DD Bat Drag ?
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FiveFrameSwing
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FiveFrameSwing
Banned
If you are up for an experiment, then consider the following.
When your daughter gets to the position below, tell her she should be thinking about turning the barrel to contact with her hands.
Not pulling the barrel to contact with her hands ... but turning the barrel to contact with her hands.
Make it sound that simple to her. Get to the position below and "turn the barrel all the way to contact".
Let's see if turning the barrel avoids this action here ....
She is pushing off the back leg while dropping the barrel. You can't swing until the front leg is anchored. By the time the front leg is weighted her back elbow is ahead of the hands that start lowering prior to the lead leg being weighted. The pushing is to slow of a process as the hands and barrel drop while waiting for the front leg to be anchored.
The back foot shouldn't slide forward that much indicating a long weight shift process back to front, that takes to long. She doesn't have the ability yet to control the weight shift, striding process.
There is also a issue of posture, lack of tilt over the plate, and her vision of dropping the barrel until it's flat and lined up with the pitch with an upright posture.
You could say she is lunging. Which is a slow process of creating a anchored front leg. Which leads to hitting on the front leg.
It's a combination of several factors that is creating bat drag, I mentioned a few. As per the last clip the hands are to high, her posture is to upright, she wants to lower and drop the hands/barrel until it's lined up with the pitch. It takes to long until her front leg is anchored, by that time the hands and barrel have dropped and her elbow is leading.
I don't think turning the barrel alone will solve the issues seen.
The back foot shouldn't slide forward that much indicating a long weight shift process back to front, that takes to long. She doesn't have the ability yet to control the weight shift, striding process.
There is also a issue of posture, lack of tilt over the plate, and her vision of dropping the barrel until it's flat and lined up with the pitch with an upright posture.
You could say she is lunging. Which is a slow process of creating a anchored front leg. Which leads to hitting on the front leg.
It's a combination of several factors that is creating bat drag, I mentioned a few. As per the last clip the hands are to high, her posture is to upright, she wants to lower and drop the hands/barrel until it's lined up with the pitch. It takes to long until her front leg is anchored, by that time the hands and barrel have dropped and her elbow is leading.
I don't think turning the barrel alone will solve the issues seen.
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Since she has issues with dropping the barrel behind her body, starting with the barrel vertical is not helping the issue.
Work on one thing at a time. The first step I would work on is getting the hips turned.
- Oct 25, 2009
- 3,339
- 48
I use this cue I picked up called "hold your pose." What it is is simply freezing for a few seconds at the end of the swing. Show her some images of good hitters at the end of their swings and have her model them.
Once a player understands "hold your pose" they have a checkpoint for when coaches aren't available. It would be very difficult to hold the correct pose using the mechanics in the current discussion. Therefore, she would change pretty quickly.
Once a player understands "hold your pose" they have a checkpoint for when coaches aren't available. It would be very difficult to hold the correct pose using the mechanics in the current discussion. Therefore, she would change pretty quickly.
- Nov 11, 2012
- 19
- 0
The most common problem young players face....
Bat drag is a result of how the inexperienced body (someone learning how to swing a bat to hit a moving ball) naturally tries to deal with moving an object such as a bat through space with the requirement of putting that bat in the same location at a specific time as a moving ball.
Bat drag is responsible for other sins such as casting, failure to stay inside the ball and long looping swings. And for those who continue to attempt to come up with elaborate speculations as to what causes bat drag all I can say is good luck.
Bat drag is caused by the body simply trying to solve the movement problem of placing the bat on the ball. Unless the young player has had a bat in their hands since a very early age swinging a bat is achieved using hand eye skills learned to achieve goals such as reaching and grasping. Therefore early attempt to swing a bat become "hands centric" i.e. the hands are used to guide the bat.
Bat drag is nothing more than a natural consequence of how the body deals with the movement problem trying to move a bat in a fashion that is most efficient for the body to do so, i.e. moving the mass of the bat to achieve an "acceptable" result .
But moving the mass of the bat using the hands as the primary mechanism is not the most effective way to make contact with a moving ball. And what creates a reasonable result (contact) at one level is not necessarily a reasonable result at a higher level. This explanation is consistent with the fact that most young hitters never progress because of bat drag. And the only explanation for such a common and wide spread problem such as this is that it is a NATURAL consequence of the body attempting to swing a bat to hit a moving ball. Hence the logic/rationale of a good hitter be an UNNATURAL hitter. It's as simple/complicated as that.”
The posture of reaching and grasping (guiding the hands to achieve a goal) is to vertical i.e. the spine is erect. In our to swing the bat using the hands they must down in an attempt to better match their swing plane to the path of the ball. In order to drop their hands down their rear elbow must drop. This creates a biomechanical geometry where the elbow now is in a position to move ahead of the hands. And the elbow moving I had of the hands is by definition bat drag.
