Age has nothing to do with when to start teaching the right way to hit, they need to learn the “right way right away!” I hear this all the time… “Just let them play the game it’s suppose to be fun.” I agree it is suppose to be fun, success is fun failure isn’t. To be successful in anything we do, means we need to work not only hard but “smart”! There needs to be some balance at the younger age level, in other words do some drills that are simple and some that are hard and challenging. Here is an example…

How much does a young gymnast who is training to become and Olympic athlete challenge themselves and fail? Every single day they fall, but they get up and try it again, then they fall again get up and try again and again and again! We learn from our mistakes… don’t we! Yes the more advanced stages may be harder at first but lets not be afraid to challenge our hitters at a young age.

Players might not even be ready for the next level but I don’t think there is anything wrong with challenging them or preparing them for the next level. There needs to be a balance between challenging them to where they fail and building their self confidence so they feel good about their performance.

Remember hitting is the only thing in life where if you fail 70% of the time you are considered successful (.300 average). Making it hard so they fail is perfectly okay as long as you don’t go overboard, it teaches them how to handle adversity and how to be strong and become determined to get better or excel as a hitter.

We also need to improve their confidence so I recommend you start off with the basics which should be fairly easy, challenge in the middle and then finish off were they are feeling good about themselves at the end of the day even though it won’t always turn out this way. Why? So they feel good and want to come back and do it again. I also recommend you do whatever you can on a game day to get them as confident as possible!