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Our son is a hs catcher and plays travel. He is a GREAT catcher... nothing by him, holds runners and good throw to 2nd. Great at balls in the dirt and the upstairs ones... but, is in a major hitting slump... opens up, tries to hit the home run because he is strong, does have a quick bat and (we thought) good eye-hand coordination, but despite lots of bp, hitting off the T... when it comes to games and not even great pitching, he has been striking out too much!!! any ideas... he just can't get back to being a hitter and really wants to play in college (he is 15 now)
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Im a catcher aswell

We all go through slumps,no matter how long they are.He just needs to not think about it so much when he is up in the box and be smart.
I assume he might be frustrated so he might not have very good pitch selection at the moment.

One thing I would do aside from just playing through it is take alot of BP,like from a machine.The reason is so he can readjust to his stance and work on coming on a level plane to the ball time after time.While doing this video tape him and analyze what looks off.

Hope that helps,it sure has helped me
When I have a kid (or last year it seemed like most of the team) that became "pull monsters" we played a little game in the cage. We called this game hockey. I placed an L-shape at the end of the cage with the end to the hitter (in other words you can't really see it, it's parallel to the netting) and it's off center on the oppo side. There is a little "doorway" if you will now open between the L-shape and the netting. Now sit in the cage with the hitter and throw soft toss. To get a point he's got to hit the ball thru the "doorway" (about 2 feet wide)... Then take it to the field by going out on a field (can be any grassy space) and place the L-shape or rectangle screen, whatever you've got, heck it could buckets or '68 Plymouth, anyway you've got to hit the ball oppo over that screen or bucket to get points (milkshakes, attaboys, whatever).
3rd: We do what we call the Nebraska drill because I heard they do it a lot at Nebraska (I don't know if that's true but that's what we call it). Get on the field with the L-shape up close (25-30 feet away) and position your L-shape halfway between the mound and the 1st base line. Have the hitter set up as if the pitch is coming from the mound (you'll have to stop and say "adjust to the mound" a few times) throw the ball right over the plate. the hitter's job is to let the ball get deep and hit the ball right back over the L-shape. You will see them get the hang of this and if they try to pull it's usually a real weak hit to the pull-side because of the angle of the pitch...
those are the 3 things I'd try. good luck
quote:
Our son is a hs catcher and plays travel. He is a GREAT catcher... nothing by him, holds runners and good throw to 2nd. Great at balls in the dirt and the upstairs ones... but, is in a major hitting slump... opens up, tries to hit the home run because he is strong, does have a quick bat and (we thought) good eye-hand coordination, but despite lots of bp, hitting off the T... when it comes to games and not even great pitching, he has been striking out too much!!! any ideas... he just can't get back to being a hitter and really wants to play in college (he is 15 now)


Your son needs to develop plate discipline. I recommend you get his eyes checked (seriously) and that he (and you) read a book titled The Mental Keys of Hitting by HA Dorfman.

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