12yo Maddie

Eric F said:

Thanks. She doesn't have consistent over-the-fence power yet, but it's coming soon. Line drives over OF's head, and ground balls that run to the fence are pretty common.

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I little less arms and a little more snap of the hands and the swing plane will change to turn the line drives into bombs.

Buttermaker said:

I little less arms and a little more snap of the hands and the swing plane will change to turn the line drives into bombs.

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I don't disagree with you. However, talking about hands with her has proven to be a delicate issue. She starts thinking about her hands and her body stops working, which increases the amount of arm action involved, and everything becomes weak ground balls. We've been through it a few times.

Connect her hands to her scap. Not being flip about it, but the way to try it get her engage her forearms/wrists and then pull back the handset to connect the scap. Try it yourself to see if that makes sense. Hard to describe over interwebs...

Edit - start with your hands out in front of you but on the catchers side of your chest about 6-8" away from your chest and the bat tipped to oppo (not crazy tipped but in that direction). Engage your forearms - pull the handset back (don't counter rotate your shoulders). You should feel your back (scap) pretty well.

Make sure the rear forearm and bat maintain a right angle.

Buttermaker said:

Connect her hands to her scap. Not being flip about it, but the way to try it get her engage her forearms/wrists and then pull back the handset to connect the scap. Try it yourself to see if that makes sense. Hard to describe over interwebs...

Edit - start with your hands out in front of you but on the catchers side of your chest about 6-8" away from your chest and the bat tipped to oppo (not crazy tipped but in that direction). Engage your forearms - pull the handset back (don't counter rotate your shoulders). You should feel your back (scap) pretty well.

Make sure the rear forearm and bat maintain a right angle.

Click to expand...

I understand the scap. So does my DD. Incorporating it better is one of the current topics we are working on with both throwing and hitting.

I get it. It's one thing to understand another to apply it in a swing with a moving ball. Just giving you a way to feel it. If the hands goal is to snap the barrel the body will support that goal.

Buttermaker said:

I get it. It's one thing to understand another to apply it in a swing with a moving ball. Just giving you a way to feel it. If the hands goal is to snap the barrel the body will support that goal.

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I understand what you're saying, Butter. I also know how my DD processes and implements some instructions. With her, her body does not automatically support the hands in the way you're talking about (and the way I would like to see). When she thinks about her hands, she leaves her body behind. Right now, more of our focus is on her core (upper/lower separation) and getting into her scap more.

Rather than using(and thinking about) her hands to load her scap, what about just engaging the scap to load the hands? (i.e. focus on pulling the shoulder/scap back, which should move the hands just the same?)

Although I'm guessing that's something you probably tried already.


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Gags said:

Rather than using(and thinking about) her hands to load her scap, what about just engaging the scap to load the hands? (i.e. focus on pulling the shoulder/scap back, which should move the hands just the same?)

Although I'm guessing that's something you probably tried already.


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The hand action I was referring to was in response to Butter's comment about "more snap of the hands", which is about turning the barrel to the ball, not loading the scap. When she thinks about her hands, she gets way out of sequence, and completely disconnected. This is just how her brain is currently wired. I agreed that her hand use can be improved, but it's not our area of focus at the moment.

Just to clarify - the snapping of the hands/barrel continues to load the scap/swing. If the scap is released as you snap then that is where things may be going haywire.

Gags said:

Rather than using(and thinking about) her hands to load her scap, what about just engaging the scap to load the hands? (i.e. focus on pulling the shoulder/scap back, which should move the hands just the same?)

Click to expand...

This may be a good way for Maddie to think about it,I agree. What do the hands *themselves* do in that scenario? They work the handle. Engaging the scap loads the handset *a bit* up and back but keeps focus on the body. The top hand itself applies a bit of "forward" pressure on the handle at load, creating a tip. The stretch between top and bottom bottoms out (in the hip socket if you are into that kind of thing) and the barrel pressure maxes out too and then they both reverse direction. Snap!

I like the cue of the barrel *snap* (working the barrel between the hands) being the trigger that breaks the stretch and turns it into go! There was a demo at one point of a barrel snap smacking a counter behind the hitter. I've done the same with two buckets stacked. It just gives the hitter a feel and sound to the snap.

Anyway, Maddie looks great Eric, keep working down YOUR path and implementing things that work for both of you. I think you are just getting suggestions from people that have tried various things that may help, the topic dujour being the hands