Swing down?

[mann]

Thats correct, and i do have some that roll over. but i prefer the style of the front arm not drooping down, or folding in half.

why does Noon now lock everything?


even though Cabrera also in the past folded.

I just find that they just tend to get lazy with the front arm, pulling the barrel out of plane.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

To practice attacking-from-the-top I simply practice having a good top-hand path ... passing through an upright vee. From my way of thinking, if I pass through an upright-vee I'm attacking-from-the-top.

The two swings above may not be considered 'swinging down' by many, but for me they are examples of 'attacked-from-the-top' ... i.e., they had a good hand path in which the top-hand passed through an upright-vee.

I perform a drill with many of my hitters in which I perform front-toss and the hitter alternates between 1-hand top-hand swings and 2-handed regular swings. The focus is on developing a good top-hand path ... one that passes through an upright-vee. It is common for me to do two buckets of this with a player as part of their warm-up ... about 50 pitches.

The following is important IMO. The 'result' of a 1-hand top-hand swing should ***NOT*** be the same result as that from a regular 2-handed swing ... doing that is asking for trouble and is a quick way to ruin a hitter. The result of a 1-hand-only top-hand swing, performed with an emphasis on a good hand-path, will have the ball more often than not, driven into the cage floor. With two hands, and an appropriate force couple, the same top-hand path should yield a sweet line-drive to the back of the cage.

Developing a good top-hand path is important ... I rate it up as #3 (to #4) in terms of importance when working with a hitter.

Follow-up ...

It shouldn't be surprising that if you correct the hand path then you correct issues related to a faulty hand path, such as 'bat drag'.

Don't overlook the value of giving hitters goals while instructing ... such as one-hoping a pitched ball to the back of the cage with a swing that passes through an upright-vee.

Yes ... swing down and through. Not that I want a kid's regular swing to be 'down through', but when I need the 'swing down' portion focused on, working on "swing down and through" will give you the 'swing down'.

Last night I used this goal of one-hoping a pitched ball to the back of the cage on a kid with a stubborn case of 'bat drag'. Problem solved. From there is was a simple matter of swing "down to/towards and shallowing-out long-through".

This particular kid struggled with 'bat drag' for years. Very stubborn case of 'bat drag'. The power of giving a kid a goal is huge.

 

[Cannonball]

Follow-up ...

It shouldn't be surprising that if you correct the hand path then you correct issues related to a faulty hand path, such as 'bat drag'.

Don't overlook the value of giving hitters goals while instructing ... such as one-hoping a pitched ball to the back of the cage with a swing that passes through an upright-vee.

Yes ... swing down and through. Not that I want a kid's regular swing to be 'down through', but when I need the 'swing down' portion focused on, working on "swing down and through" will give you the 'swing down'.

Last night I used this goal of one-hoping a pitched ball to the back of the cage on a kid with a stubborn case of 'bat drag'. Problem solved. From there is was a simple matter of swing "down to/towards and shallowing-out long-through".

This particular kid struggled with 'bat drag' for years. Very stubborn case of 'bat drag'. The power of giving a kid a goal is huge.

Good points!

 

[Chris Delorit]

Oklahoma's hitting coach "may" be one of the hidden gems in college softball.

Riseball & dropball = they are plane changers. Each requires a different bat path through the zone in order to make great contact. It's a very quick mental calculation of attack angles determined by the hitter after reading the pitch seam spin or if you're a sharp cookie, picking the pitcher & knowing the pitch type prior to release. It eliminates the guessing game.

As a rule of thumb, hitting a good rise requires the barrel to stay above the hands at contact. There is a little trick to accomplishing this. Whereas, hitting a good drop requires the barrel to drop below the hands at contact. Read the spin, anticipate the angle and swing to contact point where the ball is yet to break, is the goal.

Oklahoma will see it's share of good riseball pitchers every year. They may be sharp in their training and teach their athletes to start hands/bat high to stay on the top of the rise. Drop the hands & bat head is easy from there. So, swings can appear to have a downward trajectory through the swing rotation. Any "chopping" action, especially from the right side would be mechanically inefficient.

Hint...it's always easier to start the hands high & drop. It becomes much more difficult to catch up to a rise from a low hand position. That's a main difference between baseball & softball hitters. In softball, the ball can change both planes.

If Oklahoma is onto it, those are some stellar coaching chops & impressive!

Chris

 

[4 girl's dad]

"As a rule of thumb, hitting a good rise requires the barrel to stay above the hands at contact. "


I don't think I have ever heard this? Can you show a demo?

 

[Mad4Ball]

Developing a good top-hand path is important ... I rate it up as #3 (to #4) in terms of importance when working with a hitter.

Can you share your top five?

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Can you share your top five?

http://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-hitting-practical/26795-one-arm-drills.html#post371386

 

[NoonTime]

why does Noon now lock everything?

Not locked, I post them as Gfycats to save bandwidth for visitors. You should still be able to get a GIF from the gfycat. You may have to go to the gfycat site:
https://gfycat.com/@noontimebaseball

Cheers,
NoonTime

 

[Mad4Ball]

http://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-hitting-practical/26795-one-arm-drills.html#post371386

Great, we are just wrapping up our season. I'll give this order a try in the fall and let you know how it goes.

 

[Chris Delorit]

Hi FiveFrameSwing,

Really enjoyed reading your original post here...http://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-hitting-practical/26795-one-arm-drills.html#post371386

I was especially impressed with your inclusion of "vision" relaxation and "predator" attack mentality. This tells me that you've played a higher level, and/or are a very competant coach. This is a mental side approach that is a rare commodity is youth fastpitch instruction.6

In my opinion, you are spot on with those two mental approach skills.

During the skill set building process, skills like these become the 7th sense. I enjoy explaining the process of development into 4 or 5 stages, beginning with failures and ending in attitude. These stages are identical to my own development process as a player.

With my instruction, there's a high level of training dedicated to spin orientation within the framework of the focus relaxation that you emphasize. The idea is to develop the mind not to hyper-focus, which causes counterproductive anxiety & tension. We try to ease, but sharpen the mental focus in stages within the mechanical swing process. In other words, from loose periphialization to predator contact. With training & experience, spin ID should become a blip on the vision trail that's ID'd quickly after release. From there, the mind calculates trajectory and triggers hand/bat path in less than a second.

Fast-action games like ping-pong are great for developing the mind...vision, focus, spin recognition, trajectory, hand-to-eye coordination... All of which translate to other sports.

In other words, the process of quiet control to an A-bomb explosion.

Keep up the good work!