Needing some help (10u Swing)

ornelas85 said:

Below is a link of my DD(1st year 10u) swing.

I'm concerned about her bat speed it looks slow to me. What are some good drills to speed up her swing?
Please let me know if there are any other problems that I need to address.

Thanks in advance for the help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZHxjwR4GkI

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AS previous posters said, there is no bat speed issue. She has a nice swing, except that she is standing still when she decides to swing and then everything goes forward. This sacrifices power and makes her slower to react and get to the ball...so it may look like a slow swing. You've been provided some good direction on where to find in-depth explanations. I would suggest thinking of it as creating a rhythm. A little back and forth flow in her swing (she is all forth, as if that makes sense). She does need a negative move. I would try some soft toss (not rapid fire) but somewhat quick, trying to get her to feel some more rhythm in her swing...a negative move in the hips and hands as the ball is being released and explosion forward with the swing...keep doing it. Get her to feel a little back and forth in her swing, it is more athletic, more powerful, quicker.

Be careful moving forward because your DD seems to have a little 'level to the ball' type swing.

BTW, good tip to keep that back shoulder from falling is to line up a kitchen/dining room table chair (they have tall backs) just behind the plate (about 2 feet behind the pointed tip of home plate), with seat area facing backward toward where ump would be.

If that shoulder drops, you will know right away, as you will smack the heck out of that chair, and your ears will be ringing, too - great deterrent, and scares the crap out of the batter.

WARNING: Check in first with mom before using her kitchen/dining room table chairs, though!

SB45 said:

AS previous posters said, there is no bat speed issue. She has a nice swing, except that she is standing still when she decides to swing and then everything goes forward. This sacrifices power and makes her slower to react and get to the ball...so it may look like a slow swing. You've been provided some good direction on where to find in-depth explanations. I would suggest thinking of it as creating a rhythm. A little back and forth flow in her swing (she is all forth, as if that makes sense). She does need a negative move. I would try some soft toss (not rapid fire) but somewhat quick, trying to get her to feel some more rhythm in her swing...a negative move in the hips and hands as the ball is being released and explosion forward with the swing...keep doing it. Get her to feel a little back and forth in her swing, it is more athletic, more powerful, quicker.

Click to expand...

Agreed that the current swing is all-forward. One thing to be careful of in adding a negative move component is to not let the swing fall into and all-back/all-forward movement pattern. A good swing sequence includes stretch/separation to create tension/resistance.

rdbass said:

Be careful moving forward because your DD seems to have a little 'level to the ball' type swing.

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Once you correct the drooping back shoulder, swing plane will be fixed.

Also, if you are going to learn the negative move, you might as well try this (the Full Boat lol, with a couple nice tricks thrown in):

1. Get your feet a bit wider than shoulder width, feet pointed toward plate.

2. Bend the knees, until you feel it in your hammies, then squeeze the knees together so you are slightly knock-kneed. (this will be uncomfortable until you turn these muscles on with a lot of reps, but you will have a super-strong base).

3. Take your rear foot, and turn it counter-clockwise for a righty, clockwise for a lefty, about 45 degrees from facing plate (this is called the "Cheater Foot", and it prevents the knee from flying back over the rear foot when you do your negative move/load [for non-striders]). This will lock your back knee and allow you to load into your rear inner thigh, instead of the rear knee (I call it "knee taking a ride" when that knee flies back - and the head reflexively follows - yech).

4. Now, for your "Negative move"/"LOAD" Phase. Watch the pitcher while on deck, and decide when you are going to start your load. A good start point is to begin when the pitchers pitching arm is on the downswing and facing directly to 2nd base (3 O'clock) - use this as you reference point, and you can always adjust from it (i.e. if you are late, begin load at 12 O'clock, and if you are still late, try to start at 10 or 9 O'clock even).

For the non-stride negative load, you just sit back into your rear inner thigh area - just a bit. Your butt can move a bit as if starting toward a sit down, but don't over-do it.

When you load back, visualize your rear elbow going up even higher.

5. Now, after the load, is the "TORQUE" phase of the swing. Turn the hip, which will pivot the rear foot. Try your hardest to keep you rear heel close to the ground as you turn the foot. While the hips/rear foot are going, the rear hand starts to be pulled down on a diagonal by the front hip imaginary string tied to it. Try to fight the elbow from going down as well - visualize it raising or staying high (even though it will inevitably be lowering anyhow - it will not be anywhere near as drastic of a drop/slotting as before).

