It can be difficult to be confident when you are using mechanics that put you at a disadvantage.
I had two girls that finished my winter hitting training this year, that went on to swing heavier barrels during games. Both were "turn arounds" ... both had less than stellar seasons prior, and both went on to lead their team afterwards. One was a HS senior that led her team in HRs, and the other is an 8th grader that has sky-rocketed past her teammates in a major way. Both are swinging 27-oz bats in games. Both have surprised people with their turn-around in performance.
It's much easier to be confident when you use clean swing mechanics.
I'm not saying that your DD should make any changes at this point in time ... but I am saying that for some people, that a healthy off-season training program that promotes clean swing mechanics with a heavier barrel, can lead to a brighter future.
Last edited by FiveFrameSwing; 06-05-2012 at 02:47 AM.
Mine is a wrist roller at contact which is why I ended up reading posts in this area, she doesn't struggle to hit the ball but she struggles to hit it well with live pitching. Her season is about over and I was looking for ways to fix the rolling (found what I was looking for). Don't want to derail this thread too much so I won't go into all of DD's hitting issuesbut I'll be working with her trying to fix her & if I'm at a loss I'm sure I'll post some video & get more specific advice.
Early rolling over of the wrist is generally not a forced action in terms of the hitter attempting to perform the action, but more a 'result' of using less than ideal swing mechanics. Generally the answer is not to force a palm-up extension through the ball, but to instead address the underlying mechanics.
Just remember palm up and palm down at contact. If you do nothing else to her swing that will make at least a small impact on the issue. There may be larger issues behind it. Like rotating on top of the ball rather than behind it. Or not taking the top half with her on a weight shift. But 75 % of the time the palm up palm down is a leading culprit in hitting down on the ball.
Tim
Tim Duncan
Edge Athletic Training Facility. edgeathleticcenter.com
The metal heads that use the R/T have a hand path designed to use a heavier end loaded bat. ( and yes mine was defiantly a metal head ).Composite Bats that are drop 10 but sold as ....... it has an end load feel is a marketing trick in my opinion. Check the balance point of a composite that says it feels like an end load compared to a true end loaded bat like the R/T. You will see the difference. People can see that mass on the end of the bat generates longer harder drives but bat companies do not want to lose money from customers that cannot swing them.
If your dd swings a end load. Leave it alone. If she swings a balanced composite and is productive and happy. Leave her be. Mixing the 2 bats is mixing 2 totally different hand paths and swing mechanics. End loaded composites still have a ways to go imho. The insane is pretty good but still not where it needs to be. There is a reason they dont put heavy end loads in a composite. The mass at the end wrapped in a composite shell cannot take the abuse that the aluminum alloy can with stand.
With all the advancements they have made in composite end load the Queen of battle is still the Original end loaded R/T. Now i will get off my soap box lol.
Tim
Tim Duncan
Edge Athletic Training Facility. edgeathleticcenter.com
IACoach (06-06-2012)