Posted by: Bill Wyland (wjwyland@yahoo.com) on Sun Jul 20 14:38:22 2003

I am desperate for some advice, why my son cannot hit a baseball during a game. My son is a 9 year old travel all star. He is having trouble hitting pitches from other 9 year old boys. He does extremely well in the batting cages and will hit junk I throw to him in practice. However when he is up to the plate he is striking out everytime. His swing mechanics are good and he said he is he needs to get himself into the automatic mode of his swing. he's practiced alot now he just needs to let that practice out by blanking his mind before the pitch. you don't want a bunch of mind chatter going on... the body can't get into automatic unless he's relaxed. a good way to get relaxed is to inhale into the lungs and into the stomach. then exhale. follow the breath into the nose and down into the lungs and on into the stomach. this exercise takes one's mind off of the thoughts that are making them tight. and will increase the oxygen in the blood stream, more energy. two or three of these as he's getting ready in the box. now focus on the release point of the ball and repeat some word that means nothing as you focus on the incoming ball. always be on green light and always expect a fastball and adjust to anything else. so you start your stride in anticipation of it being a strike... always think it's going to be a strike. as you drop into the launch position to swing you're not thinking... you're swinging. have faith that your hands will stop if it's a ball. you don't have to think stop. they'll just stop. remember no thinking.
> that's your son's job from now on. STOP THINKING IN THE BOX. your job is to get his batspeed as high is possible. then just let it happen.
> one more thing... don't instruct during the game. causes toooo much thinking. besides the game is the time you both are supposed to be enjoying the experience. after all it's only going to happen once.
> hope this helps, Rich