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What To Do With Your Slumping Star Hitter
by Dave
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
A visitor to the site writes in with the following question:
If you have a girl that has been the leading hitter for the past 3 years and she starts to slump do you leave her 4th in the batting order for the remaining season or do you move her?
That's an extremely tough question which nobody on Earth can answer with any sort of real confidence. Hitting slumps are a real mystery. You can't explain them and you can't really do much to improve the situation. I suppose the answer to your specific question is, it depends. It depends on a huge host of variables. There could be physical or competitive causes of a slump. It could just be some (hopefully) temporary mental thing. Analyze the possible causes and use your head before you do anything.
Is this a girl who is in the same class of competition for all the years we're talking about, who has had success against the very level of pitching she is now struggling with? Or is this a girl who has just moved up an age class, from JV to varsity, or from "B" level competition to "A?" The answer to the question would really depend on that more than anything else. But, for the sake of argument, let's assume she is hitting against the same or similar pitching. If the class of pitching has changed and she is really a great hitter, she'll self-correct soon enough as long as she keeps getting at-bats.
Is this a girl who recently changed hitting coaches or is trying a new style of hitting? Have you noticed a change in her stroke or to her approach at the plate? Or is everything other than her confidence intact? How deep of a slump are we talking about? Has it just been the past two games or is it now 30 at-bats without a hit? I'll get to the mental side in a few moments but ask yourself if there is something important which has recently changed.
Is she making contact or is she whiffing? Has she been an aggressive first pitch hitter who is now watching everything go by? Is her judgment at the plate similar to what it has been in the past but she just isn't making good enough contact? Has she had her eyes checked recently? Right after puberty girls can need vision correction. Is she at an age where in addition to a full class schedule, she is also spending significant amounts of time studying for college boards? Is she reading more because school is out, maybe playing lots of video games or staying up watching late night TV? From the physical point of view, eyes are the most important tool for hitters. If she hasn't apparently changed anything about her swing or approach, maybe she needs to have her eyes examined.
If you are playing against the same competition for a prolonged period (the three years you speak of) and there's nothing wrong with her eyes, maybe the other teams have simply adjusted to your star hitter. Maybe they're throwing around her, knowing that she aggressively goes after every pitch or not caring if she has to settle for walks. Maybe she's not getting anything worth hitting. Maybe they'd rather face your number 5 and 6 hitters even with runners on base. Perhaps there is someone else who should be moved in order to get your star better pitches to hit.
On the other hand, it is just possible that your star hitter has a big hole in her swing. Maybe the competition just figured her out. I remember watching this monster of a high school freshman hitter struggle her second year. And that wasn't just some sort of sophomore jinx. The girl made a name for herself that first year playing varsity. Then during summer ball, pitchers and coaches began to figure her out. Pitchers began sharing notes on her. She never again hit as well as she did that first year.
The way to know if your star has a hole and pitchers have found it is, if she is making outs on essentially the same pitch sequences. Obviously if she's striking out on balls, a little patience can go a long way. But if she repeatedly goes down on drop curves on the outside corner and low or some other frequently occurring out-pitch, your opponents have found the hole. Your job as coach is not limited to establishing or correcting the batting lineup. You are another set of eyes to watch for flaws and help correct them. If you see something which is causing the slump and you're sure that's the problem, you should work with your star to correct it, if possible. A girl playing at a high level who once hit very well then fell into a prolonged slump needs to have some help in disecting her swing and seeing if holes can be easily patched. If they can't, she is going to need some serious help from a serious hitting coach.
We have covered better pitching, swing mechanics changes and flaws, eyesight, and pitching adjustments. But aside from these physical and competitive causes of slumps, sometimes a girl just gets herself in a bad hitting frame of mind. Let's not forget that hitting is a particularly tough mental exercise.
We human beings should not be able to hit a fast moving, curving ball (all pitches curve up, down, or to the side) thrown from 40 or 43 feet. But somehow we find "the force" and do it well, at least some of us do. We learn to be confident. Hitting is a "zen" thing. If you blindfolded me, threw ten pitches around the middle of the plate and gave me some sort of audible clue as to when you threw each one, I believe I could hit one. I shouldn't be able to do it but I believe I could. That is what hitting is really all about.
Scientists have determined that we don't actually see pitches as we hit them. But somehow, magically we do hit them. How we accomplish the task is through experience and, most of all, a firm belief that we can do it. If a hitter, absent other causes, suddenly convinces herself she cannot hit, she goes into a slump. And if someone who is in a slump gets another reason to believe she stinks, watch out! You may never get her back if you do the wrong thing.
I suppose you could move your star hitter. But in moving her, explain that you want to take some of the pressure off her and the move is purely temporary. You must consider your "best hitter's" psychic needs as well as the team's. Remember, she's a part of the team too.
You actually don't just want to produce more runs. You also want your star hitter back. If you move her, it is as much to get her back as it is to produce more runs. The only reason to move her out of the four hole for the "remainder of the season" is because she continues to slump afterwards. And no matter what you try, she just cannot get back to what she was. Hopefully you can get her back into the swing of things by temporarily moving her to another position (maybe fifth?) and getting her to press a little less. All you want to do is get her some more hits and as soon as she starts hitting again, put her back into the four slot.
As someone once told me, softball in practice is 90% physical but in games it's 90% mental. As coach, you are at least as responsible for the mental as you are the physical. You want your # four hitter to drive in runs. She has to hit or your team will suffer. But consider what the causes of a prolonged slump are before doing anything potentially destructive. Before you move her, consider what your objective is. Then explain it to her. Let her know that she is a great hitter who has been an important cog in your machine for a long time. By moving her, you are only trying to remove some of the pressure. As soon as she starts pounding the ball again, she's gonna be your star cleanup hitter again. She's earned at least that much respect and consideration.
 
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