve is to face live pitching. In the cage, the release point is identical pitch after pitch where with a girl, it could dramatically vary with each pitch. Obviously, picking up the pitch and seeing it into the bat is where the war is won or lost. Too much work in the cage can actually impair one's ability to do this. Good luck!

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We teach our hand path to be inside the path of the ball and created a device to demonstrate it. We never say hands to the ball or knob of the bat to the ball.

As to the cage this is why we do the Barry Bonds drill as we never stay in one place or use the cage for batting practice however we do use it for timing and rhythm to create what Slaught calls a data base and what we call a swing DNA...see this months NFCA article as it also covers moving up and back in the box and why it should not be done.