Posted by: Terry (gthatt7@aol.com) on Thu Mar 20 05:10:27 2008

It could simply be his lack of confidence at this point. Old habits die hard, even with kids.
Sounds like he's reverting to his comfort level during a game and it will just take time for
him to work through it. Game day confidence could be a key factor. No one wants to fail,
so during the pressure of a game where it all seems to be on the line, we'll tend to fall
back into our comfort zone, even if it fundamentally guarantees our failure. It's the ol'
90% mental, 10% ability issue.

An idea for you: You could explain to him the concept of picking up the ball out of the
pitcher's hand. In other words, work on picking up the ball in the imaginary box where the
ball is released as opposed to watching the pitcher's motions, etc.

Another possibility is his eyesight. He may not be getting focused on the ball soon
enough. I coached a kid (a teen) that would get hit by a pitch in virtually every game. An
eye exam and sports goggles changed his game, not to mention his safety.



> My son just turned 9 years old, and developed a new problem after playing only
basketball in the offseason where he is late on his swing 100% of the time no matter what
speed the pitcher is at. If he makes contact it's only if the pitch was slow, and the ball is
hit to opposite field, usually foul. He's waiting until the ball is midway through flight to
decide whether or not the pitch is worth swinging at, and by the time he realizes it's a
strike, the ball has passed him while he's just starting his swing. I've tried telling him to
get into his swing earlier and to try stepping right as the ball is being released with a 100%
belief he's swinging at every pitch (with the option to bail on the swing later if it's a ball).
My advise seemed to work in the batting cages, and is not working on the field against a
real person. Does anybody know a way to prevent such a delay in the swing?