Hey my son has been playing ball on a traveling team for 3 years. He is having trouble with finding the gaps. He doesn't strike out much, but can't seem to get on base as much as he would like. It seems like he is always hitting it to someone. Any suggestions?

He also gets nervous sometimes at the plate. He can work the count great but, his nerves do take over. Not sure if this his problem with hitting.

Any thoughts?

Does he hit line drives, hard grounders, or weak grounders and lazy fly balls?

I would have to say probably weak. They are easly playable grounders. And the fly balls don't seem to really travel either. He has the stealh blue bat.

On the one hand, it's impossible to say without seeing your son in action. On the other hand, I hesitate to ask you to post a clip, because if you've seen what those clips set in motion in other posts on this site ... well ....

The one thing that all the swingmeisters never really mention is that if your son is not really hitting the ball on the sweet spot, this can be a sign that his vision has changed and me may need to update his corrective lenses (or get them for the first time, as the case may be).

A good coach or a pro at a baseball clinic might be able to give you some tips specific to his swing, but if he's making contact consistently yet weakly, it makes me wonder if he's seeing the baseball in sharp contrast, or if he's seeing a fuzzy thing moving towards him that he has to guess where to put his bat to hit it dead on.

I mention this based on experience with my own son and other players. Kids' vision changes as they grow up, and it's amazing how many folks just don't pick up on it, or don't visit the optometrist for the old annual checkup.

Midlo Dad, your comment on changes in vision is right on. At the start of his 13U season, my son had some dropoff in hitting. It was time for his 7th grade physical, and he couldn't read the letters on the vision chart! Contacts, and he is back to hitting well. I have seen several other boys that had the same thing. If I were a high level coach, I would want a mandatory vision check for all my players around 13 or 14.

family321 - when i went through this, my dad decided i needed a change of pace and we turned to a hitting coach. i had to work hard, but at the time i didn't realize it was work -- T, soft toss, and lots of variations on the same drill to keep it fresh. and i remember my dad talked to alot of people before we settled on one coach. he made sure we bought into a particular approach so that i wouldn't have to go through a lot of swing changes.

As for the nervousness, this article may help.Pressure or Opportunity?

quote:

Originally posted by family321:
He has the stealh blue bat.

IMHO, it's not the bat...it's the swing.

If you can, find a professional to evaluate his swing and give him some pointers to hit the ball harder and more on a line.

I can be done.