11 year old afraid to hit ball

Question
Ok What to do? My 11 year old is afraid to hit the baseball in the batters box only by a kid pitched baseball. This started last year when he started to try pitching and then he became afraid he was going to hit a kid. He was a class A ball player and now he has completely lost his confidence. I have noticed it is also effecting his field playing abilities as well.

Answer
Hi Patty,

First off, I think it is great that you are taking an active interest in your son's baseball training.  Some good parental encouragement can make all the difference for some kids to really shine.

1.  Afraid of being hit by a pitch? This is mostly a mental issue that he will need to work through by minimizing his fear.  He needs to simply come to terms with the fact that getting hit by a pitch is a part of the game, but the risk of any significant injury is very minimal.  In fact, looking at in that light you can minimize the power of this fear by giving reasons why its not a big deal like you are very unlikely to get anything more than a bruise if that or think of all the games that are played and how many people actually get hit by a pitch.  Basically, you whittle down the perceived fear bit by bit.  The alternative that some players like Ted Williams would use is to get angry with the mindset of I'm not going to let the pitcher drive me from the game, I won't give him the satisfaction and get even by hitting a home run.  This helped them get back in the batter's box and offers a nice aggressive batting mindset.  Still, some players have benefited by wearing a protective face mask.  Here, is an article: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/0508dnspocarltoncol.3b01...

2.  Ask him what he thinks the problem is and go from there?  In addition, consider videotaping him in practice and in the games and compare to see if he is doing anything different.  If you feel like you would like some baseball experts look at it, you can consider sending it to a baseball forum or baseball training site.  Here, is one source I recommend:

http://www.mikeepsteinhitting.com/Store/tabid/84/List/0/ProductID/37/Default.asp...

In the end, don't worry too much about this.  Follow some of these suggestions and have him keep practicing.  At some point, the switch will go off and he will start to hit like he did in the past.  Sometimes, it just takes a little time for everything to click.  

Best,
Jack Elliott
http://www.baseballtrainingtechniques.com