Son can hit all day in practice all kinds of pitches but strikes out almost every time in a game situation.

Anonymous asked: Son can hit all day in practice, all kinds of pitches, but strikes out almost every time in a game situation.

Rick answered: Thank you for your question.

There can be a number of factors at work in situations such as this.

Much depends on your son's age and the level he is currently playing at.

If he is making the transition from coach pitch to player pitch, this is the stage where this happens the most. They are moving from a secure environment where the speed is controlled by the coach, and there is little danger of being hit with a pitch.

In practice I would assume that all their reps are off a coach throwing to them, thus he continues to hit well. Move to the actual game and a player is throwing, speed is not controlled and generally the accuracy at that point in time is not consistent. Enter the fear of being hit.

If that is a possibility with your son, a good starting point would be to teach him how to prepare for the possibility of getting hit, so that he limits the amount of damage that might occur.

Often times a hitter is unable to get out of the way, if not, a plan on how to minimize the hit will provide them with confidence.

The link below is to a page on my site fear of being hit.

The techniques, once learned, will provide additional confidence that they have a way of protecting themselves, so that they are able to just concentrate on seeing the ball out of the pitcher's hand, and putting a good swing on it.

It is as teachable, and valuable a skill for young players, as hitting mechanics, throwing and all others.

If the fear of being hit isn't a possible cause, then the next place to look, is he seeing the ball in the game situation.

It is not unusual for young hitters to lose track of picking up the ball early, at the pitcher's release point. Even if they have spent the time to look where that release is before they step in the box, often times their head fills with any number of thoughts outside of "ball".

Another possiblity is feeling undue pressure, real or imagined. Generally they go to the plate with a "have to, or got to" thought process. Best remedy here is to teach them a sound approah to each and every pitch in an at bat.

First step is, in the on deck circle, determine the pitcher's release point. That is the spot they will fine focus on, as the pitcher starts to bring his arm forward. Prior to that, the focus is general, where they are seeing the mound, pitcher, everything soft.

Before they step in the box, take a deep breath, let it out, it loosens all the muscles, so that everything works smoothly, not tight and stiff.

As the pitcher loads to throw, they sould load and stride themselves, front foot down slow and early, as little motion as possible. More motion leads to not seeing the ball as well.

See the ball out of pitcher's hand, track it all the way to the plate, if it's a pitch they want to hit, put a good swing on it, hit it hard somewhere, the definition of a good at bat.

What happens from there is now out of their control, but attention to the process for getting to that point, allows for the results to take care of themselves.

Yogi Berra said,"You can't think and hit at the same time." It is very true.

The simpler, the better. Deep breath and exhale to release the pressure and loosen the muscles, fine focus on the release point as the pitcher starts forward with his arm, get your front foot down early and slow, track the ball all the way to and through the hitting zone, put a good swing on it, hit it hard somewhere.

Sounds simple enough; but is is truly one of the harder skills to accomplish in all of sports. Takes a lot of correct repetitions, so that in a game, they don't need to think about mechanics, only seeing the ball. The correct repetitions provide them with the confidence they can be successful.

Those are a few places to look at. There may be other things at work, would need to know additional information on your son's situation such age, experience and a little more about what you are seeing in his game at bats.

Let me know if any of the above thoughts look like where he is at. If not, send some additional thoughts and we can move forward from there.

I would be interested in hearing from you as to how things are going. Good luck to you both as you go forward!

Yours in baseball,

Rick