Critique / Help Series of Swings

[RayR]

Knight, when we talk to our hitters we use either terminology like seesawing the elbows or turn the triangle as part of the launch....whatever works for them.

Also, the triangle is not to be confused with the box. Turning the box is shoulder rotation driven....turning the triangle is part of laterally tilting the shoulders while the front shoulder is still closed. Launching the barrel rearward needs laterally tilting shoulders....

 

[rdbass]

Wow, wow, this is one of the most informative threads to date on DFP. I'm just posting this gifs to help with the suggestion of better extension. Swing looks great. Try some of these for swings with the feel of just the hands and exagerated extension.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

VLOG from 02/02/2013:

[video=youtube_share;1QJ6kW4emM8]http://youtu.be/1QJ6kW4emM8[/video]

In the second swing, she sweeps the barrel around rather than whipping it.

Notice how soon the barrel starts rotating around her hands.

I know that's what Teacherman wants, and does, but it's not what good hitters do.

 

[Steve Huff]

I can't make heads or toes out of this as to who said what and am not going to waste my time trying. If you said this I completely agree. If you didn't, no matter, I had already said something similiar. My whole original point was that I didn't think her bat path was too bad, and several of her swings were similiar to the gifs I posted. I am done debating this.

Well this is the honest to god truth! Yes I did say that. And her swings and her fundamental mechanics are very good. How many girls had a "basic" swing like this girl's who were coming into college. She is 14 and would have been at the top of the list. And she would be fixed in a few weeks and be a model technician. There is no harm in one bad swing. I think that gif I reposted in #154 was not the same swing as the miss-hit. It looks too diagonal in that closeup. But it is only one of many.

 

[Steve Huff]

Yes, and look at the proximity of the bat head to the shoulder in DD's swing. It stays connected almost to the hip. In fact, if her swing was more compact, and hitting the ball closer to her front foot, it could stay connected slightly longer. Connection by definition is that relationship of the bat head to the shoulder. As the shoulder turns, the bat stays near the shoulder until release, at approximately the hip (back elbow at hip). What the bat tip does is irrelevant. Larsen's bat releases slightly early compared to what is normally the model. If you consider that launch, then so be it. Jeter shows this too in a different look.

Now let me say this. I have mentioned this before. First this view is from about 15-20 degrees in front compared to DD. But what my main point is this. If this pitch is on the outer half of the plate, like any swing at any pitch on the outer half, it would require a release behind the batter's position in the box, but it is an illusion since the swing is the same. Here, is Larsen rotating fully, but pulling an outside pitch? Do you have a frontal view of this pitch. If so, then she can't get behind the ball and pull it without an early release, sort of wrapping the bat behind the ball. So conclusions from one swing are difficult to make, which I have also said before.

It may very well be that that is her technique on all swings. I don't know. I see two things in this gif that give me pause. Her back arm, elbow appears to be extending away from the body just before contact. Secondly she is reaching full extension a little early, pointed at RF. That is why I asked you that very question in a previous post. If you are not aware of that, then you can't make conjectures about the swing. That makes me think it is a pitch on the outer half. So as I said, she would have to release a little early to get behind the pitch if so.

In summation, did she get lucky? I don't know how to load gifs.

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/n500/rramelli/LarsenTilt_zpsa112faf6.gif

 

[Steve Huff]

In the second swing, she sweeps the barrel around rather than whipping it.

Notice how soon the barrel starts rotating around her hands.

I know that's what Teacherman wants, and does, but it's not what good hitters do.

God bless you for showing up! There is something else I did not discuss with these guys since they are coming from so many directions. When you start your bat head early, you are not seeing the ball as long. You are committing your bat head to an assumed location earlier than a good conventional swing. I have an illustration from my clinic materials to show this to some degree. Here is talks about a compact and efficient swing, but starting the bat head early, or launching, takes that observation time, and adjustment time away.

 

[Steve Huff]

Knight - I love the song selection. Thank you!!

Love the progress she is making which goes to show that this does not have to be a 6 month ordeal to change some things for the better....shout out to TM for helping see the light.

OK - my constructive piece of advice/analysis:

Front shoulder still in charge of bringing the barrel around. Does it help you/her to think of the elbows and hands forming a triangle and that you are simply turning the triangle to swing?

This is not what I have claimed ever. The triangle or arm box stays fairly consitent. From angles you can't tell the shape. Try looking at a pyramid at Giza while standing offset 20 degrees. One side looks right, the other side looks narrow.

What I said is the tilt of the arm box and slant of the shoulders, determines the angle of the swing. You make a guess, adjust, and make a swing which can be adjusted to some degree. The front arm rising above parallel to the ground, would insinuate the batter is assuming a pitch low in the zone. That font arm and bat will then make a straight line down through the forearm, through the bat, to contact.

Exactly like Larsen's forearm bat do. The box determines the angle of the shoulders. You might say the front elbow is the determinant to some degree of that frame of the arms and shoulders.

 

[softballphreak]

VLOG from 02/02/2013:

[video=youtube_share;1QJ6kW4emM8]http://youtu.be/1QJ6kW4emM8[/video]

Great progress! She's a worker, for sure!

I know the deep tee is especially tedious but it helps so much. Stay on it pretty heavy for a while. Still reaching somewhat (arms disconnected from main body at contact point) during live pitch but much improved. Using an 18" wooden bat will help a LOT with that issue.

Again, great progress!! (Great video production, also!!)

 

[redhotcoach]

In the second swing, she sweeps the barrel around rather than whipping it.

Notice how soon the barrel starts rotating around her hands.

I know that's what Teacherman wants, and does, but it's not what good hitters do.

Chris, do you mean the second snf drill, or the 2nd normal swing.
Do you she think should sweep or whip. What should she do?

 

[nanotech14]

Looking real good, she is letting the ball get in deeper. The music was a great touch, my dd use to play for a TB team named thunder.