At the end of your torque phase, the arms are in the nice House Shape/Frame Position (HSP), the bat is making a nice, sharp triangle shape with your rear forearm, and your bat is still ABOVE PLANE.

6. Now the "GO" phase. From the HSP, you push out with the rear elbow, keeping hands palm-up/palm down for as long as you possibly can - I mean FIGHT to keep Palm-Up/Palm down (do not roll those hands until you are pulling the bat back towards your high finish!). Then, you "Frisbee-Snap the wrist assembly [take a bucket lid between two palms and try to wrist-flick that out on a level path to see the frisbee snap mechanic), keep palm-up-palm down for as long as you can, and then finish by pulling the bat back over your front shoulder so that the hands are well above the shoulder and the bat is now pointing DOWN across your back.

7. When you finish the hip turn, you stiffen the front leg, push forward just a bit with the rear foot (which has turned and you have tried to keep it as close to the ground as possible) and slightly pivot on the inside of the front heel, finishing with front leg almost stiffened/bowed out, and rear leg at a near "L" shape, ball of back foot ground into dirt, with heel slightly raised now. Front leg and torso should make a nice line sloping slightly back towards the ump.

Beautiful, compact, quick fastpitch swing, and, if you sense off-speed or change coming, just add a little crouch before your start out of your negative move and you will be able to stay back with full power.

Takes some work to get it down. Took us 2 months of swinging the bat every other day to burn it in.

Or...You can take all the good stuff that the hitter is already doing, and help her improve it by learning about a proper swing sequence, coiling around the rear hip, and creating resistance. A good swing whips the barrel, it doesn't push.

Also, the only difference between a baseball swing and a fastpitch swing is the trajectory of the pitched ball. The mechanics are identical.

coachmup said:

5. Now, after the load, is the "TORQUE" phase of the swing. Turn the hip, which will pivot the rear foot. Try your hardest to keep you rear heel close to the ground as you turn the foot. While the hips/rear foot are going, the rear hand starts to be pulled down on a diagonal by the front hip imaginary string tied to it.

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Not sure I follow this one. Sounds like squish bug, or am I misreading? And hands straight to ball?

Eric F said:

A good swing whips the barrel, it doesn't push.

Also, the only difference between a baseball swing and a fastpitch swing is the trajectory of the pitched ball. The mechanics are identical.

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True on both fronts.

Just because the rear elbow "pushes" out, it does not preclude the loaded, lagging bat from whipping out from that tight triangle via the PU/PD wrists.

. . . not saying anyone should break anything down to the bare minimum and undergo a 2-month (minimum) complete overhaul, but, if you wanted to, that is just what we are doing.

Sharing is caring! ;p

coachmup said:

True on both fronts.

Just because the rear elbow "pushes" out, it does not preclude the loaded, lagging bat from whipping out from that tight triangle via the PU/PD wrists.

. . . not saying anyone should break anything down to the bare minimum and undergo a 2-month (minimum) complete overhaul, but, if you wanted to, that is just what we are doing.

Sharing is caring! ;p

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When you say "palm-up/palm-down", is this in relation to the ground?

CoogansBluff said:

Not sure I follow this one. Sounds like squish bug, or am I misreading? And hands straight to ball?

Click to expand...

I thought that way at first as well, as we were doing a more baseball-type, striding swing which finished with the rotating hip pulling back foot forward, toe-down and dragging, however many aspects of this current method were encouraged by another highly-regarded scholarship swing-builder from the Chicago area (not the Epstein Guy - I don't want to throw anyone's name out there without their permission, though).

I believe the premise of the back-foot mechanism I mentioned is that we have a more massive ball, and the back foot coming off the ground, or up on toe, does not carry mass forward as well - or probably not until you are old enough to swing a heavier bat. If you watch a lot of college girls swing, you see that back foot even sit back onto the ball again at the end of the swing in an effort to power that barrel through that massive ball.

A baseball, however, has a superball in the core (whereas a fastpitch ball is just solid cork), so its elasticity quotient is much higher - you can pivot on front foot on heel and drag up and forward on the tip of that back toe a lot more confidently when the ball springs off the bat like that.

Also, no hands straight to the ball, you are still rotating inside out and whipping the barrel through, just not on an even or upward plane at the outset. Keeping the front elbow bent through contact is another strong pointer that ensures this. I like to match pointing front elbow to ball height (i.e. if the ball is high, front elbow points high). NOT hands to the ball.

Just another way of doing things that I kind of amalgamated from different professional opinions, having somewhat of a scientific and analytic background myself. Seems to work great, though for us!