Hitting and Hitters Discussion What Age Should You Be Hitting HomeRuns

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Queation For All

When you should start or be expected to hit over the fence HomeRuns. The reason i ask is the other day in a tournament my 12 yr DD just turned 12 hit her first over the fence Homerun way over the fence she has hit 20+ inside the park homeruns off the fence right below the fence deep balls and she has been getting closer and closer every swing by the way she has been hitting the ball. Now in 3yrs of travel ball i've only seen 3 hit over the fence 2 by one girl in one game and 1 on a very short fence with the wind blowing 20+ mph out. I am sure many other coaches have seen more but i am just saying my experience. When would you expect them to try to hit them out. And by the way she is looking for a N.E.O Team for next year!!

 

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And by the way she is looking for a N.E.O Team for next year!!

She's definitely behind, better send her to my team in NEO for next year and we will work on it......

Seriously with just turning 12 and hitting 20 inside the park, i say she is ahead of the pack already....

 

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at 2u they should be hitting them out of the crib and over the changing table.

 

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Queation For All

When you should start or be expected to hit over the fence HomeRuns. The reason i ask is the other day in a tournament my 12 yr DD just turned 12 hit her first over the fence Homerun way over the fence she has hit 20+ inside the park homeruns off the fence right below the fence deep balls and she has been getting closer and closer every swing by the way she has been hitting the ball. Now in 3yrs of travel ball i've only seen 3 hit over the fence 2 by one girl in one game and 1 on a very short fence with the wind blowing 20+ mph out. I am sure many other coaches have seen more but i am just saying my experience. When would you expect them to try to hit them out. And by the way she is looking for a N.E.O Team for next year!!

At Sluggerfest this year, the girl from the 12U Louisville Sluggers hit 4 over the fence at Rivershore in one weekend.

 

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Shouldn't the size of the player make a difference in when? Rather then the age. My dd is 15 and weighs about a buck five. She has had a handful very close this year but just can't seem to get it over yet. I'm trying to put some weight on her! lol

 

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My first year of coaching 10u we had a girl who is now on the 13u Stingrays - Caton hit 2 out. last year that same girl hit 5-6 out for us. My second year of 10u we had another girl hit 2 out, that girl is now on the Riptides 12u and has hit three out so far and 1 that just missed going out in Oklahoma City into the teeth of a 30mph wind. The first girl that is now with the Stingrays has hit 8-9 out this year as 13 year old. I don't believe that these girls try to go yard They work very hard on their swings and love to hit and when you put a good swing on a good pitch good things happen.

 

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Don't know at what age they should be hitting home rubs. I do know that base hits win the game and home runs make it more fun.

 

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Shouldn't the size of the player make a difference in when? Rather then the age. My dd is 15 and weighs about a buck five. She has had a handful very close this year but just can't seem to get it over yet. I'm trying to put some weight on her! lol

The youngest we have had was 10.5 years old that cleared a 200 foot fence and weighed less than 90 pounds.

Les has some young ones that have hit the ball very hard that probably weigh less than 70 pounds. In my opinion with the proper hand path and technique 90 to 100 pounds and 11 to 12 years old would be the combination.

One of the methods for the kids to see it and feel it is to soft toss them from home plate to see where the ball goes by tossing inside, middle and away and then what in the swing mechanics makes the ball go further for example with the head up verses down, flexed front knee verses stiff, hands above the shoulder verses below, separating the hands rearward verses not, back elbow high verses away and not down, top hand wrist flexed in verses out and the use of different grips especially in the top hand.

We did this with his team at a practice and some could not get it to the grass maybe 105 feet and then we applied different techniques and they were all putting it in the grass! Some of his kids are so small a good wind would blow them away....but they are ALL coach able and it is a joy to watch them and the parents have fun even if it is single.

 

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The youngest we have had was 10.5 years old that cleared a 200 foot fence and weighed less than 90 pounds.

Les has some young ones that have hit the ball very hard that probably weigh less than 70 pounds. In my opinion with the proper hand path and technique 90 to 100 pounds and 11 to 12 years old would be the combination.

One of the methods for the kids to see it and feel it is to soft toss them from home plate to see where the ball goes by tossing inside, middle and away and then what in the swing mechanics makes the ball go further for example with the head up verses down, flexed front knee verses stiff, hands above the shoulder verses below, separating the hands rearward verses not, back elbow high verses away and not down, top hand wrist flexed in verses out and the use of different grips especially in the top hand.

