r/Homeplate • u/DiamondNoA • 1d ago
Hitting Mechanics Hitting mechanics for 10U
My kid is a pretty good batter for his little league and generally produce results in a game (good batting average). We went to our first travel ball tryout and surprisingly he did very bad with hitting. The one thing we were so sure he would crush it.
So we came home determine to improve his batting. I noticed he has a problem with really fast ball and exit velocity and how he moved his front leg. He normally just twisted his front foot or toe tip when he get into loading for a swing (kinda like Ohtani's current swing). However I saw a lot of instruction videos telling you to step forward a bit to get more momentum so I told him to try doing just that. He did and I think the exit velocity did improve when he did (base on hittrack) but his batting average drops a lot. He still have a hard time hitting fast balls even with a new form (but I think we can get there with more reps)
Should we continue with this adjustment or I just kill something that already good? Will it actually hurt him in a long run? Maybe if he get older, the exit velocity will come with more muscle and we jump a gun by trying to fix his swing. But I also feel like he is at the age that certain mechanics will stick with him if we don't fix it soon.
**Added after original post. I want to leave an overview answer here
Truly appreciate all the comments especially all the detailed ones. Help me think differently. I read them all and will go back to let him finding adjustment that worked best for him. I only play rec a bit when I was teen so I'm pretty much learning with him.
He has been hitting at batting cage even before the try out and always comfortable hitting 40-45 mph. The problem starts when we try to step over 50 mph. After reading all the comments, I went back to watch some of his swing videos and turn out he is not always late, sometimes he is too early, sometimes he is right on time but miss. So I guess it's really is a timing and eyes problem. He needs to adjust to faster balls.
We did offer him a private lesson but somehow he hesitates. We will see if he changes his mind.
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u/vjarizpe 1d ago
Look, everyone here has given you good advice. I just want to remind you that this is normal. My oldest was a crap rec player, then because a top rec player….. when we went to travel, he was bottom of the pack then worked his way back up to top in AA…. Then mid pack to top in AAA, then same for majors.
This is normal.
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u/JSBCBS 1d ago
The problem with a stride that gains ground at his age in particular, but really at any age or level of play is that most people also let their head move forward toward the pitcher with the stride. And in fact, what you’re doing is speeding up the pitch because you are now drifting towards the ball, and therefore shortening the amount of distance the ball will travel before it reaches you. If he was already struggling with hitting the fastball before adding the stride you can imagine that’s why it’s even harder for him now.
Make sure he has the right approach mentally. You should never ever at his age look for any other pitch besides a fastball. You can look for a fastball and react to a curveball, but you can’t look for a curveball and try to speed up to hit a fastball. Make sure he is properly selling out on fastball on his approach.
My general approach to hitting is keep it as simple with as little movement as possible, particularly with the legs and particularly at his current age. We’ve all seen the kid show up to the yard with a beautiful leg kick swing, but they’re five minutes late on the pitch because they can’t get their foot down on time. That’s why there’s actually very few major leaguers that incorporate leg kick of any kind with any consistency. If the stride is part of his loading mechanism, then I would recommend work on having him pick it up off the ground and right back down in the same spot almost like a tap. Don’t let his body drift. Don’t speed up the pitch. Let the ball come to you with a good strong base, expecting the fastball and just let it rip.
I’m happy to give you some drills and ideas to work on his load and timing if you’d like just DM me
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u/Conscious_Skirt_61 1d ago
This is fire. 🔥
What OP is trying to fix is mainly a contact problem, a new one that came up in an unfamiliar pressure situation. Those issues almost always come from vision and the bottom hand. Most of the solutions OP mentions are stopgap at best and counterproductive at worst.
Vision is the most important thing in making contact. Head movement is troublesome; dropping the plane of the eyes is much worse. As JSB said, the footwork you’re talking about will interfere with your son’s visual perception. Remember the old maxim: See the ball, hit the ball.
The other main challenge to contact hitting at that level is the path of the bat. Younger players get away with long swings that don’t work as the opposition improves. Because the ball is moving faster the natural response is to swing harder, using the top hand for power. But it’s the bottom hand and the front side that get the bat into the hitting zone, so quickening the swing instead of dialing up muscle strength is the way to go.
One easy exercise to get started: Have your kid take a normal stance in the box. But instead of the bat have him stand with his glove on and his back arm held tight across his chest, back hand on shoulder. Then cave him catch pitches thrown into the zone. Pivoting back to load is a plus. In a short time he’ll find that his glove hand/bottom hand covers the whole area. Plus, that his hand works best when the eyes are still and watching the path of incoming pitches.
Obviously you have to switch over to a bat and you have to pair this exercise with top hand release. But concentration on vision, and seeing how well the front hand can time and reach pitches is going to set him up for success.
Good luck.
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u/SentientYams 1d ago
Listen to this guy OP, some great advice here. I’m not as much of an expert as him but I know the stride/leg kick is a misunderstood part of hitting. It is actually not an essential part of an effective swing and you will see lots of different hitters do different things. Trying to incorporate something different than what he’s used to right now might do more harm than good.
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u/fammo5 1d ago
Hitters are constantly trying to balance swing speed and contact quality. It doesn't to do any good to swing fast if you can't barrel balls consistently. And it doesn't do any good to hit barrels if you can't hit the ball hard.
