Hitting and Hitters Discussion 11u Hitting - At wits end!

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I was hoping to get some advice from others on what to do about a player on my team who just cannot seem to overcome stepping out of the box on every live ball pitched. I have tried everything possible (even wearing a helmet in practice and laying behind her and holding her front foot in) to get her to remain in the box, weight back, and to swing while balanced. Every pitched ball she seems to be looking for a way to back out of the box. When she does get a swing around her weight distribution is so screwed up that she's actually on her tip toes swinging the bat through the zone.

This girl is a 12u travel ball player who went through a medical condition early last year. Prior to that she was staying in the box and hitting well. She's a taller girl who has a bit of power if I can only figure out a way (if it's even possible now) to have her remain in the box and get a balanced swing through on the ball.

I'm wide open to suggestions.

 

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I made a homemade balance beam. It good for balance and if she steps out she'll lose her balance. I saw a college coach use them. I think it was BGSU, but not sure.

 

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I did try that method as well but she just steps off the beam. I'm ready to cement her feet in buckets to be honest!

 

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http://www.game-ex.com/vb3/showthread.php?t=10664
Why you don't use a balance beam.

 

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Balance beam is good, have also tried a railroad tie...no kidding. If you have the space, use about 1/3 of a railroad tie, put some soft stuff on top and sides. If she can lift her leg over the 12" barrier of this momma, then she definitely has issues. The worst one--we combined this with a pair of my old combat boots over her tennis shoes. I do not know how much weight it added, but it did trick. What was your players medical problem? Did it involve any overtraining issues-i.e., one side getting a lot stronger than the other? Had an ortho. surgeon say that was a huge emerging problem for girls, especially in pitchers. Good luck, and I look forward to hearing other solutions to this problem.

 

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Try allot of soft toss and tee work for a while along with allot of praise!! Get her away from live pitching for a while then bring her back slow, Repetition get her seeing how well she is doing in hitting the ball by stepping toward the Pitcher. Video tape her so she can see herself. Hope this helps!

 

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I have a friend who's dad put a rake where he was stepping. True story but I wouldn't recommend it.

Last year our 8U girls switched to machine pitch with speed set at 37 mph. I knew I would have problems with fear factor with 7 and 8 year olds so I did a few things to get them comfortable with a fast pitch (opposed to coach pitch). I used the Louisville slugger UPM 45 and started fast pitching whiffle balls at them. As soon as I saw a tendency to step in the bucket, I put a 4" x 4" x 6' piece of treated lumber against their heels in the batter's box taking away their ability to step in that direction.

I don't know how relevent this is to your problem since you said "live pitch" but the 4x4 worked for us very well. We escalated from whiffle balls to tennis balls to real balls and 9 out of 12 of our girls were consistently crushing the ball.

 

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Had a similar problem some years back. I would be interested in knowing the medical condition the girl went through. The young lady I was coaching had no problem hitting for several years. Once she got to about the same age as your girl she was out of the box like crazy. Tried several things to correct it then noticed the fear in her eyes one day. After a long conversation I discovered that with the increased speed of the pitching she was now more afraid of being hit by the pitch. After several months of working with her relaxing in the box and gaining some confidence and belief she would be ok she made great progress. Especially as her size and skill caught up to the rest of the group.

 

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Have her start with an open stance and have her step in as she loads.

 

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I was hoping to get some advice from others on what to do about a player on my team who just cannot seem to overcome stepping out of the box on every live ball pitched. I have tried everything possible (even wearing a helmet in practice and laying behind her and holding her front foot in) to get her to remain in the box, weight back, and to swing while balanced. Every pitched ball she seems to be looking for a way to back out of the box. When she does get a swing around her weight distribution is so screwed up that she's actually on her tip toes swinging the bat through the zone.

This girl is a 12u travel ball player who went through a medical condition early last year. Prior to that she was staying in the box and hitting well. She's a taller girl who has a bit of power if I can only figure out a way (if it's even possible now) to have her remain in the box and get a balanced swing through on the ball.