We did this with his team at a practice and some could not get it to the grass maybe 105 feet and then we applied different techniques and they were all putting it in the grass! Some of his kids are so small a good wind would blow them away....but they are ALL coach able and it is a joy to watch them and the parents have fun even if it is single.

thanks for the help big guy at that practice!! What a huge benefit that provided our yound DD's. It paid off at the plate in FL, had lots of extra base hits against the most consistant and tough Defense we had played against as a whole across an entire tournament! All teams could play and we hit them pretty hard. Several wins by more than 8 runs which we had not been doing consistantly. Just couldn't put it all together every game. Fun as heck though!!! Good thing the breeze in Panama wasn't any harder... we would have had to tie a couple of them down!

 

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I remember watching a 12U game right before we played about 5 years ago, this girl from the SGS Magic Blue, Aja Hall, hits this 250' bomb, I am not BSing it went so far over the fence that as she crossed the plate the other teams coach came right out and said "I want to see her birth certificate", they actually checked it right then. First time I had ever seen that. It was the USSSA Northern states at Rolf. That girl could and still can as a senior in high school send the ball into orbit, also by far the fastest runner I have ever seen.

 

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By no means is she trying to hit homeruns she is just looking for a base hit but with her size of 5'9 120lbs she can do it very easily. It was a bomb it went about 220 before it hit the light post if that wasn't there it would have been 250ft. She always has been a power hitter even when she played 9-10 yr old baseball she was pounding the ball and then moved to 10u softball she was hitting them off the fence. I have taught her to hit the ball were it is pitched and look for a single everytime at bat.. If it is more than just a single it is a bonus...

 

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Home runs, heck I smile when my 18 yr old reaches the grass..... Family of slappers, draggers and sac's and sneaky bunts...

 

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12u and above.

 

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Honestly, i think anyone can hit it over, you just have to have the swing and hit it right. But there are some who are stronger and can hit it with no problem. I don't know, it just depends.

 

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I hope I don't step on anyone's toes here, but, there is too much credence given to an individual home run. Yes, it is an adrenaline rush and a quick run, but, it is a total of 4 bases. Now, 4 consecutive singles are also 4 bases but the potential for runs scores is tipped heavily in the favor of 4 singles vs 1 home run.

Instead of focusing on a dinger, I prefer focusing on a good swing on a pitch that ends up in the gap and move the runners. This country is in love with home runs but give me 4 girls that have good swing mechanics and can give me 4 consecutive hits, I will take that over 1 home run. Yes, it may not be exciting as a HR, but, the excitement at the end of the game is better than a crowd at the plate after a blast that did not win a game.

 

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I hope I don't step on anyone's toes here, but, there is too much credence given to an individual home run. Yes, it is an adrenaline rush and a quick run, but, it is a total of 4 bases. Now, 4 consecutive singles are also 4 bases but the potential for runs scores is tipped heavily in the favor of 4 singles vs 1 home run.

Instead of focusing on a dinger, I prefer focusing on a good swing on a pitch that ends up in the gap and move the runners. This country is in love with home runs but give me 4 girls that have good swing mechanics and can give me 4 consecutive hits, I will take that over 1 home run. Yes, it may not be exciting as a HR, but, the excitement at the end of the game is better than a crowd at the plate after a blast that did not win a game.

Johnnies I have my girls hit into a zone of 51 inches high and 39 inches high horizontally with a vertical line in the middle and if they hit it there from 4.5 feet away from the lines they are hitting it hard at the correct angle. If not we need to understand why and adjust and we will take anything in the brown, green or parking lot however we need a target and that is the 51 and 39 inch zone. We do not have a strike zone however we have a hitting zone.

 

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There is no age at which a girl should be hitting home runs. The ability to hit home runs is no doubt partially about the strength of the girl as well at the bat, but it is much more about the mechanics. Hitting the ball hard consistently is what hitting is all about, and will likely eventually produce home runs.

 

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We played 49 travel games this year and she is batting around .620 for the year. So if that was her first Homerun she must be doing something right at the plate to be hitting for that average. She is not up there trying to kill the ball everytime but trying for a single every time.

 

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wow, .620 for the year! Nice bat!

 

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Home runs are not everything, but one over the fence sure is memorable! We played up to 14 at the Grand Finale this weekend and one of our 12s hit one dead out the left to center 200 foot fence....and then some. Absolutely a rush for a bunch of 12 year olds and at least a "perfect" swing for one! This is a kid who has performed consistently all season and works at it year round. As a coach, what made the homerun worth even more....was the hitter who got on base before the big hit that resulted in 2 runs. It takes big and little hits to win and always a thrill to get both from top to bottom in your lineup!