1
During our travel team winter workouts we did a lot of hitting. One player in particular was having a hard time. He is a very tall 11 year old who has grown about 7 inches in the last 8 months. At first I thought his problems were due to him "outgrowing" his body... You know, he grew too fast and his coordination needed to catch up. Other than the hitting problem, he had no other symptoms of this. (it usually occurs in 13 year olds) His throwing and fielding had improved (IMO).
After another exceedingly frustrating hitting session, I half jokingly, half serious, mention to his Dad, on of my coaches, if he had ever taken his son to the eye doctor? We discussed it a bit... Well low and behold, at the next practice both the boy and his dad show up with brand new glasses . In his first hitting session he was tearing the leather of the ball.... What a simple solution
2
My son has always had a great eye at the plate. Walks a lot, hardly ever takes a strike (expect 3 - 0
) and rarely strikes out (never looking). The season started with him taking a bunch of strikes and getting deep in the hole in the count. I asked him if he was seeing the ball OK and he told me the ball was "kind of fuzzy leaving the pitchers hand". Before we ran out to the ophthalmologist, I reminded him about focusing on the pitcher's hat till he released the ball to keep things in focus... That cleared up everything... My lesson learned? Young players sometimes need to be reminded about the nuances of the game. Don't take for granted that everything you say will be remembered. repeat, repeat, repeat!!!