13yo Maddie

djcarter1966 said:

You can do whatever you want with your shoulder, core, hips etc. but if your hands stay that close to your shoulder your finite possible speed at the end of your bat is simply less than if you hand more separation all other things staying equal. Now given fast pitching, bat technology and your daughters strength and ability she can continue to bomb ball with regularity without changing anything but the margin for error is less.

I like everything she has going on and her swing looks really good I just think without increased separation she won't get all the power she could out of her swing...the pull back must continue until her foot is down, right now she pull back OK but then stops and holds as her foot comes down.

Sorry if I sound like a broken record I think I've made this comment before but as mentioned she is doing sooooo much right and the stop and hold is much better than leaking but continuing to pull back is much better than holding OR if she has a feel for holding pull back more and hold from a position of greater separation.

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rdbass said:

I'm not sure if that is correct. Power may be diminished but not speed.

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wish I was a gif maker there are some cool tex rex short arm ones out there I'm sure

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rdbass said:

Here you go....

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Eric F said:

I'm seeing the front shoulder working up (a reaction to the rear-side scrunch), and then pulling back. The pull-back seems to me like a lower-middle back action, rather than retraction of the scap against the spine. Am I on the right path with this?

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FP26 said:

I believe so. The actual names of the actions are still a challenge for me, at least until DD gets more involved with her PT classes IMO, it is more about stability in that area. If you do not have stability in the front scap/shoulder area at the proper time, other issues can develop. The reason I first agreed with the blog article in that the movement was retraction is because of the movement that sets this up to begin with. If you look at the beginning of the Ted clip, it appears to me that there is some 'protraction' in the front scap/shoulder area. This represents itself on this gif as the somewhat hunched look at his front shoulder. Just prior to when the stability occurs (same time you see "the front shoulder working up"), it seems to me that much of that original protraction is gone. As if the shoulder complex returned to a more neutral position. In order for this to occur, I made the assumption that moving out of protraction means you are doing the opposite of protracting, i.e. retracting. So while not pulling back against the spine, necessarily, there is some motion away from the hunched look. As I think about this more, I think a 'returning to neutral' is more accurate way to describe it than retraction.

Anyway, while I really don't focus on the front shoulder during instruction, it is something that I can look at to notice flaws. As an example, page through some of the threads that contain young hitters with bat drag or that dreaded DBSF In many cases, the hitters front shoulder doesn't return to this neutral position prior to launch. Is that a coincidence? I'm not so sure...

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FiveFrameSwing said:

I think you are seeing the lead-arm leveling process. I teach it ... this is the "short hands" in the "short hands, long barrel" cue.

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FiveFrameSwing said:

Good description. There is also a leveling of the lead-arm that is taking place at this point in the swing ... and that contributes to the barrel arc.

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FP26 said:

Looks like Rex is out of sequence.

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djcarter1966 said:

You can do whatever you want with your shoulder, core, hips etc. but if your hands stay that close to your shoulder your finite possible speed at the end of your bat is simply less than if you hand more separation all other things staying equal. Now given fast pitching, bat technology and your daughters strength and ability she can continue to bomb ball with regularity without changing anything but the margin for error is less.

I like everything she has going on and her swing looks really good I just think without increased separation she won't get all the power she could out of her swing...the pull back must continue until her foot is down, right now she pull back OK but then stops and holds as her foot comes down.

Sorry if I sound like a broken record I think I've made this comment before but as mentioned she is doing sooooo much right and the stop and hold is much better than leaking but continuing to pull back is much better than holding OR if she has a feel for holding pull back more and hold from a position of greater separation.

View attachment 12284View attachment 12285View attachment 12286

Click to expand...