Thread: dd swing what needs improving

Originally Posted by Greenmonsters

Well - Is Ted's getting the 'hands flat' roughly equivalent to what we've been calling turning the barrel? Looks like its happening in both sets of stills. The 2nd frame of each sequence is very close to the critical Go/Stop decision, but it appears that she can still abort the swing if its not to her liking. If she does elect to swing, the barrel's already moving which makes it possible to get to 100% hands effort that you referenced in post 147 (I couldn't see the attachments). Any earlier and you lose the ability to abort or make significant location adjustments.


All - For my clarification - my understanding of turning the barrel is that it is created by the hand movement that initiates movement of the barrel back towards the catcher and effectively slots the back elbow. I have a hard time seeing it in video unless its a check swing. From a feel standpoint, the hand that plays the dominant role in checking the swing is the bottom hand when the barrel is turned to create the running start, whereas w/out the running start it feels like its the top hand that is trying to shut the swing down.
Does this make sense or am I mis-applying the terminology, because whatever my DD and I have picked up from the Turning the Barrel thread makes a major difference and seems to match up much more closely w/ the HLBB swings than it did before.

Most kids turn the barrel in a way that would bop the catcher on the head if the bat was long enough. The pros and better D1 players turn the barrel in a way that keeps the handle close to the back deltoid with the barrel pointing behind their shoulders. Instructors can make the "bop the catcher on the head" barrel turn look better by placing the bat in the neck slot, commonly called; "tap the pony-tail". In the tap the pony-tail set-up the hands are already close to flat, which is one way instructors can get the right look without a solid understanding of how to turn the barrel. However even with this set-up, hitters can still end up with an early push.

IMO my DD's hands should already be at 100% prior to the 2nd frame. I don't think her hands are at 100% because it looks to me like her hands are barely keeping up with her shoulders. I think these swings are solid for a teenage girl who spends a good bit of time laying around and does no off season strength training. However IMO if she can figure out how to get her hands up to speed sooner, she will hit the ball harder and further.

Regarding check swings, IMO the ability to check your swing has to do with how the back elbow slots/barrel gets turned/hands get flat. The reason my DD can check her swing so late, is because of the position she is in as she turns the corner. Her hands are still at her back shoulder and her barrel is still behind her. What happens with most kids is that their barrel starts moving forward towards the ball when they slot their back elbow.

Our Varsity HS coaches were freaking out last year after the 3rd game of the season after facing a pitcher with an excellent change-up. My DD played JV so I didn't see the game, but I heard the pitcher made our girls look really bad. So the next few practices the coaches spend most of the time trying to get both the JV and Varsity girls used to hitting the change-up by pitching balls from behind a screen and mixing in change-ups with fastballs. Apparently my DD did really well, and the coaches were trying to figure out what she was doing differently. Of course they didn't have any idea. The difference is that when my DD gets fooled, her hands and barrel are still back. When most of the other girls get fooled, their hands and barrel are moving forward. If my DD can reset her brain in time and recognize the situation (not easy), she can still pull the trigger and put a decent swing on the pitch. I'm not saying it's easy to hit a good change-up, I'm saying that keeping the hands and barrel back gives you a fighting chance of having some success if your brain is quick enough to recognize what is going on.

For importance of take swings for analysis, see section in this tewks article:

What Made Jose Bautista’s Swing So Short – Part 1 Hand Path

Some lefty takes:

http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/...sequence_1.gif

http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/...sequence_2.gif

Originally Posted by MTS

Guys....this is kind of like the whole "hands just hold onto the bat" argument....does the foot push off the ground? Of course, it does....try and get your butt into it and not push off the ground with the rear foot....it's like pulling an anchor.....

Even when you do the "move" - your back foot is pushing.....building a berm is creating a situation where your foot is everting.....if you pick up the other foot the everting foot is pushing off the ground....

The whole "hands just hold onto the bat" argument....and the "does the foot push off the ground" argument are totally different IMO, because one involves closed chain articulation and the other doesn't.

It's the difference between hitting on ice and hitting on dirt wearing cleats.

Originally Posted by MTS

So, it's pushing but it's not really pushing.....Ok...got it....

He means this: Newton's 3 Laws of Motion

Newtons 3rd Law of Motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite re-action. This means that for every force there is a reaction force that is equal in size, but opposite in direction. So whenever an object pushes another object it gets pushed back in the opposite direction equally hard.

The butt muscles push the foot against the ground and the ground pushes back. As jbooth says the muscles in the foot, ankle, calf...aren't pushing the hips forward. As Sevam1 says; "the pressure comes from upstairs".