7 year old learning to hit

Question
My son has moved up from T-ball to a pitching league where the coaches pitch from one knee.  I have two questions. 1) his bat speed seems slow - like he is waving at the ball.  Any way to improve this?   2)He seems to be able to swing from both sides of the plate..Should I have him focus from one side vs. the other?  Thanks

Answer
Dan,

He is only 7 and bat speed is not a concern at this point.  It may be that he has too heavy a bat.  I would say 80% of kids that age use too large a bat for them.  You want the lightest bat available at that age.  My daughter is 7 and playing coach pitch softball with age 8 and 9.  She swings a 17 oz bat.  She is our number one hitter on the team.  I tell the other parents to have their kids use a lighter bat like hers, but they want to use 29 inch and 21 oz bats.  They are just too long and too heavy for such young kids.  

If your son is making contact, great.  That is the key at this age, not bat speed.  Solid contact.  You want to develop hand eye coordination and plate awareness now.  Bat speed and swing mechanics at age 10 or so.

At 7, there is not much advantage to being a switch hitter.  However, left handed hitters are very valuable.  If he is comfortable swinging from the left side, great.  This is one that just has to be a mutual decision.  I started my daughter off hitting lefty.  She did OK, but swings much harder RH, which she throws.  Now she hits strictly RH and is hitting the ball well.

Remember, solid contact, not distance or results.  Learn to swing down at the ball, no uppercut and work on contact.  Check his bat size, lighter is better.  They can control the bat better.  He will swing a lighter bat instead of the bat swinging him.

Coach Boss