How to teach MAINTAINING the tilt

[Snapperny]

Hi,

I have been working with my daughter a fair amount on her swing, and I think she has progressed pretty well. Still lots of work to do, but she is pretty far ahead of most of the girls in her age group. I understand the need for tilt (I think she does too), so I am not trying to open a debate about the need for, or how much tilt a girl should have.

In her stance and at the beginning of her swing she has a good tilt (obviously, the amount is dictated by where the pitch is). However, it seems that during her swing she loses the tilt & stands more upright, which results in a more level swing and too many ground balls that could have been line drives had she maintained the tilt throughout the swing.

We do the matrix drill to reinforce the feeling of maintaining the posture throughout the entire swing, but during live batting, she often reverts back. Does anyone have any drills or tips o teach maintaining the tilt throughout the whole swing?

Thanks

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I believe what you are describing is that your daughter "comes out of her swing" ... i.e., during her swing she will basically stand up with her eyes parallel to the ground ... sort of like she is standing up to see the result of her swing.

Often when a hitter has a focus that has them trying to hit the ball too hard, or even if they are in a pressure situation, they can "come out of their swing" too early.

One approach is to avoid trying to hit the ball too hard. Trying to hit the ball too hard will tend to make you 'look' and "come out of your swing". You don't have to swing that hard to generate a lot of bat speed. Consider instead trying to generate power by using the lower body faster, not by hitting harder with the upper body. Many hitters that try to hit harder end up activating their arms as a main power source ... and they will tend to 'look up' to see what they hit and in the process "come out of their swing". So one approach to your issue is to not try to hit the ball too hard ..... which will help you stay in the swing better.

Consider trying to finish the swing where the body is titled on an angle .... sort of like trying to see the result of your swing with 'tilted eyes' and not with 'level eyes'.

Be relaxed in the arms before swinging.

Slow down a bit .... you don't want to be wailing away at it as hard as you can.

Try the cue of watching the flight of the ball with tilted eyes.

Loosen the wrists a bit.

Try thinking 'swing' over 'hit'.

 

[Bouldersdad]

This will be hard to type out so be patient. Mark off in her normal stance without her bat, Hold the hands straight out at her sides palm down, go to weight shift and rotate down to the ball with her back hand getting as close as she can to the ball. From that position, fold the arms in where all thats sticking out is the elbows knuckles meeting at her chest. That should give you a pretty close idea of the amount of tilt needed, do that until muscle memory lets her remember it and then use the bat and get to point of contact and her tilt should be pretty close. You may have to tweak it one way or another but it will be close. Hope this helps.

One other thing, is dont confuse lack of tilt for lack of rotation in behind the ball. Normally if the weight is shifted correctly and we rotate the hip on the axis down to contact and maintain a strong front side alot of the ground ball issues will resolve themselves. If we do not maintain a strong front side the upper half can continue to come over the bottom half causing us to hit down on the ball rather than driving behind it

Tim

 

[Snapperny]

Thanks guys...Just so I am clear, when you say Hold the hands straight out at her sides palm down, go to weight shift and rotate down to the ball...you mean to stand with your hands out like an airplane before rotating??

My co-workers are looking at me like I am insane as I am trying to act out the step-by-step instructions!!

 

[Bouldersdad]

Yup you got it

 

[jbooth]

Thanks guys...Just so I am clear, when you say Hold the hands straight out at her sides palm down, go to weight shift and rotate down to the ball...you mean to stand with your hands out like an airplane before rotating??

My co-workers are looking at me like I am insane as I am trying to act out the step-by-step instructions!!

I like to have the student simply think of keeping the hands at the armpit and taking the back shoulder at the ball.

Watch how his hands and back shoulder go toward the ball;

 

[ArmWhip]

I use whiffle ball soft toss. I tell them that I want them to try and hit 'spinners' or slices to right side. I explain and demonstrate that if the swing/bat is tilted at contact and they hit the lower left hand side of the ball it will spin partially sideways or slice out to the right. Look at the video of Bonds above, if he hit the lower right side of the ball it would spin or slice out to the left.

 

[MK37]

I used what Bouldersdad suggested and Straightleg's Elvis move video to show my 14U DD stance and tilt. She worked on it for a couple days and looked good off a tee. This past weekend she was hitting the ball hard to the outfield. Some got hung up because of strong winds. Her coach was getting mad because she wanted her hitting down on the ball with a level to the ground swing.

Funny part was watching my DD getting in the batters box and watching her adjust her stance from old to new. I was happy she was thinking about it adjusting.

Thanks gentlemen for sharing your knowledge.

 

[rdbass]

Her coach was getting mad because she wanted her hitting down on the ball with a level to the ground swing. Tell your DD to smile and shake her head in agreement,but keep swinging the correct way.When she starts crushing the ball coach will get glad.

 

[cshilt]

I used what Bouldersdad suggested and Straightleg's Elvis move video to show my 14U DD stance and tilt. She worked on it for a couple days and looked good off a tee. This past weekend she was hitting the ball hard to the outfield. Some got hung up because of strong winds. Her coach was getting mad because she wanted her hitting down on the ball with a level to the ground swing.

Funny part was watching my DD getting in the batters box and watching her adjust her stance from old to new. I was happy she was thinking about it adjusting.

Thanks gentlemen for sharing your knowledge.

Cool. Thank for your input.

Her coach has somewhat of a point. In order of success; line drives, ground balls, fly balls. The least successful are, of course, fly balls which are outs 85-90% of the time. Ground balls are outs 70-75% of the time. Line drives are outs 50-60% of the time. These stats are from memory, but you can find them online.

Of course, there are times when a ground ball is preferred in order to move a runner. Conversely, a fly ball may score a runner from third on a tag-up. My point, however, is the goal should be to hit line drives unless the situation calls for it.