re: Youth baseball coaches/dads - advice please - Update and Thanks to DPD901

Withdraw.

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Exactly Stranger my 7 year old hits live pitching better than my 9 year old but hell they are young. . They are kids let em play and quit worrying about travel ball status. If he is 8 and cant hit underhand pitching more than likely soccer is a better option or just lay off the drills and let him be a kid.

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Could this response be a joke?

Only rational explanation I could come up with.

*Wait. I get it now. You're agreeing with my post.

shite changes at that age. He might just need to get comfortable with how his body works as he gets older, taller, stronger, longer. Hitting is hard and it's tough as hell to have repeatable mechanics at that age.

If what he's doing with his hands is ridiculous then work on him loading his hands backwards a bit without moving them up. Load and step with his front foot at the same time until loading like that is comfortable. It's a tiny movement.

After that, just see the ball and hit the shite. Don't get all complicated. At that age he's just learning to be an athlete.

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Are his hands coming up and in (towards his face), up and forward, or just going straight up before he starts his swing?

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His hands come up and forward but he opens up so fast that he pulls the bat across his body and finishes like he's swinging at a pitch coming from the third baseman.

Take a knee and pitch to him overhand to get him used to a low arm angle.
Get away from a machine. Destroys timing. He can go back later.
Make him take 20 reps on a tee before you pitch BUT make him break the swing down into 3 distinct steps. Load, stride, swing focusing on keeping his hands back and developing the muscle memory.

There's no such thing as muscle memory.

set up on a field, put the screen close to the plate, but stagger it. lean off the right side and just toss him the ball underhand. Like a "live" softtoss. See how he reacts to that. When he gets that down, back up a little further until you are lobbing it overhand.


Re: fear for young kids is also one of the biggest things that will hold them back. I think it is mental and really hard to change if you aren't born with that lion mentality. Simply said if you want to be a great hitter and attack the ball, you cant be scared of it.

reading this thread, i'm surprised no one has said his vision may be off kilter... it might be causing the ball to appear to him like it's something it's not when thrown from a longer distance

when you have muscle memory, i don't think you lose it unless something else is at play

Only practice game speed.
Consider his stance.
Choke up some.
Just make contact

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Your reading comprehension sucks as much as your post. I'm not talking to my son about mechanics or telling him what to do or what not to do. I'm trying to diagnose it with help, here, and come up with a drill/techniques to help him correct it.

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You deserve credit for being an involved father who only wants to help his son improve. You are not living vicariously through him, you clearly want to help him get better and become the best he can be. Don't let people like that spoil the moment.

His response to you is what is so despicable about this board. You ask legitimate questions and the " cool dudes" with 28,000 posts since 2014 show up and attack you or hijack your thread to suit their agendas. Then your post gets deleted through no fault of your own.

There are posted policies on this board which are discriminately applied. Those posters who personally attack other posters instead of responding to the topic should be immediately banned. Then maybe we could have rational discussion even with those that hold different opinions.