My daughter can hit a pitched ball but can't hit in the batting cages. How can I help her to correct this?

Question

My daughter can hit a pitched ball and doesn't so very well in her games no matter how fast the pitcher pitches. She adjust her swing- however she can't hit a ball off a pitching machine. I don't know how to help her. I've tried different batting cages nothing works. Does anyone have any tips. Because she can't hit the ball in the cage she's not making the teams. This is what they judge for the teams. thanks

Answer 1

Anyone can hit off of a pitching machine, and then not off of a pitcher,or the other way around.

Hitting is more mental than it is skill. It's all about your confidence. If you go up to the plate saying "I'm a strike out", then you're going to strike out. If you go up to the plate saying, "here's an easy triple", you're probably going to get on base.

Talk to her about it. Softball is a lot of mentality. It may not be anything she is doing.

I agree with what the girl who plays travel ball says. She should get her timing down and then start bunting. Then once she gets comfortable enough have her do half swings.Eventually, she should be able to do full stride swings.

If that doesn't work and she continues to not hit off of the machine, taker her out and take a different approach with it. Do soft toss with some wiffle balls, or tennis balls.

Train her eyes to focus on the ball. Take a white wiffle ball and an orange wiffle ball and throw them at the same time, tell her to hit the orange one.

Have her hit popcorn kernals. or little plastic golf balls.

Take her to the batting cages everday and have her hit a bucket of balls. Even if she doesn't make any contact, she still went to the cages and saw fifty pitches. Doing it everyday really helps.

Lastly, make sure you encourage her. If she does strike out, don't turn your back on her. Tell her it's okay, and that everyone strikes out. Tell her to look at the professionals. They're getting paid to play baseball and they strike out. She is just out there for the love of the game and WILL strike out and make errors. It's a fact of the game, you won't hit everytime.

After eveygame make sure you tell her what she did that was great. Mention all of her high points, make sure she knows that she is an amazing player, and can only get better from where she is at.

She may have struck out once at bat, but she's still btter off than the girls who are never hitting. She's not the worst on the team.

Answer 2

Make sure she isnt picking her head up. I play softball and many people i see have done that. Also make sure she is swinging evenly and balanced. make sure she isnt dipping and swinging diagonly and that she swings table top straight.

Answer 3

I had the same problem! With me the adrenalin rush of being in a game made me focus on the timing of the ball. Try letting a few balls go by and time them as they go by. It just takes some patience=]

Answer 4

Lots and Lots and Lots of practice!   My daughter plays softball and both of my sons play baseball.  We do tons of hitting practices.  One thing we do is have them hit off of a tee.  She may feel funny about it at first but it is extremely helpful in getting her hands and eyes to work together.  My son is a State Champion little leaguer and he still does tee hitting.  Also try whiffle balls.  They come in slow and help her to get the timing.  Once she gets some of the timing have her hit deflated basketballs.  It will help her to learn to swing all the way through as they are quite a bit heavier.  You can also try some private training if it's available in your area.  It can be expensive but some trainers will work with your budget.  But most importantly, as I said before, it takes lots of practice and commitment.  Good luck and have fun!

Answer 5

In the games ,is the pitcher closer ,she may need glasses

Answer 6

sounds strange to me>  Try moving the  stance in the box in batting cages

Answer 7

I've played travel softball for 7 years now, and I'm a pitcher. Try letting your daughter watch a few pitches go by to get her timing down. Then let her try bunting a few. When she gets the hang of it, then let her try hitting. Ask her coach to tell her what she's doing wrong. She's probably not seeing the ball good. A good drill is to draw numbers and colors on tennis balls and then as she hits it ask her to tell her what the color or number is. A pitching machine is the easiest thing to hit off of. Just keep making her practice it and she will eventually get it I'm sure! Good Luck!

Answer 8

Try having her practice with a wiffle ball. You can toss it to her up close and have her hit it against a fence. This will slow things down for her and she will be able to focus on the movement of the ball.

Answer 9

I cant hit balls in cages either, but can off of pitchers. Everybodys different.

Answer 10

first try to throw her the ball underhand than move up to each level.