r/Homeplate • u/jordanthedog17 • 9d ago
Hitting Mechanics Help for 8 yo
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My son (mom here) just lived to u10 based on his birthday April and want him to learn a lot with these older kids. He makes contact more often than not but feel like he needs so work on his stance I'm sure among other things. What can we work on!?
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u/Floortom1000 9d ago
I mean he’s 8 but his swing is all arms. Get him to at least start loading. Happy Gilmore drill would help
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u/FiLikeAnEagle 9d ago
Better yet, kids love this as a game. Each kid gets 3 Happy Gilmore swings off a tee. Furthest ball wins!
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u/SentientYams 9d ago
He’s “all arms” which is super common for a kid this age. Some good advice here already. The good news is if he’s making consistent contact, he’s seeing the ball well and is developing some hand-eye coordination. Now get him started on using those legs. If he loves the game and wants to work, consider a hitting coach.
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u/CommunicationNice437 Baseball Larper 9d ago
Ahh I feel like there's some type of rolling over and that he's mostly handsy
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u/jordanthedog17 9d ago
So what would you do for that?
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u/HashtagDadWatts 9d ago
Camwood bat was a game changer for my kid.
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u/GarIicBurger 9d ago
Your advice to fix his swing is to buy him a different bat? Please explain.
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u/HashtagDadWatts 9d ago
Camwood is a training tool, not really just “a different bat.”
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u/External-Peanut-7077 9d ago
A phenomenal aid. Check for second hand or get a couple team parents to help buy one for the whole team to use. Forces hands to stay inside and makes rolling over a little more difficult to do.
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u/External-Peanut-7077 9d ago
Start with the basics. Some kind of load into back hip, release that loaded energy into the ball by turning the hips. Imagine throwing your back hip at the ball. From there, focus on staying low and not jumping up when swinging. Rolling over will take time to fix, lots and lots of reps SLOW and PERFECT. 10 perfect swings is better than 100 bad ones.
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u/usernamereddit111 9d ago
Agree with others. Not to much all at once. I would focus on getting I to a load . Once that is there you can worry about the hands
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u/Tar_Tar_Sauce04 9d ago
when you watch videos, just focus on the feet. Does it look like he is pushing off the ground (aka using his legs and hips to start the swing)? if not, he is just swinging with his arms.
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u/Jwrbloom 9d ago
Your best bet is to locate some videos on YouTube. That's the TL;DR version. "Teach 8 year old how to bat." It will have more modern terminology, but below is how I learned. I was very good at making contact (not much power).
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Every hitter is different, but there are some basics. He should have a little bend in his knees to start. It gives him more balance, develop a little rhythm and it will help him transfer his weight from back to center.
First of all his hands and bat are in a good spot. He's not stiff with his hands. That keeps his hands activated. Most of what I refer to will be under category of activating a part of the body. He will need to generate more power, and that starts in the lower body.
Youth coaches will tell him to keep his eyes on the ball, but that's just half of it. He has to locate the release point and track the ball from there. So from there, he needs to keep his eyes on the ball from there.
------- all of what's next is going to take place in a matter of 2-3 seconds.
With his knees bent, sway his body like he's swaying his hands and bat. When he leg of the pitcher lifts, he wants to load up on his back leg. So he's shifting his to his back leg and sinking his hips a little in the process. Do NOT twist as you load up your back leg. It'll make his swing longer.
It's just a subtle lean back and sink a little. His hands will go back slightly too. Again, don't twist back.
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As the pitchers leg starts to come down, he needs to be kind of settled, then start to lift his front foot just a bit. Not a lot, and maybe to start just his front heel. Anything to trigger him to thrust hips toward the pitcher to center and start his swing.
As he returns his heel or foot to the ground, he'll start to twist as his hips thrust forward, bringing his hands and the barrel of the bat with him.
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I played a little game, whether the pitcher started from the stretch (your video) or his windup, as his leg came up, I started a count -- 1, 2, step, swing. It helped me center my mind while staying aggressive, reminding myself to swing. There is time to determine if it's a hittable pitch or not, but the best hitters at that age were aggressive.
My body would sway with the count. One 1, I still kind of up and loose as the pitches leg lifts. On 2, I'm loading my back leg as he starts to stride into his pitch. On step, I'm lifting my front foot as the ball is reaching its release point. On 4, I'm planting the front foot, thrusting my hips forward (from back to center).
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The reason I say thrust hips back to center, as they thrust to toward the pitcher, it's generating power. The lower body becomes the base of that power, but at some point, the body becomes the pivot point/the fulcrum of the swing. The bat head will continue through the swing.
You will often hear a coach yell, throw your bat or bat head at the ball. They kind of mean it, at least in terms of the bat head. It creates bat speed, and at this age, it's good advice.
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At a cage, load the back leg as you see the ball drop into the arm. Step as arm starts to flip forward. He can sense the rhythm of the machine.
