Not squaring up the ball

julray · Jan 10, 2018

FP26 said:
This could be interesting.... I will provide my opinions on this, and I am curious to see others.

What is good barrel turn? How does one achieve it? My personal definition of barrel turn is getting the barrel on plane quickly, i.e. deep. One of the first things I look at with a tee swing is the location of the tee. Often I see the tee positioned too far toward the pitcher. I like to have the tee deeper (if I use one at all). Place the tee deeper and see if the hitter can still get behind the ball quickly and elevate the ball (over the pitcher's head). In many cases once the tee is placed deeper the hitter will either hit the ball downward or slice under the ball to lift it and destroy the tee in the process Honestly I don't use tees very much...

I try not to get involved in all the other word parsing that occurs. Folks have their own favorite gurus and that is fine. To each their own...

Are all the best hitters in NCAA softball turning the barrel? Yes, but to different degrees. Again this comes down to the word parsing. It all depends on your personal definition of 'turning the barrel'. All of the better hitters are able to time their launch and control their body movements so that they are able to handle the fastball or off speed. That adjustability is required in order to be one of the best hitters. And to accomplish that, turning the barrel is required as well. Having the ability to get the barrel behind the ball deep gives the hitter a longer window to launch. When you are facing a pitcher that throws 70 mph, the window is incredibly short to begin with. You need all the time you can get...

Thanks FP, I agree they do turn the barrel, but I do not believe they are all not turning from start. I was trying to teach my DD to turn from start, it just seemed really awkward for her. I agree with you 100% that getting the barrel on plane deep is the right way to go. I do not like instructors who preach chopping down on the ball. I believe a hitter can get on plane early without focusing on turning the barrel.. JMHO.

I even tried to learn with her and I've played a lot of ball when I was younger (seemed simpler to me, see ball, hit ball...LOL). It was awkward for me as well.

julray · Jan 10, 2018

DRDRODD said:
Julray I am just curious, I know that a lot of TTB advocates stress lateral tilt. Was this something she was instructed to do when you were attempting to teach her TTB type of sequence?

It was and because lateral tilt was so discussed and deemed necessary. Also by viewing successful hitters it was easy to that they were tilting. So it was something we focused on

julray · Jan 10, 2018

MikeP said:
I think pattar had the same thing happen as me, when I clicked the link it took me to the youtube video I posted of my dd for some reason

Same thing here as well, the link brought to a list of all the videos I posted of me DD

Jcuevas · Jan 13, 2018

Nothing too technical but IMHO you need to work on weight transfer with your DD. She has too much weight on the back leg. Try to copy her swing and you'll feel what I'm talking about. That alone would help her with plate coverage. Needs to be able to drive that weight forward. Here's an oldie but goodie. There's tons of GIFs of the best hitters in the world and all you gotta do is watch and learn. Yeah I know...here we go with the Miggie GIFs

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

julray · Jan 15, 2018

Jcuevas said:
Nothing too technical but IMHO you need to work on weight transfer with your DD. She has too much weight on the back leg. Try to copy her swing and you'll feel what I'm talking about. That alone would help her with plate coverage. Needs to be able to drive that weight forward. Here's an oldie but goodie. There's tons of GIFs of the best hitters in the world and all you gotta do is watch and learn. Yeah I know...here we go with the Miggie GIFs

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

Thanks, and I agree. Her back leg is just collapsing under her, she needs to drive it forward more. This is something we've been working on

Gags · Jan 16, 2018

Shawn said:
I might have been wrong about the swing time being to long. This is a better clip.

More of an add-on question for others than suggestion - acknowledging the limitations of seeing one swing, in a gif format - but is the leg straightening too soon? Not sure if hitters 1 & 3 above are the same (2 = Pujols, 3 = Ramirez?), but their legs seem to "lock out" (for use of a better term) at contact. Julray's daughter seems to lock out a frame earlier. Would this be a contributor to the over-rotation, or just another by-product of something earlier in the sequence? I can't freeze the gif or video to determine if there may also be any correlation b/w the timing of the head tilt and the leg locking out.

Julray - you mentioned at some point the push off (or lack of one) with the rear foot. While it goes against the "balanced, athletic position" of being on the balls of your feet, I've found that when I swing with my back heel on the ground (push through my heel, rather than the inside of my foot), it feels like it's easier for me to hold the coil as I move out, which in turn gives me a feeling of a stronger "push". (<----Warning: extremely limited sample size on this technique!) However, unless she switches to using more of a stride, she's probably already starting with her rear foot flat on the ground, and won't feel the same coil as with a stride. Just another suggestion to add to the 8,354 you've already received.

RichK · Jan 17, 2018

rdbass said:

Another way to look at it. She loads her scap but then immediately unloads it/pushes out of it with her arms. And that 'engine' just about dies right around contact, which gives her the finish look she has.

Alternatively, load and "fuse" the hip and scap (I know some will hate this terminology, but oh well), Use that fused core (hip, back) and the loading of her hands to pull back against the driving rear leg. Turn the barrel -- go! -- to launch the swing and let the driving rear leg and the 'sprung' upper body whip the turned barrel through the zone.

Yes all of this is stolen/borrowed and I may not have it 100% kosher but it's a different way to look at her swing process/issues, IMO.

Another symptom of this---watch her load onto* her front leg/foot and then swing around that leg rather than driving and clearing her front leg/hips open and pivoting her swing around the rear leg. Again, two-leggers will hate this, but oh well.

julray · Jan 17, 2018

I really appreciate everybody's response. I started the thread mentioning that I am no longer interested in teaching turning the barrel. Also I don't mind her being two legged. I respect everybody's opinion, but as per my opening entry in this thread, she has one year left, turning the barrel is uncomfortable for her and I believe she can have a successful year without focusing on this.

Eric F · Jan 17, 2018

RichK makes a valid point about maintaining the scap tension longer. Try asking her to stay in the scap and power the bat with the body, not the arms.

Westwind · Jan 17, 2018

Eric F said:
RichK makes a valid point about maintaining the scap tension longer. Try asking her to stay in the scap and power the bat with the body, not the arms.

Is there any chance that some of the regulars on the Technical board could do a dumbed down post on the Practical board about scrap pinch etc? There is an epic post about it in the tech section but with all the big words and hitting slang I can never follow what you guys are talking about. Despite spending half of all of my waking moments haunting DFP it’s still all written in Greek as far as I can tell.

Not squaring up the ball

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