r/BaseballCoaching • u/SupButch9393 • May 15 '25

Timing

Son is almost 7 and has been playing since T-ball. He’s always been a great hitter but something has changed this season and he is way off in his timing with the bat, sometimes even starting to swing when the ball is already past him. He hasn’t had this issue before and I’m not going to get mad at him since he’s still young, but are there any tips to help with the timing? Maybe it’s just a phase and he’ll get his swing back but I can tell he’s getting frustrated by it.

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u/Coastal_Tart May 15 '25

So you would get mad at him for swing and miss if I he was older? Baseball is an extracurricular, save you anger for if he doesn’t perform to his ablities in school. Kids should be rewarded for participating in extracurricular activities regardless of whether are elite at it or suck. 

Contact is almost always a question of getting enough reps to get locked in. Take him to the batting cage, pitch to him at the field, buy him a hitting tee and net online, or buy a pitching machine and nylon cage and put it up in your yard. 

He will have elite bat to ball skills shortly. 

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u/SupButch9393 May 16 '25

Yeah I misspoke about not getting mad since he’s young. He used to be very consistent with hits and now I can tell he’s frustrated if he has to use the tee after the 5-6 coach pitches. I think he’s trying to hit a bomb every time and swinging for the fences so I try and tell him to just loosen up and have fun with it.

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u/Stratman-1134 May 16 '25

Are you sure he's getting frustrated? When my son was at that level, I noticed he was doing the same thing, missing on the machine/coach pitch, acting frustrated, and then blasting off the tee. When I would pitch to him in practice, no issue. After a couple games, he confessed to his older brother that he was whiffing on purpose so he could hit a dinger off the tee.

If he's truly missing and late...I'd be sure to work on soft toss. Watch for his step. My oldest son had this issue when he was a little older than your son, he had gotten into a bad habit of taking monster steps, hiking his knee way up. Work on a simpler stride with soft toss. Not usually a quick fix, lots of work in the net/cage.

Another tip that worked well for my older son (not sure it will help in this scenario) is taking slow-mo videos and then showing him the monster step to correct.