Moving from coach pitch to girl pitch

[Webbtown]

What should be my DD main focus with her moving from coach pitch to kid pitch. She turned into a dominant player in 8U travel ball in the spring in both hitting and fielding. I already plan on having her work with her older sister hitting coach.

 

[Rolling Hard]

Getting use to walking. ?

 

[CoachCeetar]

pitch selection. Coach pitch usually are easy strikes. it's BP. She's going to have to hit balls that are by her knees, or at her neck, or almost in the other batter's box. The extent to which you want her to swing at these, versus taking a zillion walks is a different discussion, but there will be some games where she might not see a strike, and if she does, that strike is either going to be a pity call by the ump and actually came in at her eyes, or is gonna be a little quicker than she's used to.

Which is the second thing: tracking the pitch through the windmill motion. Picking up the ball and waiting for it. In coach pitch kids often are looking closer to the plate, they know the ball's going to be where they want it, so they treat it a lot like a coach putting it on the tee. Did the ball show up where I swing at it? okay, then swing at it.

Actually tracking it from the pitcher's hand is a different animal, coupled with WAITING for it to get there, especially as it's probably coming from farther away too. Generally speaking, their swing gets faster and faster, but the pitchers don't really. Some are fast, but (obviously depending on your league caliber) even when she's 10 she's gonna face first year pitchers that barely get it over. Her swing will get better, faster, and able to get around on the ball faster and faster, and the ball will still be floating in there.

 

[CoachJD]

Which is the second thing: tracking the pitch through the windmill motion. Picking up the ball and waiting for it. In coach pitch kids often are looking closer to the plate, they know the ball's going to be where they want it, so they treat it a lot like a coach putting it on the tee. Did the ball show up where I swing at it? okay, then swing at it.

I have always pitched to hitters using a windmill in practice. Up until this year, I never did it during games. I hated not doing it, but I was worried I'd just end up striking them out all the time.

I started doing it a few games into this season after asking the girls what they preferred in practice, and they hit much better off it. And I throw probably 50% more hittable pitches.

 

[chappellestherobot?]

This is one of THE toughest stages. Against coaches and parents you know you are going to swing because you know it's a good pitch every time. Once kids come in you have no idea where it's going, it can get incentivized to take pitches, kids can freeze up. You almost have to be a pro level hitter at age 9 to be able to swing at the *one* pitch you'll see all day. And most 9 year Olds are not pro level hitters, sorry. Just try to be patient and not add to the pressure they already feel. It's a huge adjustment. Be selective/be aggressive are contradictory messages.

 

[CoachCeetar]

I have always pitched to hitters using a windmill in practice. Up until this year, I never did it during games. I hated not doing it, but I was worried I'd just end up striking them out all the time.

I started doing it a few games into this season after asking the girls what they preferred in practice, and they hit much better off it. And I throw probably 50% more hittable pitches.

It's harder work too, at least that's what my fitbit says..

I think depends on the kid really, if you KNOW the kid is going to crush your lob, you should be windmilling, if you're already worried you're going to strike them out..I dunno.

 

[RADcatchers]

Coach's lobbing the ball (arch) versus coaches pitching a ball that is more level are two different things a batter has to contend with.


Particularly speaking of the trajectory angle of the pitch. Can see coaches throwing what looks like change up that drops off before it even gets to the plate or barely crosses plate creates a struggling thing to hit for batters.

Get closer for front toss and put a net up if you have to but for goodness sake get better at those coach pitch situations!

 

[earlg3]

It looks like this is travel ball, so you're not going to face quite as many walks (though there will still be a lot, especially if you really hunt for them in pool play). If it's rec, it'll probably be a lot of walks, though.

If we're assuming you're facing girls who can pitch, the biggest jump I've seen for 8u hitters (even ones that played 8u travel) is that they have a hard time deciding early enough whether it's a ball/strike AND it can really expose really slow, loopy swings.