Uppercut Swing

[Texas]

Sorry to intrude on the debate, but I have a funny story relating to the OP and the uppercut swing.

I am huge on mechanics and sometimes have to fight back from "helping" parents/players with their swing. We had a player (big size) on our team that always made good contact, but she is an upper cut, front foot, hip slide hitter. I was talking to another parent about how awesome she would be with the right mechanics. Next pitch, she sent it out of the park for a grand slam. He just started laughing at me.

 

[Slapper23]

Yeah, sometimes you're just paddling upstream. When kids are successful against lower level pitching (not saying that is the case in your example), it can be a struggle to make improvements due to the mindset. I once had a girl come to summer HS workouts as she was in the middle of her summer season. She said "my dad said not to mess up my swing, because I'm swinging good right now." I said "Sondra, you're swing is already messed up." She just looked at me - sometimes you just have to say it like it is. Plus, it kinda ticked me off!

Mike

 

[Mark H]

For clarification purposes, Epstein's emphasis on getting
'weight forward during the stride' is not new. It's in my "On Target" dvd series which is about 4 years old. Plus I believe his message board references it even earlier.

Glad to hear it. The materials I viewed said the weight should move from the inside of the front thigh before rotation to the inside of the back thigh after rotation. Those materials definitely date back more than four years. First I've heard he updated. Cool.

 

[Mark H]

Yeah, sometimes you're just paddling upstream. When kids are successful against lower level pitching (not saying that is the case in your example), it can be a struggle to make improvements due to the mindset. I once had a girl come to summer HS workouts as she was in the middle of her summer season. She said "my dad said not to mess up my swing, because I'm swinging good right now." I said "Sondra, you're swing is already messed up." She just looked at me - sometimes you just have to say it like it is. Plus, it kinda ticked me off!

Mike

Saw a college coach do pretty much the same thing. Kid had an ugly swing but she hit about 300 her freshman year. Coach told her her swing was awful at the beginning of her sophomore year and she never hit above 200 again. A lot of it's confidence and I wouldn't knock a kid about her swing unless she asked or we were committed to going to serious work on it together. If you know she isn't open to help, what's the point in knocking her down and at the same time basically implying dad's ignorant.

As to the college coach, that's late in the game. If a kid's hitting 300 standing on her head, it's the coach's job to get her a pillow as someone once said. Go fix the bottom of the order first.

 

[Slapper23]

Nice try, Mark. Sondra became one of the best players we've had in years. I took her comment to me as the reverse of what you said. I took it as her dad implying, "hey, I fixed her swing and you will only mess it up." Well, her dad is a great guy and a friend, but her swing was already messed up. That was 3 years ago. We kept working at it and the last few years she hit great...and looked much better. Now she is a freshman playing college ball.

Mark, you need to get out from behind the computer and actually coach once in a while. Learn how to work with kids and all. Each kid is different and you have to have a differents ways of coaching.

Mike

 

[Hit Dr.24]

Slapper, Who's the D1 coach that likes Tom?

 

[Mark H]

Perhaps it worked with this kid you speak of. I don't recommend it in general. As to getting out from behind the computer. Excellent advice. I give it to Tom often.

 

[tom.guerry]

skeppie -

here is a safe credentialed guy MarkH likes. I think his stuff would keep your ego healthy:

Team USA Softball Hitting Instruction - Baseball Fever

 

[Slapper23]

"Perhaps" it worked? Again, nice one, Mark. This kid I had coached since she was 8 y.o. - you know, program development and all. Great kid, great athlete, great student, and her swing was messed up, especially after Dad "fixed" some things. As I said, as a coach you deal with each kid as an individual. For you to sit there and pompously say "well I don't recommend it in general", well, I guess I have to consider the source.

Maybe the kid you mentioned never hitting above 0.200 again just couldn't get it. Maybe what the coach said had nothing to do with her drop off. Maybe you are guessing.

Mike

 

[BoardMember]

Sorry to dissapoint you Tommy, but my idea's on what controls the load/unload haven't changed in years..........And it STILL isn't the hands..........

It's AWAYS been the upper arms.........Specifically focused on the elbows as a way to control where and what the hands do and DO NOT do, and what is in charge of loading the scap, back and shoulders, and most importantly, what the bat does.........

I've been using the cue of "getting the rear elbow up and behind the top hand" for years. As well as preaching Max-Load at toe touch to insure stretch and separation is maximized during the unload........

Donny and I had some pretty good exchanges at BBF regarding this aspect of the swing a few years back before he passed........

They also included my analogys to "bouncing the load off the rear scap", which apparantly has been picked up by your buddy's as a late "bump" or "poke".........Glad they finally caught on...........

Those exchanges some years ago also included my references to a "force upon force" equasion regarding the unload, which I now see is called "addition" in the Candrea/Enquist series..........

It's all there. I revisited it recently myself when I heard this new "late poke" revelation from the "boys"...........

Just like the my fulcrum push that was dismissed by you and rich back on eteamz, only later to be re-educated on precisely the same thing by HG........that you then bought into........

Just think, if they'd only listened back then, they'd be that much further along today.........

As far as throwing/hitting, my stance hasn't change there either. The similarities of hitting to throwing STOPS at Max Load...........

Why do you think Dave LEFT Yeager...........He's apparantly DONE with the "throwing" part as well..........

You should probably leave me out of the rhetoric Tom........There's a lot of damage control you have to do when you attempt to scape-goat me.......

Oh, and much you YOUR dismay, I haven't done any "extra" reading lately.

I've been too busy dropping my handicap.........

Happy "healing" Doctor Guerry.........

Mike -

You will enjoy this, now BM is an advocate of the "arm action is king" theory.

Or as Slaught says, if you can throw, you can hit.

Next thing you know it will be immediate launch and spend and early handle torque.

Baseball Fever - View Single Post - Best cues to teach load

BM: "The upper load is mostly controlled by the upper arms (humerous), NOT THE HANDS, and NOT THE WRISTS..........."

I think BM has been reading and is not afraid his ego will be damaged trying things from uncredentialed sources.

Maybe that could be safe for Skeppie's ego too.