My 12 year can't hit. Need help

[BigDropTine]

Just a thought.. is his swing real long? Or more of a short and compact swing. Get him on the tee and work on shortening up and just putting the ball in play. Sounds like physical ability is not an issue but, like Sleepy mentioned, seems to be a mental aspect that is getting in his way. Tee work and shortening up to get on anyway you can for the team goes a long way and gets a lot of good hitters out of slumps.

[coachmas]

Marucci Hex bat is pretty hot. Equipment is good, so check that off the list!

I feel your pain. My son is 11u. Playing travel ball mostly AA with a few AAA. He really struggled fall and early spring with similar stuff. Late weak swings with most going to left side. He works hard on the cage and tries anything I ask. I know I was more frustrated than him(I played some college ball, coached HS baseball for 14 years before I got into admin) and my pride got in the way trying to coach him. Had to step back and get to basics. I blame most of his issues on me. He hasn't been the biggest or steongest kid but always good hand-eye. In t-ball we hit balls up middle or left side, in coach pitch I threw Pitches mostly away. His comfort zone was hittin balls to left field or left side and running them out. So this spring we really started working 80-90% of cage and tee work on pitches middle to inside. Working on getting lower 1/2 more involved with the swing. The last couple of tournamebts it has started to payoff. Contact more solid and starting to drive the ball. When my son was being 100% honest with me about his hitting, he told me 1) he was a little nervous about being hit so he stood off the plate more than in practice which makes most pitches feel middle-away 2) he didn't want to strike out so he went back to comfort zone, slap balls to left side.

glad to see your boy is starting to put it together. Confidence goes a long ways at the plate!!! Coach

[AZST_bowhunter]

Fly ball to Right center that he got robbed on.

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Barrel of the bat seems to be a bit below his forearms, typically, you want the barrel slightly above (of cours this will change as he get better and starts going down to get the ball). It also looks like he may be shifting his weight a little to far forward. Look at the pi of him and Harper side by side, look how much more Harper's weight is back. One of the biggest keys to hitting is keeping your weight as centered as possible. If you get to far out on your front foot or to far back on the back then your site line is changing (either raising or dropping). I was always told and have told the kids I've coached, to imagine a spike from the top of your head to to between your legs and into the ground. You can twist and turn your hips but your weight is always centered. If a batter falls anywhere is should be across the plate.

Good drill for the barrel position is have him stand next to a pole, go through his swing in slow motion (keeping the barrel above the forearms) and when he makes contact with the pole have him use his hips, legs and arms to push as hard as he can (10-20 seconds per rep). This will also drill into is muscle memory on keeping his weight centered and to use his legs and hips and arms as power, its not just one part of his body. Watch Harper's hip rotation, its ridiculous..

[Chew]

This will sound crazy but it worked for me and another kid I grew up playing with. I was a good hitter but around 13 or 14 years old I could not hit the ball. I tried everything. One of my coaches made me switch hit. I'm a righty so he made me bat lefty. It made me reapproach everything and start over with the basics of watching the ball out of the pitcher's hand, watch it all the way in, and keep me head down and eyes on the ball meeting the bat. The pitcher started out slow until I was regularly making contact. Then increased the speed until I was hitting pretty darn good as a lefty. Eventually he would switch me back to righty and start out slow. My mechanics were better and I was picking up the ball a lot better. Just something to try. May have been a fluke but I watched it work twice on two guys who went from hitting to not hitting for no obvious reason.

[bermise]

Big league scouts at the games?

[Grant2]

Is he with a hitting coach now? Looks to me like he is reaching and trying to roll his top hand and getting out to far on his front leg. Wish I was closer to see him first hand.

[2014FusionM]

Sounds like you are doing everything right, but sounds like he may need a better coach.

You would be surprised how much some kids look up to their coaches in certain sports more than their parents. not saying they do not look up to their parents but that is a constant and they know it is always there. But when you have a great coach that is always encouraging and striving to make all the players better it can make a huge difference in the way a kid will play.

[JustinB]

All good advice about keeping his weight back behind the front foot. That's one of the bigger issues I've worked on with him. I still think there's room to improve by looking at the pictures above.

[acearrow]

Is he with a hitting coach now? Looks to me like he is reaching and trying to roll his top hand and getting out to far on his front leg. Wish I was closer to see him first hand.

I agree here. From the pics, it also looks like the inside arm is not in a consistent location. The first few pics, he has the arm really tucked in tight, then you can see some where its out. That is really an indication of trying to reach for it and getting the weight out too far. Notice the ones you say were weak, he has the inside arm too far out. Look at his arm position on the hit you said he got robbed and you can see the difference.

[JustinB]

I agree here. From the pics, it also looks like the inside arm is not in a consistent location. The first few pics, he has the arm really tucked in tight, then you can see some where its out. That is really an indication of trying to reach for it and getting the weight out too far. Notice the ones you say were weak, he has the inside arm too far out. Look at his arm position on the hit you said he got robbed and you can see the difference.

Thanks! Good observation.