Lost batting confidence

Question
My 8-year-old son is finishing up the fall season, his first season in kid pitch. Hitting has always been his strongest asset. He has always been a great hitter and it has made him valuable to the team, even though his fielding can be good but isn't consistent. But with this move to kid pitch, he has hit a wall. Since the pitchers have just moved up too, they are throwing lots of balls and not many strikes, so he has gotten used to just standing there and letting balls go by, not swinging, even when they are good pitches. He has also seen quite a few kids get hit pretty hard by some wild pitches, and I think it has scared him. Every now and then a really great pitcher will appear, and throw real hard and fast, and he doesn't seem up to the task of hitting those pitches. I thought by the end of the season he would have found his groove but it seems like he's lost skills instead of gained. He is psyched out now and was almost in tears after his last at-bat. He is losing confidence in himself. It is breaking my heart, and affecting his social confidence also. Any advice to help him get his groove back? Should we get him some private batting lessons? I will admit that his coach works them at batting some, but not as much as other coaches have in past seasons. Thank you for your help.

Answer
hi sandra

this is a pretty normal development. the child has some skill at hitting a ball with a parent or machine. then you go into kid pitch and the kids do not pitch very accurately. the child becomes a little timid and begins to take pitches.

let's do this--we need to keep his confidence up--so you need to take him to the cage and throw live to him. create some type of game where he can get points if he hits the ball in a certain area. the game and points are not important, but serve as motivation for him to want to do well.

praise him when he hits in a game with kid pitch and attempts to hit the ball, even if no contact is made.

talk to him about the difficulty of going from dad pitch to kid pitch and how even the best players in the world have some feeling of fear when they play. make sure he knows as he grows up and kids get better, he will feel more comfortable at the plate.

make it fun for him.

keep me posted on his progress. i am not sure what part of the country you are in, but if you are in the mid-west i might be able to help even more.

good luck!
steve
314  531-0330 ext 2133