Once the elbow gets ahead of the hands the elbow joint now dictates the motion of the hands. Because what happens is that in order to get the hands i.e. bat to the ball, the forearm-hands much the pivot around the elbow joint. This creates casting. This creates the hands moving in a sweeping manner, what high-level coaches and scouts recognize as NOT staying inside the ball. It also by definition is disconnection because as soon as the elbow-hand drops to match the path of the ball they become disconnected from the rotational plane of the shoulders UNLESS the pitch is shoulder high. And is possibly one of the reasons why players are so tempted to swing at high pitches. Because high pitches naturally match a swing plane which is established by a vertical posture i.e. the hands do not have to drop down to find the ball.
Bat drag "repentance".
The first step in the limiting bat drag is understand the importance of aligning the spine in such a manner that rotation of the shoulders will carry the bat to the point of contact. As stated previously the cue of hitting the ball with the back shoulder is an example of what the player should be thinking about with respect to posture set up an adjustment.
Making sure that the hands arms shoulders move as a single unit when the swing begins/initiates. Maintaining of the “box” is another important cue. The box being the geometry formed by torso, arms and hands.
No stride swing development is another tool i.e. minimize the number of moving parts.
Bat drag is a result of how the inexperienced body (someone learning how to swing a bat to hit a moving ball) naturally tries to deal with moving an object such as a bat through space with the requirement of putting that bat in the same location at a specific time as a moving ball.
Bat drag is responsible for other sins such as casting, failure to stay inside the ball and long looping swings. And for those who continue to attempt to come up with elaborate speculations as to what causes bat drag all I can say is good luck.
Bat drag is caused by the body simply trying to solve the movement problem of placing the bat on the ball. Unless the young player has had a bat in their hands since a very early age swinging a bat is achieved using hand eye skills learned to achieve goals such as reaching and grasping. Therefore early attempt to swing a bat become "hands centric" i.e. the hands are used to guide the bat.
Bat drag is nothing more than a natural consequence of how the body deals with the movement problem trying to move a bat in a fashion that is most efficient for the body to do so, i.e. moving the mass of the bat to achieve an "acceptable" result .
But moving the mass of the bat using the hands as the primary mechanism is not the most effective way to make contact with a moving ball. And what creates a reasonable result (contact) at one level is not necessarily a reasonable result at a higher level. This explanation is consistent with the fact that most young hitters never progress because of bat drag. And the only explanation for such a common and wide spread problem such as this is that it is a NATURAL consequence of the body attempting to swing a bat to hit a moving ball. Hence the logic/rationale of a good hitter be an UNNATURAL hitter. It's as simple/complicated as that.”
The posture of reaching and grasping (guiding the hands to achieve a goal) is to vertical i.e. the spine is erect. In our to swing the bat using the hands they must down in an attempt to better match their swing plane to the path of the ball. In order to drop their hands down their rear elbow must drop. This creates a biomechanical geometry where the elbow now is in a position to move ahead of the hands. And the elbow moving I had of the hands is by definition bat drag.
Once the elbow gets ahead of the hands the elbow joint now dictates the motion of the hands. Because what happens is that in order to get the hands i.e. bat to the ball, the forearm-hands much the pivot around the elbow joint. This creates casting. This creates the hands moving in a sweeping manner, what high-level coaches and scouts recognize as NOT staying inside the ball. It also by definition is disconnection because as soon as the elbow-hand drops to match the path of the ball they become disconnected from the rotational plane of the shoulders UNLESS the pitch is shoulder high. And is possibly one of the reasons why players are so tempted to swing at high pitches. Because high pitches naturally match a swing plane which is established by a vertical posture i.e. the hands do not have to drop down to find the ball.
Bat drag "repentance".
The first step in the limiting bat drag is understand the importance of aligning the spine in such a manner that rotation of the shoulders will carry the bat to the point of contact. As stated previously the cue of hitting the ball with the back shoulder is an example of what the player should be thinking about with respect to posture set up an adjustment.
Making sure that the hands arms shoulders move as a single unit when the swing begins/initiates. Maintaining of the “box” is another important cue. The box being the geometry formed by torso, arms and hands.
No stride swing development is another tool i.e. minimize the number of moving parts.
- Oct 25, 2009
- 3,339
- 48
A simple cue for the player is keep the hands stacked over the elbow. Do not allow the elbow of the top arm to get past the hands. Keep the top elbow behind the hands.
The batter in the original post will benefit from freezing at the end of her swing, using her finish as a checkpoint to correct some of her swing mechanics.
The batter in the original post will benefit from freezing at the end of her swing, using her finish as a checkpoint to correct some of her swing mechanics.
