Little advice needed

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Thunder's Dad, You must get hit a lot, big target, hard to miss. :lmao:

Exactomundo Musty, and my cat-like reflexes that gave me the nickname of "el gatto" seem to have left in the mid 90's along with my ability to not sweat when I'm done tying my shoes. I cannot, therefore, get out of the way too often!

 

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I think Hitter has always posted great advice on how to overcome this.

A few things I've learned over the years:

Getting "beaned" is a part of the game.
Getting "beaned" HURTS! (but pain is in the mind)
There is a PROPER and SAFER way to get beaned (turning AWAY from the ball)
YOU have the BAT - USE IT!!
Poor stance and approach will entice chin music!

If all else fails - teach her how to charge the circle!

If she has a properly fitted helmet, and a good facemask, there is little chance of serious injury. She WILL no doubt get beaned again, and how she deals with that is her decision. I think the most valuable thing is teaching her HOW to NOT get hit in the FRONT of her body.

Well said. My DD has been hit plenty of times and has hit plenty of batters while pitching. Her comments are always the same "I should have got out of the way" or "They should have gotten out of the way". Its part of the game and it does hurt.

 

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Since it would appear that Thunder Dad is my twin brother from another mother(lol)--I agree, as a father of two lovely pitchers, "soft"balls hurt. Only relevant information to add--teach her turn away from ball, and try to get her hands back. Lost 2 girls last year with broken bones in hands--they got thier shoulders going back but let thier hands hang over the zone. And Thunder-pick the buffet in Clevaland we'll put out of business for lunch, and then go to Sterle's for supper....

 

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Since it would appear that Thunder Dad is my twin brother from another mother(lol)--I agree, as a father of two lovely pitchers, "soft"balls hurt. Only relevant information to add--teach her turn away from ball, and try to get her hands back. Lost 2 girls last year with broken bones in hands--they got thier shoulders going back but let thier hands hang over the zone. And Thunder-pick the buffet in Clevaland we'll put out of business for lunch, and then go to Sterle's for supper....

All hail plus sized dad's! Good point on getting them turned away to include the hands. We had a girl in the org. that got a finger crushed between bat and ball last year also. I have not gotten hit in the back by the dd's pitching yet (she hasn't learned a pitch that breaks that hard )

There is a chineese buffet on the strip at Parmatown Mall that is ripe for not being able to pay the light bill this month. Its not cheap, but they serve sushi and I can DESTROY that stuff!
When I walk in it looks like a recreation of a Godzilla movie, with them all pointing at me and yelling and running to hide the crab legs and such....

 

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Two things jump out at me here; 1. I am about 6' 2-3" depending on what convenient store I'm leaving, and around 290-300 lbs depending on what leg I put on the scale. You don't get much more "meat" on the bones than me unless you are stuck ridding a Rascal scooter to buy the next load of feed at the grocery store. My dd is a pitcher, and I have tested your theory on getting whacked in various anatomical locations, and I have yet to find an area on my ample body that does not cause me pain. Getting hit by a pitch HURTS!
2. Having already described my physical attributes, and having read your dd's reaction to getting hit by a come-backer to the circle, I would not like to meet her in a dark alley. I believe I would hand her the keys to my car, my wallet, some gas money from the front pocket, and inform her that her new car pulls a little to the left. I would imagine anyone short of Chuck Norris would do the same.

LOL.....I didn't say it didn't hurt. Every coach from both teams rushed to the mound as I stated, and all advised her that she should probably take a couple of innings off, so obviously we all knew it hurt. I figured that part wouldn't be hard to figure out, but I guess my point got lost in the shuffle. The point that I was trying to make was that, batters are gonna get hit, pitchers are gonna get hit, fielders are gonna get hit....etc. The physical pain is gonna be there, how they work through it determines whether they're gonna be the same player they were before they got hit. If the effect of getting hit is they are worried from that point on about getting hit, then I can't see where that can be corrected; because they're gonna get hit again, and it's gonna hurt again. Judging by your experiment you know that by now

 

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My girl played very well last year and she made a great traveling team this year. She was a strong hitter last year but she was recently tattoed by a couple hard throws. We go to the cage every night and she continues her strong hitting. Yet when we are at a live pitching she is starting to hold back. I need advice on how to get her to swing in live pitching like she does in the cages. She is NOT moving out of the box at all but just isn't swinging as hard and confident as she is capable. She is very skinny and the hits she got recently left the string marks on her leg. She loves this game and has been dreaming of being on the team she is on for the last 4 years yet she needs to get her confidence back and not worry about getting hit again. Thank you for the advice...

I'll assume your DD is 14U or 15U. I'm going to take a stab that she is hesitating because she is starting to see pitches that have movement. Those hard- thrown straight balls are the easiest to hit. But, take a little speed off and put a wiggle on the ball and it makes even the most feared hitters hesitate a little until they learn what pitch to expect and how to hit a particular pitch.

If this is the case, then I would suggest to first learn how to hit a drop-curve, screwball, curve, rise, or whatever pitch. Just like pitchers work on mastering a certain pitch, batters have to do the same. Once she knows that she can confidently hit a particular pitch, then start teaching what pitch to expect. This part is hard to do because each pitcher/catcher/person calling pitches is different but you can pick up on tendencies during the game (oh wow, this would require that all of the girls pay attention during the game).

Just a thought. Maybe some of the hitting gurus will check in on this.

 

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I think Hitter has always posted great advice on how to overcome this.

A few things I've learned over the years:

Getting "beaned" is a part of the game.
Getting "beaned" HURTS! (but pain is in the mind)
There is a PROPER and SAFER way to get beaned (turning AWAY from the ball)
YOU have the BAT - USE IT!!
Poor stance and approach will entice chin music!

If all else fails - teach her how to charge the circle!

If she has a properly fitted helmet, and a good facemask, there is little chance of serious injury. She WILL no doubt get beaned again, and how she deals with that is her decision. I think the most valuable thing is teaching her HOW to NOT get hit in the FRONT of her body.

Last summer my DD got hit 3 times by the same pitcher. The 3rd time she turned toward the pitcher, holding the bat in her left hand and said "seriously?". At that time we all thought she was headed toward the circle, but instead she dropped the bat "mean mugged" the pitcher and headed on to 1st base. It wasn't funny that she got hit 3 times but her reaction was really funny. Both sides were laughing at this point.