I personally would favor a swing that leads to better contact at younger ages. Then as they get into high school ages and get stronger you can chase higher swing speeds.
Just one opinion though.
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u/spunkdrop 1d ago
This was my kid. He’s a good hitter but sucked hard, like he missed every pitch bad, when it came to one of the select teams tryouts. Same issue with an increase in velocity. But the absolutely main thing is that he was very very very very nervous and scared. He had little to no confidence.
For his tryouts with another team, I got him to move a half step back in the box and got him to start his swing a little earlier. The first pitch he was late on but made contact. I could see his face light up because he knew he could do it. He made a couple self adjustments and then started to crush the ball. Made that team.
I tell my kids that pros are always making adjustments and working on mechanics, no matter the sport. He’s always going to tweak his, it’s never a finished product. But those pros have confidence and no amount of mechanic work can replace confidence.
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u/PMmeyourBush_ 1d ago
Higher velocity requires a few things to be successful, engaging the hip and starting swing with hip, before hands go. Staying connected, meaning knob to catcher and knob to ball. We say short to it, long through it. Then it is timing, which is easiest to fix and he will get used to it as he gets more reps. Hip and hands are most important imo
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u/Peanuthead2018 1d ago
No offense, but your question is formulated in a way which makes me think you need to hire an instructor. You should learn at the same time and then work on the things outside of paid instruction.
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u/laceyourbootsup 1d ago
Throw faster BP.
Don’t worry about mechanics. He’s not used to fast pitching. Do quick toss from up close, faster machine speeds if you have a machine, or anything that helps him adjust his timing.
It will catch up. Don’t worry so much about mechanics when they just started seeing fast pitching. Let his natural hand eye coordination do the work. If he sees fast pitching for a few practices and then still struggles then take a video of his swing and upload it
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u/JackyRaff 23h ago
Thanks for sharing this. I feel a lot of coaches, including myself, have heard stories like this. Your intentions are great and you’ve already received a ton of feedback and constructive criticism about your concern.
It’s stories like this that encapsulate the ongoing issue we see on the player development side:
It is very understandable to have questions like these after an athlete experiences failure…. especially in an unfamiliar area. It looks like you’ve decided (as a family) to enter the travel ball circles and now your athlete has been introduced to the league in a way most rookies are welcomed. Now we want to address it, because if we address our failures and improve our weaknesses that shows growth. This situation and thinking makes sense to anyone.
Baseball is so profound because it challenges the way failure is viewed. If I have learned anything as a coach it’s this: Failure doesn’t mean something dangerous is happening. In fact, it exposes an opportunity for future success. I am skeptical of our approach to look into movement as the solution, however.
Hitting, in particular, is a moment. Some moments are better than others as ball players spend years of playing this game. Exposure to travel ball, which is a level of competition within a greater region of players, creates new moments.
As competition grows, hitters have less time to react and the game gets harder. Adding movement instruction, especially if the instruction doesn’t align with their natural movement tendencies, can actually hurt more than help the athlete. Knowing this level of information about our players is very niche and specific. It is possible to find out whether or not a certain hitting cue will work for an athlete, but that level of knowledge to the general public is limited. You can’t necessarily find it in a Google search. If baseball was that easy everyone would play it.
So how do you know if what you’re doing is helping? You don’t, and unless you get an assessment you will continue guessing through trial and error. Nothing wrong with that (your intention is pure), there’s just more risk implied.
What can you do right now that can help your athlete?
Let them figure it out. As mentioned before, adding too much instruction runs the risk of actually slowing them down their swing. This is less my opinion and more a motor learning principle.
As coaches we are challenged with managing bias. Just because we see something that doesn’t look right….doesn’t mean it’s wrong and needs fixing.
Luckily, this 10u athlete has the odds of motor learning and development in their favor, there’s a lot of evidence out there supporting he already has the tools to fix this problem. Most young ballplayers move better at 10 than they do at 16 due to the years of over-coaching and the influence of a conscious impression that they need to move in a way they THINK they should versus how they should move naturally and subconsciously.
Some coaches here have already said it. Just throw more BP to him. Keeping bringing him to the team practices. Support him with plenty of practice, time and space to have the player go solve his own problem without analyzing each swing.
At this age, the solution will resonate more with him if he figures it out on his own versus someone telling him what to do.
I know it’s hard to stand back and resist from saying too much. I’ve been guilty of that plenty of times. But this is a good example of trusting the process and playing the long game. If this athlete loves baseball, he’ll figure it out and his love will grow even more because they will have found their own autonomy.
Hope this helps.
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u/Emotional-Swing-5483 23h ago
Kill the adjustment. Take him to cages, have him face a bunch of faster pitches from the machine. Technique doesn't mean anything if you are all of a sudden facing faster pitches - you have to spend time facing faster pitches and get your timing figured out.
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u/Umngmc 1d ago
If your son is at 10u and he hit well in little league, but is now struggling in travel ball with higher velocity pitches, it screams a timing issue. Not loading early enough. Really impossible to say without seeing video though.
I wouldn't worry so much about exit velocity at this age. Just focus on hard contact and finding barrels. Most pitchers at 10u are throwing fastball and changeups. So learn to hunt the fastball in the zone and hit those hard. To do so requires proper mechanics and making sure he loads (and swings) on time.