Swing down to ball??? Help!

[Dukhunt22]

My DD really been struggling lately. In cage short front toss she hits hard line drives. Once on the field at regular 35 ft distance, she swings down to the ball. Hitting a lot of ground balls to pitcher. The line drives she hits are weak floaters. Need some ideas on what to do to help get bat on plane of the pitch.

Please don't get into a pissing contest on mechanics. Just need some advice on what to do to help her.

http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=kUD81ruJW5c&u=/watch?v=H23Hx6NUyuw&feature=em-upload_owner

Thanks
Chad

 

[CoogansBluff]

Man, I miss 8U coach pitch. DD is 15 now. Would give anything to go back and play just one more game, Red Dragons vs. Shamrocks. Enjoy it while you can! I won't give any advice, but I'll say that while this girl's swing is far from high level, it's pretty good for 8U. I like the way she gets her hips around. She could use them better, but at least she understands the hips are part of the swing. Looks like a little girl who's trying to give it all she's got right now.

 

[Doug Romrell]

My DD really been struggling lately. In cage short front toss she hits hard line drives. Once on the field at regular 35 ft distance, she swings down to the ball. Hitting a lot of ground balls to pitcher. The line drives she hits are weak floaters. Need some ideas on what to do to help get bat on plane of the pitch.

Please don't get into a pissing contest on mechanics. Just need some advice on what to do to help her.

http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=kUD81ruJW5c&u=/watch?v=H23Hx6NUyuw&feature=em-upload_owner

Thanks
Chad

THIS! http://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-hitting-practical/21532-bat-throwing-drill.html#post285715

 

[straightleg]

To me just looks like your daughter has a upper body ahead swing. As you reverse the sequence with a lower body ahead swing that will automatically change the bat path.
Also have her stand the bat up taller before she swings, that will also help with a slight upward swing path.


This is my daughter out to toe touch just before she swings. The bat is tall and tilted a little towards the pitcher
She is balanced at set up, and out to toe touch, with a flexed front knee, and a good two eyed look at the pitcher.





Straightleg

 

[obbay]

I see what you mean. Not so much a chopping or slicing down but a downward spiral bat path. starts high and finishes low. When I see players doing this, I think they don't understand the circular path of the bat. sometimes I'll have them drive some golf balls and move to low tee work (depending on their age). at this age I would start with some ridiculously low tee work, and move to a homerun derby kind of hitting contest off a low tee. make it fun but get them to feel the circular nature of the swing rather than the corkscrew.

 

[RichK]

You may hear about "sequence" issues in response to your thread. If you watch your DD, as she falls forward to her front foot her swing also happens at the same time. All-back (bottom AND top) then all-forward top and bottom at the same time.

As you get the synch and separation between the lower body and upper body right she'll naturally add some "tilt" as well and all those things will "pick up" the downward plane swing her hands are creating and turn it into the Nike swoosh you are looking for.

So it's not her swing itself or in particular her hands that are "wrong" right now, you want them to "work above the ball" -- it's the rest of the things I described that aren't quite there yet. Work on those and the swing plane will fix itself too.

Hope that makes sense. There are a million threads here to help you work on the proper load/launch/separate/stretch and fire, whatever you want to call it...Good luck, she's a very athletic 8 year old no doubt...

 

[Cowdogz]

This is going to sound pretty simple, but I would start by having her hold the bat at a higher angle. As she loads and starts the swing, her bat is almost flat behind her, and trying to drag it back over her shoulder can cause some choppiness in her swing. Have the bat at about 45 degrees in her stance and try maintain that angle as she loads.

 

[Dukhunt22]

This is going to sound pretty simple, but I would start by having her hold the bat at a higher angle. As she loads and starts the swing, her bat is almost flat behind her, and trying to drag it back over her shoulder can cause some choppiness in her swing. Have the bat at about 45 degrees in her stance and try maintain that angle as she loads.

Yeah, I wasn't at this tournament, and I told her momma to do this. I think it's still bouncing around between her ears. LOL

Chad

 

[CLM265]

Check out her back elbow at contact. Way ahead of where it should be. Line drives are hard to hit when a player is dragging the bat through the zone.

 

[rdbass]

Check out her back elbow at contact. Way ahead of where it should be. Line drives are hard to hit when a player is dragging the bat through the zone.