Teaching Hitting and the HIP COIL

[straightleg]

The few years I have been on this site, that is all I hear, this has to be in your swing. I hear dont worry about toe touch, bent knee, you need this hip coil!!!

Next comes videos of Jeter and all these MLB players with extra pronounced hip coils.

Parents come on here read this over and over and post swings of there daughter. They do have this big hip coil. But most of the rest of the swing went to h#ll. Loading around the corner, loading over top the back leg, landing real hard on a flat foot. ect.

I say becarefull how you teach a hip coil


I like what swingbuilder said. Resistance with the hip. I believe he means, load the inside of the leg and hold that with the front hip until you need to unleash it.

Howard teachs arms out like a plane. Load the hips all the way with out torking the shoulders out of parrallel.

Torking the shoulders around the corner then the kids start to swing circular. Knob over the plate too much.



I teach a mild load and concentrate on straight back, straight through the ball. Good hand path and not loading over top the back leg.
Starting to get a collection of home run balls from students.


So the big question???? How BIG of a hip coil do you teach.



Straightleg

 

[fourts]

I suppose if I were to swing that Babe Ruth bat you had as your avatar I would say "all I could get and then some"!

In all reality not only can you destroy a good hand path but seeing the ball also becomes a problem with to much coil.

 

[crankermo]

SL I taught my DD to coil into the back side as much as what felt natural and it made a huge difference in her entire swing. IMO it is an absolute to a high level swing but it's obviously not the only thing. I love the stuff Howard teaches but I've also incorporated things from others that have helped my DD tremendously. There is no cookie cutter approach to hitting, everyone reacts differently to certain teachings or cues. I know many girls who can't coil and swing like my DD and are pretty good hitters but I know my DD is a different hitter once she learned the proper coil.

 

[stiksdad]

SL in my opinion this is the most overtaught misunderstood part of hitting, I like you follow principles developed by Howard, its a very slight move imo, not necassarily visable to the undertrained eye, there are so many kids hitting with so many different philosphies its hard to keep track, I think it is way over complicated and way over taught. Granted it is one the most difficult things to do, but complicating does not make it easier, The one thing I got from Howard and Crystal is teaching should be simple, we coach athleticism out of kids in all phases of the game and that includes hitting, we should be teachers and undertand that all players learn or understand things a little differently, there are no cookie cutter programs that will necessarily make someone a great hitter, there only tools and we as intructors have to use the whole bag, and find out what works best for the indivual.

 

[straightleg]

What I am getting at is posting this hip coil over and over and not posting how to teach it.

Too much hip coil screws up other parts of the swing. I see it over and over with swings posted on this site.

Sure some can do it, most dont do it right and then have other problems.



SL

 

[straightleg]

A load/coil more like this. Shoulders staying somewhat straight in line with the plate.
I find this to be a good example of what I teach with the lead foot closer to the ground going out to toe touch.
He lands perfect on the inside edge of his lead foot and also has the flexed knee.
I send this swing to all I work with.




SL

 

[crankermo]

SL,

Kent could rake with anyone and is a great swing to model.

 

[lhowser]

Good things to consider straighleg. I have over taught it myself at times thinking it was a big answer. It is a part of the puzzle for sure but can be over done. Right now I have a group of 11 year olds. here is what i might tell them at a practice -

1. Striding and moving slightly forward while hands go back. (I make sure the batter moves slightly forward as some have reached out their front leg and toe and just kept the weight back without moving anything to front side)

2. During this stride knee turns in towards the plate a little and make sure you show a little pocket to pitcher.

3. I watch what happens and make adjustments from there.

 

[tom.guerry]

best place to learn hip coil is learning a good overhand throw.

I like a lot of the Hodge info for that for how upper body participates, avoiding premature external rotation of throwing arm, but also emphasis on getting/keeping lead arm INternally rotated.

Wolforth info is good, especially backward shaping drills.

Jaeger long toss is good.

The overhand throw arm action provides the right kind of uninterrupted resistance the hip and rear leg need to learn to support.

 

[Wellphyt]

No surprise to hear that some in FP want to downplay the importance of the hip cock/coil.

This is what I believe some in FP are thinking of when they refer to the hip cock/coil being over taught:




This is what the hip cock/coil is as described by Williams. Can anyone out there see the back and forth move-counter move of the hips that Williams described back in 1970? Can anyone other than me see how these girls turn their hips backwards before they turn them forward? Despite what the FP hitting gurus say; this is what Ted meant when he said; "You have to go back to go go forward". He meant that you want to turn your hips back against a firm rear leg, before you turn them forward.

You have to wonder how well someone understands what a hip coil is, when they say that Jeter has a pronounced hip coil. I can't think of any MLB player that has a pronounced hip coil, or does anything other than the same basic action that the girls above do.

Whether it will be admitted to or not; what is really being discussed in this thread are players that turn their upper body around when they coil their hips. It's what some of us refer to as "all back and all forward". Some in FP will blame the excessive backward turn of the upper body on the hip coil. My experience is that the cause of the upper body turning backward excessively is due to the instructor not understanding how to incorporate a proper sequence with a hip coil. The instructor sees the upper body turning back during the hip coil and blames the upper body action on the hip coil; because the hips after all are turning back during the hip coil. The reality is that the lower body hip coil is a totally different loading pattern than the upper body hand load. If the girls aren't taught to load the hands correctly; which most aren't; then you will often times get the upper body turning back with the hips.

My experience is that a good hip coil is not what messes up kid's swings. What messes up kid's swings are instructors who don't teach the swing in a way that incorporates the hip coil. I coached the hip coil out of my DD when she was younger. It was a mistake on my part. I have since come to realize that the hip coil is directly linked to bat speed, and directly linked to clearing the hips out of the way so that the top hand is in the strongest possible position: wrist unbroken and directly behind the ball at impact.