My 9 year old son has great hitting mechanics but has a horrible timing issue and is consistently late on pitches. He makes a lot of contact to the left side of the infield, he is a left handed hitter. I am looking for some advice on how to get him to get to the middle of the field.
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Be patient - he's only 9. His depth perception and coordination are still developing. He will figure it out.
Does he stride on every pitch? Most 9 yos do not, and they are late.
Perhaps oversimplifying but - Have him hit on the field with a tee. Have him take his normal stance and set the tee out front and inside. Have a contest to see how many he can hit in the 3-4 hole, using a set of cones as the target gap. Subconsciously, this will start to set the thought of hitting the ball further out front, requiring everything to be quicker and/or earlier.
Sultan: Yes he strides on every pitch.
Coach: I get what you mean. I am really not freaking out about it because everything else he does is pretty good and he is making contact.
Cabbage: That is an interesting idea and I will try it. Simple sometimes is the best.
Thanks guys.
Sultan: Yes he strides on every pitch.
OK, then he's either late (start striding sooner), or his hands are in front of the bat head (he's pushing his hands away from his body too soon).
Yeah his hands are REALLY ahead of his bat. How do you make the adjustment? When should he be taking his hands away?
I like it. Hitting the ball to left field tells me he's letting the ball travel to deep in the strike zone. When he starts seeing off-speed pitches, he will be ahead of the game. Not late, patient.
LOL, overthehill I like your optimism but he is WAY late. It isn't patient, it's late.
When should he be taking his hands away?
MLB hitters do not push their hands away from their body until the back elbow 'slots' or nears the hip.
Yours may be pushing on the first move. He should be turning the bat head first, as the elbow goes down.
Give him some soft toss from behind a screen at 12-15 feet. His main concern should be to drive the ball into the screen right back at you. As he gets the hang of it continue to move the screen back over the course of a few weeks. A good hitter that trains to hit the ball up the middle will be either early or late about 70% of the time, that is what makes him a gap to gap hitter.....which is a good thing.
I will be honest I would need to see his swing. There are many things that can cause a player to be late. Of course you want to teach hitters to see the ball as deep as possible. Pulling the inside pitch, driving the middle up the middle and driving the away away. Timing issues are common and typically cause other issues in the swing process. If you can post some video that would be very helpful. Good luck with your son
The thing we always saw in LL and beyond is a couple of things. Kids that go to the cages a lot and hit off of pitching machines always seem to have trouble with their timing. Throw to him so he can work on timing. The machines just screw them up. The other thing we saw is that some kids are very worried about being hit by a pitch. Their decision making is more like is it going to hit me? Instead of is it a hittable pitch. It makes them late. On nine year old mechanics, just have him swing hard. Kids love HR's and they will forget twenty K's if they hit one good. Smooth them out later. Batspeed!!
