Player who lost confidence

I have a player on my team who was a very good hitter in her first year of 14u. This 2nd year she has been unable to hit the ball. She has lost her confidence. She goes up to hit thinking the pitcher is too fast or she will strike out. When we soft toss or hit in the cage she is awesome. She has a mechanically sound swing. She has a good hitting instructor, but her mental approach is lacking. Is there anything I can do to help her.

 

Eyes???

Don't know the situation nor am I by any way an expert, but here are a couple of things I've found.
It may be her sight.
one: have her eyes checked. My kid had to get glasses and contacts. You can't hit what you can't see.
two: she is not watching the ball. Every kid I work with wants to see where the ball goes before she even hits it. We work a lot on watching the ball. When I say that, I mean watch what they watch. Kids can trick you into thinking they are watching when they are just looking in the general area and not focused on the ball.

 

especially check for astigmatism. This can really affect depth perception and is critical to tracking the ball from the pitcher to the plate. It can also be a handicap in the field, especially for an outfielder.

Train the eyes to track the ball. There are various ways to do this, some by professionals (look it up on the internet) some simple ways you can do at home. One is to take a ball and write the numbers 1,2,3,4 on the four "sides". She can just toss the ball up and catch it, reading the number that ends up in the palm of her hand as it lands. This can progress to soft toss hitting, doing the same thing. They say that Edgar Martinez, who played for the Mariners, could read numbers on a ball pitched at over 70mph!

If it's not something physical, like her eyes, then it's a mental thing. That is something that you and she will have to work through. But do realize that sometimes it just isn't meant to be. I've known some great BP hitters who just never could be successful in games. They practiced, they took lessons and anything else they could think to do to improve, but it just didn't happen. Often these were really smart kids who just couldn't turn their brains off and just hit the damn ball... The lesson here is, KEEP IT SIMPLE! See the ball, hit the ball... see the ball, hit the ball...

 

If all else fails as others have mentioned, her mental approach could be parental support. No offense, but I see parents totally mess up their own kids because they put to much pressure on them. Screaming insulting and negative things to them during games and practices. Like the girl is not allowed to make a mistake. Everything is great when they are doing well, but then something falls off and the parent has a harder time coping out of frustration then the child does. If she was doing well before she will do well again. She is still quite young. Look at the parent as well as the player because somethimes that will tell you a lot. Hope this helps.

 

Take it from this man he is VERY intellgent when it comes to fastpitch he has been around the game for awhile........ Also I have to agree with Rick eyes are the first thing to check

 

Small Success

Been through this several times in the past. If her eyes check out OK, give the young young lady some opportunities to have some success. By that I mean pitch front toss at practice a little closer than normal, pitch mainly middle in, and just ask her to play pepper with each pitch. Just have her try to hit the ball back at the pitching screen (line drive) every pitch.

It won't be long before she will have this working, then just move the screen back a little farther and as she keep hitting the ball solid, eventually put the screen where you normally pitch from. But until she is completely over this issue, I would keep pitching middle-in to help her with her confidence.

Over the years, this has worked wonders with some of my girls who get in this kind of "funk". IMO for girls, they have to regain their confidence before they will snap out of it.

 

I agree totally. In addition, make sure she is coming to toe touch BEFORE the ball gets there. This must be done softly and deliberately with no head movement at all. Everything before the swing is almost effortless. The violence doesn't happen until you swing.

 

I went through a slump during middle school and my confidence slipped tremendously that I didnt go out my Freshman year. I played in a rec league the summer after my Fresman year and just went out there and had fun and regained my confidence. My Sophmore year I led my high school team in hitting. Also I went to the batting cage some working against the fastest I could get to get my timing down. I would say try to get her in the cage to get her timing down and some confidence back and make sure she understands it is ok to get out and you will see her hitting pick up.

 

Agree

Get her eyes checked excellent suggestion, if eyes are okay, then go back to hitting 101 with "T" work and analyze her swing, it might just be a tweak here or there. If it's a confidence loss, only she can fix that,and it might take a few tournaments to get her there !!! " BE POSITIVE " the other way doesn't work..... Guru