Thread: Critique DD's swing please.

Originally Posted by Stever

Yes, gripping the bat where it rests at the base of the fingers as opposed to having the handle in the palm of the hand.

Yes.

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Originally Posted by rdbass

JBooth,
Can you explain this further..keeping the hands back and throwing the barrel. I am missing what you mean because I thought what the young girl is doing in her swing was correct.I just want to get this part of the swing right for my DD. I thought the hands should lead the barrel and whip it to contact.I am at work and unable to slow the swing down frame by frame. I see the push part at the end of the swing. The beginning of the actual swing looks like she started correctly.Also is it possible the stopping of the swing could that be a result of high speed of pitching machine? I hear of posters cranking machines up to the 70mph. FFS again thanks for the gifs for people like me at work who can't view certain videos.

It's hard to describe because the looks are very similar and it has to do with physics. I'll try to explain.

The arms should be "in the process of extending" as the bat nears contact with the ball. The arms should not be pushed or pulled in a straight line. And they shouldn't reach full extension before contact. You "let" the arms extend, which they want to do because of tangential forces taking them away from the body.

Likewise the bat is "in the process" of going around the hands, as the hands move. The bat should not be pushed at the ball. "Bat lag" is a position that can be seen in the swing, but it isn't a static position, it is a position that the bat moves through.

To get better bat acceleration you TRY to keep the arms bent and the hands close to the body, and take them around the body. This puts maximum tangential acceleration into the barrel. If you push the bat in a straight line, or pull it, you take away a lot of the tangential acceleration. You cannot push the barrel in a straight line, as fast as you can whip it by arcing the hands.

Extension is a follow through point. You don't extend before contact, you let the hands follow through and extend after contact.

Watch how Bonds' arms are bent at contact and they extend afterwards. Note how the top hand quickly goes in front of the bottom hand. The the barrel is whipping around his hands as his hands go around his body. There is no pull or push of the bat in a straight line.

Originally Posted by Greenmonsters

If my 155 lb DD used the same body weight to bat weight ratio as your 70 lb DD using the 19 oz composite, she'd be swinging a 42 oz bat - OMG!

Is the 19 oz bat to heavy? She seems to be getting it around on the faster pitchers just fine.

Here are some vids of her in action on the field. Disregard my screaming wife I'm also throwing in a video of a nice slap. She just started slapping so that is still a work in progress.

Disregard screaming mom...lol

And here is the slap.

Originally Posted by 42'sdad

Is the 19 oz bat to heavy? She seems to be getting it around on the faster pitchers just fine.

Not IMO. With the quality of her swing, and with a couple of improvements, she should be able to swing 19 or 20oz.

When I was 9 they didn't have metal. I swung a 30in 26oz. I couldn't get it around on 12 year-old 65mph, but at 9 I was in the minors and got it around just fine on 45 to 50mph pitchers.

Originally Posted by 42'sdad

Disregard screaming mom...lol

You can see recoil in this one too. She isn't driving the top hand through. Meaning driving it past the bottom hand. This is done by using BOTH hands to torque the barrel. Squeeze the last 3 fingers of the bottom hand to pull the knob inward as you push the top hand through. There is an imaginary pivot point between your hands that you use both hands to torque around. She locks the hands at contact, they cease to accelerate the barrel right about at contact.