Making Progress

[packhand]

Here is my DD. 15 yo. Barely 5' tall. Natural Lefty, slaps and drag bunts. She doesn't have a stride but does load early. Video starts at loaded position. I saw the other thread talking about the wrists. She was having a little trouble with what I called locked and unlocked. Keeping the wrists locked until shes ready to launch the barrel.

https://youtu.be/cBD20u3VuGw


Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[rdbass]

Spinner/bug squishier and level swinger. Based on this one swing.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Spinner/bug squishier and level swinger. Based on this one swing.

.... does load early.

.... starts at loaded position

.... Keeping the wrists locked until shes ready to launch the barrel

If I had a hitter coming to me with these instructions then I'd invite the parent into the cage and we'd have a discussion to get swing thoughts hashed out.

 

[packhand]

Please elaborate!

These are just my terms to help my daughter understand what we are trying accomplish.

 

[Howe]

Some video magic to illustrate a look with little separation.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Please elaborate!

These are just my terms to help my daughter understand what we are trying accomplish.

Sure …

If you brought me this hitter then early in the hitting session I would invite you into the cages to observe closely what was being worked on. You would be invited to stop me at any time and ask questions. Why? Because IMO such swing mechanics often stem from bad information … and that information source is often the parent … and hence the information source needs to be cleaned up.

From a different slant … an educated parent will tend to use that education to protect a hitter from future ‘bad information’.

Loads early = out of sequence.

Loads early is short-hand for ….. I am lost and don’t have a path for future progression that will have my daughter playing to her potential.

I would stress to you that I consider sequence to be one of the most important areas of the swing. I would explain that until the sequence issues are addressed that work spent on swing enhancements would be wasted time … wasting my time, wasting your time and wasting your daughter’s time … and that direction on swing enhancements without a fundamental sequence would ultimately be an application of placing band-aids on a faulty swing … and that the retention of such band-aids becomes problematic when you move on to adding on the next band-aide. I would stress that the ‘hitter’ needs to accept responsibility for learning the sequence … not me, not the parent, but the hitter needs to accept and own the task of learning the sequence … I would explain that there should be no excuses … that the homework I would give them could be practiced by performing dry swings … without hitting a ball … and that my expectation would be that they would work on this homework between the current hitting session and our next hitting session, and that I would expect to see meaningful improvement. I would also explain that if no progress is made in our next three sessions that there wouldn’t be a fourth session … the point again being that I am 100% confident that a hitter that accepts responsibility will show improvement, and that I am only interested in working with hitters that accept such ownership.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Some video magic to illustrate a look with little separation.

I believe this is why RDB referred to the swing as 'spin' ... because even if this particular action was better synchronized, it would still be 'spin'.

 

[rdbass]

.... Keeping the wrists locked until shes ready to launch the barrel

I don't teach nor believe in 'hands along for the ride' until a hitter 'launches'(Howe's launch) the barrel/bat.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Excessive tension in the wrists is generally a bad idea.

If this parent truly means locking the wrists until 'barrel launch', then this instruction is especially 'bad'.

 

[packhand]

Guys,


"locked" is the wrong term. The issue I was having with her was that she was launching the barrel right from go and it was causing her to pull everything and alot of times run out of plate coverage on the outside pitch. So we are trying to keep everything in. Not let the hands get out, not "unlock" the wrists... She was never a pull hitter before. We actually work on hitting oppo constantly, but with both our schedules, it has been hard to get any work in. I hope you understand what I am trying to say.

We have been working on the "spin". She is actually quite successful hitter for her level and is worried about changing too much. I tell her we need to take a step back...

This video has the tee a little too much out front and its a little high in her zone. I hope to get some more videos with a ball lower and also her complete swing.

Howe.
Please explain what you mean by "little separation".

FFS
Can you explain "synchronized better"?

Thanks Again