Olivia, 11 Years Old or: "Another season down, another season of random swing mechanics during each at bat"

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Dec 26, 2017
487
63
Oklahoma
Here are her last two at bats of the season (skip to the end of the first at-bat to see a bloop single) and two swings from her last hitting practice. While I don't know that even her practice swings are "good", they are a lot more athletic and consistent than MOST of her in-game swings (which at times involve such treats as triple toe touches, not striding at all, and swinging through the cloud of dirt made by the ball already hitting the catcher's mitt).

*I have not listened to these with sound so I'm apologizing in advance for anything her mother yells and I'm not sure why the quality is so low. She was doing it on her phone, not mine.














 
Last edited:
Jul 29, 2013
6,782
113
North Carolina
My favorite swing was the ball she fouled straight back at the 45 second mark in the second video, timed up nice, very aggressive swing, she just missed it!

This is coming from a dad with a very small DD just like you.........timing, it’s everything for a small girl, was the pitcher she was facing throwing harder than she’s used to? Her front foot and her timing was just a little off, a little late.

Anna was always a mediocre hitter, never consistent! She‘s always been a very good pitcher but not a overpowering pitcher, she‘s a damn good SS with crazy range and a canon of a arm, hitting was where she was lacking!

The Summer between 9th and 10th grade is where it changed, it all clicked so don’t stress, there’s plenty of time! ;) I could write for hours on that transition time!
 
Sep 17, 2009
1,637
83
Love her! Super athletic and swaggy at the plate. That said, it looks to me that once she gets ready to actually swing she doesn't really have a plan or strong mechanics to work from. I would just dig in here and learn all you can about how to create a running start, a timing window that can start early and get her to contact on time, and a stretch mechanic to load her body to swing on demand. (For instance, reaching or double/triple-tapping with her stride foot is a mechanical failure; her rear leg should be controlling her 'stride' or how she moves out).

Right now she doesn't have any of those things. If you can give them to her over time I think she'll be dynamite. I agree with above...she's small but very athletic she'll get beat for now by players (like the catcher in the top clip) twice as big as her but eventually (and especially if you start her working now on good mechanics at the plate, good footwork in the field, proper throwing mechanics etc) she'll blow past everyone with attitude and athleticism you can already see. Good luck.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Her swings don't seem to be urgent and athletic until she has 2 strikes on her, a lot of times.
Could be as simple as with two strikes she has been told to protect the plate and hence she is expecting every pitch to be a strike and preparing herself to swing on time whereas with 0 or 1 strike she is waiting to see if the pitch is perfect before deciding to swing..at which point it is too late. Yes,yes,no or Yes,yes,yes every time.

As we have discussed before in person, Marcela ran into this issue in the last 1/3 of the Fall season for whatever reason and only got rid of in the last 1.5 tournaments (and hence was just left with her aggressive swing with lousy mechanics :LOL: ). I would rather a kid be overaggressive and have to tone it down..of course, like I said, we have already had a face to face chat about this so I know I am preaching to the choir.
 
Last edited:
Oct 2, 2017
2,283
113
Here are her last two at bats of the season (skip to the end of the first at-bat to see a bloop single) and two swings from her last hitting practice. While I don't know that even her practice swings are "good", they are a lot more athletic and consistent than MOST of her in-game swings (which at times involve such treats as triple toe touches, not striding at all, and swinging through the cloud of dirt made by the ball already hitting the catcher's mitt).

*I have not listened to these with sound so I'm apologizing in advance for anything her mother yells and I'm not sure why the quality is so low. She was doing it on her phone, not mine.















Her pre pitch routine is cracking me up, because she is so into it. It's great!
 
Jan 8, 2019
664
93
Love the routine, too, but this is why baseball games take 2+ hours! ;-)

Why was 1B way over by the fence on a ball that looked to be almost playable in clip one?
 
Dec 26, 2017
487
63
Oklahoma
Love the routine, too, but this is why baseball games take 2+ hours! ;-)

Why was 1B way over by the fence on a ball that looked to be almost playable in clip one?


The girl at 1B took a drop step and jumped to try and field the ball over her head and tipped the ball towards the fence.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,477
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top