Thread: more video to analyze

OK- having fun with new video camera now- bought the kodak zi8 by the way-anyway here id DD swing the bat off the tee. Just for the record- a month ago her swing was basiclly awful, & we have been working hard on her terrible long stride, getting the hips in the swing & not throwing the hands out. Her swing probably doesnt look good to most of you, but believe me it is MUCH better, & I really dont know what to correct from here. Can someone offer advise thats not too complicated for a stupid logger???

Also, she is playing in an indoor league now & during a game her awful swing comes back out of the closet. I am hopeing that some muscle memory will kick in soon.

YouTube - LL hits whiffles

YouTube - LL hits dimples

Hopefully I can explain this properly when she loads she is loading with her hands out from the body. have her load with her hands closer to the body as long as it is comfortable to her. Her lower half its okay if she does not stride but she might want to be slightly wider. Instead of loading over the back leg have her load on the inner half of the back leg as if she was skating and was going to push off that back foot. Next you need to get her hips to fire ahead of her hands. Start out slowly and have her keep her hands back while firing her back hip forward against a gradually firming front leg. You know she is getting it right when she looks balanced throughout the swing. There is a little more to do with what some call hinge angle and pulling the angled hinge toward the point of contact. I think you will be better served correcting the lower half first though.

Originally Posted by JC heir

OK- having fun with new video camera now- bought the kodak zi8 by the way-anyway here id DD swing the bat off the tee. Just for the record- a month ago her swing was basiclly awful, & we have been working hard on her terrible long stride, getting the hips in the swing & not throwing the hands out. Her swing probably doesnt look good to most of you, but believe me it is MUCH better, & I really dont know what to correct from here. Can someone offer advise thats not too complicated for a stupid logger???

Also, she is playing in an indoor league now & during a game her awful swing comes back out of the closet. I am hopeing that some muscle memory will kick in soon.

YouTube - LL hits whiffles

YouTube - LL hits dimples

An immediate need would be to address your DD's extreme bat drag.
Bat drag being the elbows (really the back elbow) get far ahead of the hands
I'm not trying to "be mean", but this is a bad case of bat drag.
I have pasted a picture of her in the bat drag position.

She also drops her hands, which contributes to her drag and that causes the bat to be too flat.
It looks as though the tees are in a bad position. They look too far in front of her front leg.
Move the tee so the contact point is just about evrn with the front foot (for a pitch down the middle)
I would also use a single tee.


BP

While I agree there are problems up top. I always believe you must first fix the foundation and then build on it.

While I agree there are problems up top. I always believe you must first fix the foundation and then build on it.

In general, I agree with that.

Bat drag is one problem I often DO tackle sooner, rather than later, however. It adds so much time to the swing that it makes a hitter start much earlier. Without much pitch telemetry. Eliminating it can cause a kid to get a much better look at the pitch (because she starts her swing later), and the inevitable result is more contact. That can go a long ways towards keeping a kid interested, motivated, etc.


All that said, foundation is essential. You are right about that. And I think your advice is good. Though I don't know how one hip can "fire" independently of the other - they are connected after all, by a rigid pelvic bone. Sounds as if you want the back LEG to push off, which I think would cause some people to feel as if the back hip was "firing." I do see things a little differently than that. I personally feel the front hip firing, and other hitters have told me the same thing. The reality of it is, both "feelings" may well be there for any hitter, at slightly different times. For whatever reason, one seems more dominant to her, and that is what she "feels."


What I LOVE about this hitter is her intent. She wants to hit the ball, and hit it hard, and that's a great start. And is something hard to coach. A kid either has it, or she doesn't.

Best regards,

Scott

Originally Posted by ssarge

What I LOVE about this hitter is her intent. She wants to hit the ball, and hit it hard, and that's a great start. And is something hard to coach. A kid either has it, or she doesn't.

