Howard Drill

[FiveFrameSwing]

Posting the clip of Bustos was to highlight a swing that is a good one to emulate

The notion of emulating good swings makes perfect sense. Crystal's swing is elite IMO.

I especially like to see drills that capture important traits observed in the swing videos of accomplished hitters.

Unfortunately that's not what I see happening in the "hand path" demonstration. I hear Howard instructing the "elbows", yet I observe the rear elbow moving significantly different than what is seen in Crystal's swing clip. Some clarification on what is being instructed wrt the elbows would be appreciated.

 

[Cannonball]

I did miss it. When my computer comes up, I just run with it. To do anything else presently is to wait about 5 minutes for another page to load.

With your comments on "coil" I believe we are thinking along the same lines.

 

[PEPPERS]

Howard advised in one of his post that he learned more from Bustos than she ever learned from him. I think they learned from each other. Bustos is a great dedicated player, she is good because she works hard on perfection and performance a good example for young people, in sports and life.

I used Howard’s advise he posted on this forum and it really help my daughter take her game to the next level. The way I looked at it, some drills are exaggerated to make a player feel a certain movement while others you want to do the reps to burn in muscle memory. I’m no claimed expert only a dad trying to help his kid and others get better. What Howard showed us here sure helped the kids I worked with.

 

[lclifton]

This from Peppers

The way I looked at it, some drills are exaggerated to make a player feel a certain movement while others you want to do the reps to burn in muscle memory.

And that is accurate-----,for sure. Good post.

 

[Wellphyt]

Ironic indeed. I find it amazing how so many people use Crystals video clip to show what a great hitter does and then describes what she is doing. May be a case of what a hitter thinks they do and what they actually do are two different things, I have heard all those arguements. But I have taken my daughter to one of Crystal and Howards clinics and what she says she thinks of when working on her swing sure ain't what you guys say she is doing. No top hand torque, no scapula loading, no sublimating, pronating, or whatever the hell it is. She does talk about importance of elbows working as a unit, pulling knob parallel to contact, and releasing bat head to the ball. Very entertaining to read opinions on what she is doing or thinking, when I heard it straight from her, and most of it contradicts.

I would be very interested in getting an expanded explanation of the comment highlighted in red. I see Bustos' elbows working independently, just like I see the pros doing. When her back elbow tucks down, her lead elbow does not move forward a corresponding distance in response. It hardly moves at all.

As much as I like Bustos' swing, I hope the parents and kids are comparing what she says to slow motion video of her actual swing. It's very easy to misinterpret what an instructor says, resulting in parent and student getting way off track. I have done this in the past with Epstein.

Doing something really well and teaching others how to do it is not easy. A good example is the overhand throw motion. Most guys throw overhand perfectly fine. However, I've seen very few coaches who teach it correctly. Mostly what I see are coaches teaching "Monkey See, Monkey Do" drills that they picked up somewhere. Up until last fall, I had no idea how to teach the overhand throw correctly. Mostly because I had no idea what I did when I throw overhand because it comes naturally.

 

[PAcoach]

Howard advised in one of his post that he learned more from Bustos than she ever learned from him. I think they learned from each other. Bustos is a great dedicated player, she is good because she works hard on perfection and performance a good example for young people, in sports and life.

I used Howard’s advise he posted on this forum and it really help my daughter take her game to the next level. The way I looked at it, some drills are exaggerated to make a player feel a certain movement while others you want to do the reps to burn in muscle memory. I’m no claimed expert only a dad trying to help his kid and others get better. What Howard showed us here sure helped the kids I worked with.

I think if you ask either of them, they both would say her father George had something to do with it as well.
I have tried to read all of this and its hard to make sense of some of it. But one thing that i didn't see mentioned, is Bustos vision, which also has a lot to do with her success.
I have met Howard, he offered some advice to my daughter and it helped her.

 

[PEPPERS]

I think if you ask either of them, they both would say her father George had something to do with it as well.
I have tried to read all of this and its hard to make sense of some of it. But one thing that i didn't see mentioned, is Bustos vision, which also has a lot to do with her success.
I have met Howard, he offered some advice to my daughter and it helped her.

There is a thread on vision training Howard made several good post on on this thread. Such as on tracking the ball when hitting off a tee, a game called Flash Focus and some things over my head. Maybe some one can point to the thread I'm at work and don't have time to hunt for it.

 

[Shawn]

As far as the drills, I own no hitting videos where working on side soft toss and say the hands, where the hitter isn't upper body dominate in the swing. I agree with what was mentioned and why I said it's just a soft toss swing and hitting a ball 5 feet.

The elbows,

If we used the two clips posted, the girl shows a independent back elbow/arm. Bustos shows more of what could be called the elbows working together. I like the cue and the two clips show something different even though they might be using the same cue.

Does the back elbow lowering first in most swings, yes. Do most amateurs do it the same way as really good hitters, no.

Cues do not have to support the same thing seen on a video. Good cues take into account something more complex and reduces it to an easy to understand concept. The elbows working together represents connection and we could add other details.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

If we used the two clips posted, the girl shows a independent back elbow/arm. Bustos shows more of what could be called the elbows working together.

I don't see any evidence of this.

 

[Shawn]

Chris,

That is no surprise.