Your DD 'needs' to drop the rear shoulder sometimes. Is when the rear shoulder drops during the swing sequence.Just need to correct my daughters dropping of the shoulder sometimes
When a coach tells a hitter to not drop his shoulder, he is guaranteeing an arm driven swing that lacks the suddenness and adjustability that the hitter needs to hit high level pitching.
Here's the answer.
AMATEUR HIITTER: The amateur hitter flattens his bat then swings. He has a slop move that is not part of the launch, yet he can't launch until he does it. He has two moves to his launch. That flattening move happens first, then he launches. Therefore, if he flattens his barrel and drops his rear shoulder THEN launches, the acceleration of his bat will be upward and forward. And that technique will pop the ball up a lot.
HIGH LEVEL HITTER: The high level hitter does not flatten his bat before swinging. He swings from 'up'. The dropping of the shoulder that you see in the clips above IS AN ACCELERATION MOVE. He is turning the barrel rearward with his forearms and the lateral tilt of the torso enhances that action. It adds great power to the acceleration. The lateral tilt of the torso is maybe THE MOST EXPLOSIVE thing the body can do. That action is critical to the suddenness needed to hit at high levels. In fact, the acceleration of the bat is DOWNWARD, not up. The high level hitter swings down with a PINWHEEL action. Which means the barrel will turn up, but only as a result of the downward acceleration reaching the bottom of the arc. The hitter can hit the ball on the downstroke, or just at the bottom of the arc, or, preferably, just as the barrel turns upward.
....each of the above HOF quality players, clearly drop the shoulder to get an 'under' appearance to their swing. The rear shoulder definitely works 'under'. In fact, that action is how they develop their 'Pinwheel Swing' (as compared to a merry go round). Pinwheel meaning the swing's arc is a vertical clock face with barrel speed down the back of the arc. A merry go round would mean the swing plane is a horizontal clock face.
Ive got coaches who say to fast pitch girls keep your shoulder elbow up like in baseball and one says keep the V shape type shoulder swing.Just need to correct my daughters dropping of the shoulder sometimes and the best method that works to correct this. Which is it
Bad news:There are very few coaches who understand what a swing should be and even fewer who can teach it.
Good news: you are in the right place (DFP) if you want to learn hitting.
On my daughters last team (14u spring) the rear. Coach wanted the team to chop down on the ball to get back spin. I sent the coach a few videos showing what i believed to be model swings of top fastpitch players (laura chamberland and sierra romero) and asked if this is what he wants the players to do. I taught him about the hanson principle. This hurt his feelings and got my daughter benched. I watched as our big strong athletic team lost tournament after tournament, getting out scored 15-2 by teams that looked like they were 12u. It was so sad.
Fast forward 5 months and my daughter made her excape to an 18u team. She is batting lead off, the team is 10-0 with a couple of new t shirts. DDs swing still needs lots of work but the hitting coach on this team is on his game and knows his stuff.
Moral of the story: learn what a swing should be and find a team coached by folks who have done the same.
What's interesting about that, however, is that Lauren Chamberlain believes she swings with a "chop down on the ball" swing, and wants to create backspin (go to approx. 5:45)...
I dont see that vid on your youtube user account Eric. I want back spin, I dont want the bat moving down, at or after contact. The real funny part was watching DD swing like he wanted and beat the ball into the ground 2 feet in front of home plate then asking him 'is that what you want?' While he scratched his head. Good times.
I don't have this particular video uploaded to my YT account. Are you able to see the video?
How do you get backspin without the bat moving downward (in relation to the path of the ball) during contact?