Donaldson discusses his swing

[Work=wins]

Rdbass ,
Is 'barrel to the ball' and bat on deltoid essentially the same mechanic? Not advocating anything . Just trying to learn. They both use a deep hpp . What would be the differences? I ask because I am trying to get DD to turn the barrel deeper and trying to find the right drill( feel ) for that. JD says "turn the back shoulder and back hip" to get the bat around. I've heard you speak of educated hands to get barrel to the ball. Correct me if I misquoted you. Are these the same thing? Seems to me JD doesn't want his hands involved until he puts extension into the ball.thoughts?

 

[rdbass]

Let's takes this1 point at a time:

Seems to me JD doesn't want his hands involved until he puts extension into the ball.

I think JD said this

The only time I think about hands....is if it's an emergency swing, that I'm just trying to foul a ball off"

I don't think he means not involved until he puts extension into the ball. He uses his hands as a pivot point and uses them way before extension.

Is 'barrel to the ball' and bat on deltoid essentially the same mechanic?

MHO 'bat on the deltoid' is the barrel of the bat pinned to the deltoid/rear shoulder and follows the rotation of shoulders around to the ball. The only involvement of the hands is to hold onto the handle of the bat. Pretty much the hands are along for the ride. 'Barrel to the ball' can be accomplished in many different ways. A good way and a lot of different bad ways.

They both use a deep hpp

I assume you mean hand pivot point. 'Hand pivot point' means using the hands as a pivot point. I think you may be confusing 'deep' as where a hitter is holding their hands back as a starting/loading point.
I speak of learning to use the hands to turn the barrel towards the ball. As far as 'deep' some may say 'hide the hands from the pitcher' by rotation of shoulders. Others don't believe in rotating the shoulders as much to 'hide the ball from the pitcher.
I hope I answered your questions.

 

[Work=wins]

Yeah pretty much. Thank you Rdbass .

 

[redhotcoach]

I wish interviewer wouldn't have injected "you swing with your shoulders".

 

[Eric F]

I wish interviewer wouldn't have injected "you swing with your shoulders".

I wish he would have just shut the hell up. Just when things were (IMO) about to get good, he interjected something that changed the direction of the conversation.

 

[ian]

The 16 year MLB vet interviewer seemed a little jealous of the coaching JD received.

I found JDs hand usage at 8:10 interesting. He gets his front foot open at heel plant and then turns his rear hip and rear shoulder to contact then pivots to finish. Pretty cool.

 

[Perfect Circle]

Everyone on this forum should watch this

Yep... add it to your favorites in You-tube. Download it to your drive.... Cut it down to the only show your key points

Been on the pointing the front toe to target aspect, for ball placement for years. Now I'm going to call it "Heel to Hip to Hinging"

He didn't give much respect for the T

 

[PEPPERS]

IMO his statement, "I learn from What I'm doing wrong." Another way to say it is to learn from the results. Take any hitting advise with a little skepticism, grab a bat and test any hitting advise you receive and see if it works for you consistently as a coach or a player.

IMO he had some good points, which I have heard from some successful coaches.

 

[_MIA_]

Excellent gif. This will be helpful in discussions related to AB/AF hitters.

Agreed..his "haircut" is a bit of a distraction though

 

[rdbass]

Josh Donaldson's swing is a deadly, well-honed weapon - Sportsnet.ca

For example, from a layman’s perspective, the most distinctive part of Donaldson’s swing is the high, gradual leg kick. The reason he’s so deliberate with the leg kick is to use it as a mechanism to load his hip with his weight like a coil before he transfers all that energy into his back knee and all the way through the swing.

Another interesting note is that Donaldson doesn’t worry about his hands heading towards the baseball, something that flies in the face of conventional hitting thought. In the case of his swing, Donaldson tries to create bat speed with his shoulders instead of his hands, using that same transfer of energy he started from the beginning of the swing in his hips.

Donaldson calls this entire technique “effortless bat speed” and likens it to a rubber band because he’s able to generate maximum bat speed and, therefore, lots of batting power, without using up a lot of energy.

This methodology of Donaldson’s has clearly created results, but it wouldn’t work for just anybody.

The weakness of Donaldson’s swing lies in that he isn’t using his hands very much. Because he’s using his shoulders to swing, he’s sort of forced to just pick a spot and go for it without being able to make too many mid-swing adjustments.
As such, meticulous preparation is required of Donaldson in order to even make his technique work in the first place, let alone win an MVP award.

“If I have previous at-bats off guys I want to look at that first,” Donaldson said of his preparation practices. “If I don’t then you want to try to look at video, some percentages, different kinds of counts.”

From how he prepares, to his particular swing technique it’s pretty easy to see why Donaldson is as aggressive at the dish as he is. This near-belligerent approach of his is incredibly unorthodox and, according to Donaldson, if kids playing little league want to make money playing baseball his is the tactic they should be using.

“If you’re 10 years old and your coach says get on top of the ball tell him no,” Donaldson said seemingly just half-joking. “In the big leagues, these things that they call ground balls are outs. They don’t pay you for ground balls, they pay you for doubles, they pay you for homers.”