Quick fix for Dixie Youth in a hitting slump?

That's one lazy mf'er

This x1000

I have a question:

At what age should you really start working on a fundamentally sound batting stance/swing?

I have a 6 year old playing coaches pitch and I'ts really all about having fun at this stage. We only had one practice before the season started but when should more fundamental coaching start?

In a related question, what's the modern view on a proper batting stance?

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At what age should you really start working on a fundamentally sound batting stance/swing?

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T-ball age to start. Pitching machine/coach pitch to get all parts of stance/swing taught.

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when should more fundamental coaching start?

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Same as above. 5-6 y.o. can't repeat same catch/throw/swing very often. 7-8 y.o. can.

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what's the modern view on a proper batting stance?

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Knock-kneed, pigeon-toed. Hands up by R ear for righty, by L ear for leftie. And for God's sake, start with backside elbow down Can't stand to see a kid older that T-ball age that still has a flying elbow while waiting on a pitch.

Tell them you will buy them nudie magazines and a case of beer if they win, worked for my team when I was a kid...

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What kind of noncompetitve league is that? We probably had 10 practices before our first tee ball game this year and this after most of the team played tee ball or wee ball last year. We were undefeated during the regular season but most of that we because we had a full team that paid attention at every at bat.

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Well, we were "undefeated" too since no one keeps score for 6 year-olds. If we depended on any fielding team to actually get three, I don't think we could get through the first half of the first inning in any game in the hour. There was no difference between our team and the teams that practiced regularly: they were all terrible in the field.



I'm not an "everyone gets a trophy" parent, but there's plenty of time for competition once the kids can pitch. Otherwise, it's about having fun to keep interest in the game and getting a decent foundation of fundamentals.

Couple of things I did that helped my granddaughters who were 12 and 13. Go to your local athletics store and buy a bag of those perferated, plastic golf balls. They are much smaller than a baseball and help develope hand/eye coordination. They don't go very far when hit. I also went old, old school with the following batting exercise: I have a box elder tree in the front yard and a lot of the limbs hang fairly low to the ground. Just low enough to be perfect for a kid that age. I had them swinging the bat and cutting specific leaves off those low hanging limbs. And they were swinging hard, too, not those "granny" swings. This exercise helped them more than anything. Maybe these tips will work for you?

The biggest problem I see in youth players is hand placement. Keep them back as far as they can and about arm pit level. Watch the ball and hit it.

Be aggressive, they will fall in a slump from playing too much but hitting is contagious once one starts they all hit. Change your line up some times that will spark them.

We played a tournament last weekend. We scored 8 runs the first 3 games and won it all with 21 runs the last 2 games. An inside the park grandslam and a 3 run bomb as well as some great defense sparked these boys.

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At what age should you really start working on a fundamentally sound batting stance/swing?

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I can tell you from experience that coaching a women's plant softball team is a far cry from inexperienced kids. Give me the kids ANYTIME. Women won't listen to a word the coach says. And the excuses for not showing up to practice or games are endless: I just got my hair done, I've played before so I don't need to practice, I'm six weeks pregnant and can't run, If I put the glove in front of me I can't see the ball and it'll hit me, I'm right handed and this bat is left handed, If I slide I'll get my uniform dirty, etc.