I'm wide open to suggestions.

Try a drill termed face the fire....the hitter lines up directly behind home plate however closer than the catcher and she may have to adjust a little until she finds her stride length. We explain the head is the camera and the eyes are the lens and we want to keep our head steady as our body moves under us to get to toe touch. Look through the net as if there is a pitcher standing in front of you. Place a tee in the middle and slightly forward of home plate about 2 to 3 inches. As a right handed hitter their belly button is facing the pitcher, while looking through the net they take their right leg and go behind their left leg and as they set the back leg foot down they pick up the lead foot leg and stride forward and land inside the lead foot...think slow to load soft to step as this is not a fast move as we are building the momentum....as they get to toe touch they track the ball to the tee and hit it. Look for the hands to separate at toe touch. I take an old bath mat and cut it in stripes about 4 inches wide so they can take it to the cages or use it during live batting practice. Get them use to moving their body under their head first and being smooth. Sometimes it helps if you show them doing this in front of a mirror with the rubber strip on the floor. This is very helpful with our LD kids also. Make sure she is seeing the ball well also and have her pick her stance while looking into a mirror....if she can not see the white of her eyes on the out side corner of her left eye her head is not turned far enough and in this case physically turn her head a little more and she will feel uncomfortable and then ask her to move her right foot towards home plate about 2 to 4 inches and the shoulders and neck will be more comfortable. Let them pick the stance...I only have three girls who use a closed stance and all three had lazy left eye surgurey and everyone uses even or slightly open.

Next use a 4x4 and have her line up off the plate and place it behind her heels. Then place a concrete block by the board so see can not move it if her heel kicks it. Make sure she balances by bending at the waist first and softens the knees next. We never hit off a balance beam or 2x4 as we need to have the heel planted....just because you saw a college coach use it does not make it correct as I know plenty of college coaches who do not use it also.

 

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Need to get to the root cause. Is she afraid of the ball? If she is I dont care what you put behind her she will step out. I use a softball behind the front heel. Take away the stride off the tee and see if she steps out. If she does the ball will roll across the floor.

I then replace the ball and ask her how much she likes pushups. Then I tell them if my ball moves again they are going to do pushups. (5) Its amazing what kind of motivation that provides for them not stepping to the bucket. LOL

Of course after about 25 pushups they are too tired to move so it fixes the problem. Actually it helps them to focus on not stepping out which is all your trying to accomplish in the first place.

Dana.

 

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Thanks for all the replies. gbas, I did see your reply about having the opposing pitcher throw at her if she steps out. That went over real well when I casually mentioned that today!

Her medical condition was she had an emergency appendectomy earlier this year. She mentioned to another player that she was afraid of getting hit in the area where they operated thus is why she is stepping out. That was months ago, however, and she should be way over that by now.

Honestly, I think she is scared of the ball and getting hit hard. How can she possibly overcome this?

 

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That was months ago, however, and she should be way over that by now.

The human body is a miralce in itself........I had surgery once that should have healed in 7-10 days........6 weeks later i was 80% recovered....nothing wrong just very very slow to heal.........The doc said it was fine but i knew myself how it felt that i still wasnt 100%.

I think she is scared of the ball and getting hit hard.

Heck i know alot of those and they didnt even have surgery.

 

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Throwing heat,

That is a true story, but I thought I would delete it. Might cause a uproar on here. It was all in fun. I knew she wouldn't hit her. But my dd believe it.

 

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She will only get over it with patience and time. The girl I worked with continued to do all of her hitting drills including live pitching. We progressed from whiffle balls to tennis balls, than from softies to regular balls. It took her a full HS season to work out of it. The more game repetitions she got the more she settled down. I do not think there is a way you can force it out of her or speed up her recovery faster than she is ready. It might also take a good bit of 1 on 1 communication both softball and non softball related. If it is related to the surgery some padding in the area may help boost her confidence.