Best regards,

Scott

I've seen that right there make a huge change in a female hitter. I've seen constant urging to hit the ball hard take a singles punch hitter base stealer to her first home run in her life at the age of 19 in college along with almost a third of her hits being for extra bases. And most of those came in the last half of her freshman season as I recall. She just needed permission and urging to step out of her comfort zone. The comfort zone that coaches all along the way had coached her into. And that urging was CONSTANT URGING by the one who was in charge of playing time.

I've humourously made the point to a young hitter by offering to write them a permission slip to swing hard that they could show to whoever they needed to. Seemed to help sometimes. Got a grin all the time.

She slots her back elbow and then swings. This is very common with young girls in FP. I see it all the time. The result is a two part swing that kind of looks like the letter "L". Her hands drop and then she drags the bat forward.

Check out the overhead view of Bonds in the other thread. His swing is one move. His hands stay up at his back armpit as he initiates shoulder rotation. They remain at his back armpit as his hands turn the corner. There is no drop and drag.

If I were you I would stand in front of a mirror with a bat in your hand, your hands at your back armpit and your back elbow elevated level to the ground. Make sure the bat is pointing straight up or tipped slightly forward. Now drop your back elbow without moving your hands from your armpit. The bat head should naturally drop down over your back shoulder. Your front forearm should naturally move up and will be level to the ground and just below chin level (but out in front of your chest).

Now do the same move, but add in shoulder rotation. It helps to invision the bat head swooping back and around in one sweeping motion. That's what Pujols, Bonds, etc are doing. Teach that to your daughter and it will fix her bat drag and allow her hips to lead the way.

There are other things she needs to work on, like her negative move and hip thrust, but I would recommend getting her hand path correct first. My daughter is close in age to your daughter, and I wish I had known five years ago what I know now.

I can't stess enough how important it is for you to duplicate the correct moves first. You don't have to necessarily do them at full speed to understand what the best hitters are doing. At the very least you should be able to duplicate it off of a tee. I have my daughter video tape me and we watch the playback together. That way she knows I hold myself to the same standard that I expect from her. We have fun with it. Right now my swing is better than hers.

Baseball was my number one sport growing up and I'm still fairly athletic for an old guy . My first video clips were humbling to say the least. I wasn't doing what I thought I was doing.

You cant let her put the tee where it feels comfortable. Shes just going to teach herself a good tee ball swing. They all seem to do the same thing, put the tee way out in front so they can develop that big long, crushing swing. That swing wont work if the outside pitch is contacted deep in the zone.

Are you doing any toss drills. Her swing might look a lot different than when using the tee, it would be interesting to see if its a completely different on video. A self toss to an outside pitch location (deep in zone) might be good. Enquist said a short bat drill forces proper position for an inside pitch location (they can only reach the ball if properly positioned). Even though it makes no sense to me, it seemed to work. A side toss to inside pitch location, using a short bat. As long as you have the video you could see if anything good or bad comes from it.

Practice releasing the front wrist at contact. She might end up looking like the man with the cement trowel, who clearly demonstrates how to "slot the elbow then swing" without inducing bag drag But again he's making contact pretty far out in front. For me, to make contact at the right place and to release the wrist at contact, the technique has to be pretty good.

Carl

Originally Posted by redzuk

You cant let her put the tee where it feels comfortable. Shes just going to teach herself a good tee ball swing. They all seem to do the same thing, put the tee way out in front so they can develop that big long, crushing swing.

Exactly.

Originally Posted by redzuk

That swing wont work

I would have finished the sentence right there.

Here is another cue that might help her figure out how to get the bat started correctly:

When she starts the bat head moving, the forearm of her top arm should loosely pinch against the bicep of her top arm. The forearm and bicep should remain pinched as her hands begin to turn the corner. The pinch will begin to release as the hands turn the corner into contact. There is only one way to do that without pushing her hands forward towards the pitcher. It's what Pujols does with his hands in frames 9, 10 & 11 of the clip in one of the other threads. Bustos does the same thing from a lower handset.

Right now when she begins her swing, there is too much space between the forearm and bicep of her top arm. If she can figure out how to tighten that up, it will help. This is not a forced or engineered position. It is a very natural position that the back arm assumes when the hands are used correctly to get the bat head moving.