Posted by: ernie roy (prd530@msn.com) on Mon Jul 27 17:53:36 2009

> > > > I wonder if anyone has encountered this before. My son was a high school freshman last season. Made varsity, hit .455 & drove in 26 runs in a 16 game season. This year started out well enough, but about 4 games in he cane fown with what we think was some form of influenza. Never seen him as sick as he was. Long story short, he recovered in about 7 to 10 days, but could not hit the braodside of the barn for the rest of the year. Finished the season hitting about .170 (might be generous). He had a good tryout for Legion ball & made the team mainly on last year's reputation. He has slowly been climbing back up but has yet to equal what he was a year ago. Has anyone ever dealt with this? He is discouraged. Feels fine, swing looks good, just can't hit the ball out of the infield anymore in games although he is killing it in BP.
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> > > > Ernie
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> > > Probably bending his front elbow a lot during the swing. Jack Mankin has put batspeed.com videos on youtube of David Wright. Watch the lead elbow and rear elbow. Weak ground balls can often be the result of flexing the lead elbow too much. I've seen good hitters experience this before.
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> > I dont know about the elbow thing but I had the same thing three times in college I got hurt as afreshman hitting about 380 came back for the last 3rd of year and dropped off alot,timing,strength, endurance,focus,groove whatever gets disturbed.They train all winter to prepare to get ready on opening day for a full season,now everything comes to a halt with a injury all the balance is gone then they come back and they press trying to play catchup and it just gets worse.
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> BE PATIENT!
> The same thing happpened to my son due to an injury this summer. He was out for several weeks due to an injury that occured in the very first tournament of the season. When he got back to playing, he struggled at the plate severly. Of course the "travel ball coaches" had to try to fix his swing as a result. They were constantly telling him what he was doing "wrong". This brought on a lack of confidence that I would have to deal with after every failed at bat. We finally left the team before the season ended (for peace of mind) and my son joined two other teams. He got plenty of at bats. He still struggled but I left his swing alone and started concentrating on his mental approach. He finally had a game where his at bats looked good, even though he didn't get a hit. I could tell that his "purpose" was correct and he wasn't worried about failing. I complimented his approach afterwards and told him he looked good. He said it felt better too.
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> The next game he caught fire and has continued to stay hot. I agree that they press too hard at times. Approach the mental aspect of hitting with your son. Forget about the results. He needs to have fun hitting and he needs to want to hit. Hitting is very mental! Leave his swing alone! It will only give him too much to think about. Work his swing on a tee where he will only get positive feed back. Keep it positive and he will climb back to where he belongs. I don't think he's forgotten anything. He will get his timing back, but most important is his confidence! Once he gets his confidence back, he will feel like he used to when he was on top of his game.

I couldn't agree more. Has anyone ever noticed how much advice is given as soon as a player goes into a slump? Some of it will be good, alot will be garbage. You are right about the confidence thing & I feel it is true for every sport as well.

Ernie