Posted by: JCAZ (joeteg@gmail.com) on Thu May 17 14:02:58 2012

> The subject is fastpitch girl. Perfect form if soft tossed,
> or even when taking batting practice. This girl will
> knock half the pitches over the fence,but as soon aa
> she swings at pitches in a game she throws her hands
> straight out towards the pitcher and will.not.rotate
> her shoulder back towards the catcher . Her warm up
> swing just before she.enters the box is picture perfect.
> This has ben so frustrating for the both of us. Anyone
> else out there have this problem.

Maybe this will help, maybe not....

The best I had ever seen my oldest son swing the bat was when he had
101 fever and was really pretty sick. He had to play though, silly
teenagers. He went something like 5 for 5 with a couple walks and 3
extra base hits(double header). I filmed him that day, like I always
try to do, and found he had a great swing. Finally, he had figured it
out! Well that was short lived, his inconsistency came back the next
week. He has always had an issue with letting the ball travel to him
and hit it deep. Consequently, his hands would start leaking towards
the ball and it would ruin his swing plane and power. However, on
that day everything seemed to be working great.

So why did I tell you that story? You see my son is a very high
energy young man. He plays shortstop and has to take a very
aggressive attitude to the field. When I reflected on this day months
later, I started to realize that most of the time he was using the
same mindset at the plate as he was in the field, and that this could
be hurting him. He was putting himself under too much stress at the
plate which was causing his mechanics to fail. On the day he was
sick, he felt so bad that he was relaxed.

I know that might sound kind of silly. I believe that stress can be a
good and a bad thing. It can push you to do things that you couldn't normally do, and it can blow things up in your face. Stress at the
plate is a bad thing. Being relaxed and having confidence at the
plate are essential to a good performance. You have to slow the game
down, not speed it up. When stress is put on a person they tend to
revert to the fight or flight instinct which is usually their muscle
memory and habits. When she is taking BP, she is not stressed, she is
just swinging the bat with really no consequences. In a game it is totally different, at least between her ears.

We really started working on the approach at the plate and it has made
a huge difference. Really trying to relax, have confidence and meet
the ball deep with good mechanics. Check out Tom Hansen's book "Play
Big". All ball players, coaches and parents should read this book.