If you are like me, you hate having to tell your DD to go practice hitting. After years struggling to make her go out in the garage, my 12 YO DD developed her own process. She went to a Gerry Glasco hitting camp this summer (he is our favorite hitting coach by far!) and learned a hitting progression and then tailored it to a process, as follows:
Her Process:
3- figure 4 swings with her bat at her shoulder (lead leg up balancing on back leg, then coil and swing) - this is a surprisingly very powerful swing!
3- figure 4 swings but with her bat starting upright but down at her waist
3- regular stance but with bat starting upright but down at her waist - she pulls scap back and up as front foot strides towards bownet
30 swings - 15 normal stance but bat resting right at shoulder top (slightly on the outside but at shoulder height actually) and 15 normal swings
But here is the magic...she created her own little scorecard and rates each of the 30 swings after each ball hit - A= Good, B=Medium (hard but maybe down a little), C=Bad (cut popup or weak swing). She rates the swings - her scoring. But the magic is that she is not mindlessly grabbing ball after ball and swinging away - she wants a good score and she focuses more and quickly makes an adjustment if she has a bad swing. Before her new process - she would just grab another ball and swing away.
Then she puts 6 balls in the bucket and gets me if I am around and I video those swings (I like to video because I can slow it all down to see if there are any problems and to just document progress) - 3 with the bat at the shoulder and 3 regular position swings.
I can honestly say her swing has gotten more powerful, consistent and less long (Glasco told her to do a lot of swings with the bat at the top edge of shoulder to eliminate her tendency to get long - she was getting the bat ahead of her hip turn and losing power as a result)
She went to a tryout last week and was hitting consistent hard line drives to left center - harder than she had been hitting. Her process fixed it and gave her a manageable way to get her practice in and it only takes 9 minutes away from her TV time!
And for her, the beauty is that the process takes 9 minutes...no more marathon 2 hour sessions in the garage with Dad.
Her Process:
3- figure 4 swings with her bat at her shoulder (lead leg up balancing on back leg, then coil and swing) - this is a surprisingly very powerful swing!
3- figure 4 swings but with her bat starting upright but down at her waist
3- regular stance but with bat starting upright but down at her waist - she pulls scap back and up as front foot strides towards bownet
30 swings - 15 normal stance but bat resting right at shoulder top (slightly on the outside but at shoulder height actually) and 15 normal swings
But here is the magic...she created her own little scorecard and rates each of the 30 swings after each ball hit - A= Good, B=Medium (hard but maybe down a little), C=Bad (cut popup or weak swing). She rates the swings - her scoring. But the magic is that she is not mindlessly grabbing ball after ball and swinging away - she wants a good score and she focuses more and quickly makes an adjustment if she has a bad swing. Before her new process - she would just grab another ball and swing away.
Then she puts 6 balls in the bucket and gets me if I am around and I video those swings (I like to video because I can slow it all down to see if there are any problems and to just document progress) - 3 with the bat at the shoulder and 3 regular position swings.
I can honestly say her swing has gotten more powerful, consistent and less long (Glasco told her to do a lot of swings with the bat at the top edge of shoulder to eliminate her tendency to get long - she was getting the bat ahead of her hip turn and losing power as a result)
She went to a tryout last week and was hitting consistent hard line drives to left center - harder than she had been hitting. Her process fixed it and gave her a manageable way to get her practice in and it only takes 9 minutes away from her TV time!
And for her, the beauty is that the process takes 9 minutes...no more marathon 2 hour sessions in the garage with Dad.