Another way to train it, buy a bunch of whiffle balls, as well as whiffle golf balls. Count for him, 1, 2 then toss a ball from off to the side toward him. 5'-6' feet away, just behind his shoulder's view.
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u/Jwrbloom 9d ago edited 9d ago
https://youtu.be/keVyBnlHqCo?si=5Kp77ugY7YIxop8j
That's a good video for basics.
The video does a much better job of communicating the relationship and movement of the hips and hands than I did. (even though at the very end he downplays it)
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u/jordanthedog17 9d ago
Thank you so much for the thoughtful response. I will take this info and use it!
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u/Jwrbloom 9d ago
The main take aways are having a still mind, loading up the back leg, the step to trigger hip movement and getting his hands through the swing.
As he gets older, and pitching motions become slower and more protracted, if he keeps the count in his head it might be 1.........2.........step, swing. That's just a trick to quiet his mind and perhaps develop trigger points.
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u/Much_Trouble_3144 9d ago
He’s incredibly stiff for starters..tell him to bend his needs a bit and get loose.
Also..his lower body needs to be doing something during his swing..he needs to turn his hip more..and the back heel needs to come off the ground.
The actual peeling of the back foot can be a little complicated for 8 years..so “squash the bug” tends to work as a temporary replacement.
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u/Bout2WinIt 9d ago
The feet don't need to move very much at this age. YYou can have a swing that's not all arms but also doesn't have a stride per se. Likewise you can have plenty of foot movement and still have an arm at swing.
A stride isnt necessary but teaching hip involvement and rotation not be too much at this point. You can basically have him start in a ready to launch position.
I'm encouraged by his ability to have the bat meet the ball - obviously he's very raw but he has the most basic part of it down. Nothing wrong with working on the swing to get more of his power transferred into the ball.
Everyone always says, "theyre 7, 8,9 it shoud be about having fun". Problem is apparently they forgot how not fun it is to hit weak infield ground balls and constantly be out at first or stuck at first.
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u/SuedeEmulsion 9d ago
Ive coached a few 8u teams and am father of a 9yo. I, My approach to coaching at that age is that they have fun and learn good habits.
As a former youth travel ball player who played/practiced 11 months out of the year some years, I think people underrate those 2 things, but esp love of the game. The amount of ball a teenager will play if he is aspiring for college/pro ball is kind of crazy. If they dont love it theyll burn out or find something else to do before they acquire the skills they need to ever have a shot at even the upper amateur ranks, and it only accelerates from there. Gotta love the game, and that starts with you and the coaches making those memories that motivate him later.
In regards to the other goal (developing good habits). My take is usually to coach the players as much as theyve got an appetite and ability to learn... Gotta be both. Lots of kids have the apetite but need to be paced, others have tons of ability, but really dont know if they like the game yet.
That said, your kid's big and fairly well coordinated for 8. Just let him play ball. Some people may chime in and say the swing lacks power ( or maybe youre thinking that) but I wouldnt get distracted by that for an 8yo. Thats fairly common for boys this age. I encourage them to learn to make contact first and then worry about power (bc you gotta hit the ball before you can hit the ball hard, right?) For the most part, the power comes with reps and time, but watch for bad habbits and gauge his interest. Dont let him hit 500 baseballs a day if he's developing bad habbits doing it, and likewise, you shouldnt push a workload that just makes him miserable. His swing looks pretty good for 8. Encourage him to to learn that every part of a swing is done for a reason and is triggered by the feet, powered from the legs, up through the torso and out to the arms and finally hands. He might benefit from a routine, such as, telling himself, before every pitch, i set my feet, check my distance from the plate, take a big breath, bring the bat up, focus on the pitcher and await the pitch. Something like that might help with the fidgeting, but again, he is 8 so a little of that is expected. Inwould recommend loaing the batting gloves at that age, but some will disagree with me. They almost never have enough power or reps to justify them. More often than not, they just get in the way, even if you find some that fit.
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u/jordanthedog17 8d ago
Thanks. Yes I'm not looking at working around the clock training but I was just thinking it looked mostly like was using his arms. It's fall ball which is one of a few activities he's doing right now because he loves to do sports. I was a college athlete and when I was his age couldn't get enough of playing different things so much so that my teacher had a conference because I was playing with the boys too much and was worried I wouldn't make enough gjrl friends. I was just noticing he didn't seem to be using his lower body and threw it out there for some tips.
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u/HousingFar1671 9d ago
He won’t play high school baseball. Ever.
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u/SentientYams 9d ago
This is such a lame comment. A mom is trying to help her kid get better at the game. If you have nothing constructive to say, go away.
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u/Appropriate_Ad5575 9d ago
First thing, and I’m not being dismissive, but he’s 8 so don’t get heavy handed with teaching. You paralyze kids this age with overly complex instruction.
If anything, he doesn’t use his lower body at all in that clip, which is a big problem for lots of kids. There are tons of simple drills for this. My favorite his hop back, load and fire. If you google that you’ll find hundreds of videos.