critique my 9yo DD swing...

Eric F said:

She definitely looks bigger and stronger! She also seems to have gotten away from the dominant all-back/all-forward movement pattern she had when she was younger. Her hand path is the first issue that jumps out at me. With this kind of hand action, I tend to approach it with getting them to understand the idea of "shoulder delivers the hands", which may likely include work starting with the barrel resting on the shoulder and launching by turning the barrel off the shoulder.

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Eric - Thanks for the reply... Your posts and daughters progress in travel here in socal has kept me motivated to keep working. Anyway, my daughter is not a naturally gifted athlete with regards to finesse of movement! These seemingly small adjustments take SOOO much time but we continue to work. I agree with your assessment of the hand path..To me the start is everything. As discussed above, I'm trying to let the swing evolve a little more organically (ha, that sounds mumbo-jumboish) and not hamper her instincts too much... She just changed to a beast of a team and her size and aggression at the plate got her selected. There's 17 girls on the team and everyone is FIGHTING for at bats and playing time. The pitching she faces on a weekly basis is always the who's who of socal teams, this gif was from a 54/55mph (on my pocket radar) pitcher. Any change in her at the plate mentality will hurt... Good thing July is way away!

Work=wins said:

I like her swing. She has good hands. She’s just a tad off balance.When she gets ‘back’ during her ‘load’ or ‘gather’ make sure her COM doesn’t get back, her weight needs to get ‘into’ her back hip. Not her whole body. This is making her swing ‘uphill’ as well as making her arms a power source instead of the core. She probably hits the outside better than the inside. Fixing the COM on gather will fix both of those problems. Once that is fixed I would check if the hands still ‘drop’ so to speak.

She is back to middle. Her shift never gets to the frontside. It should.

The reason for the look of a ‘cast’ is because its an early release of the bathead because of pitch location. This is a properly timed proper release.
Of course IMO.

Overall. She looks like a good athlete. Good movements.

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Wow, great insight from a single swing analysis.... She absolutely hits outside pitches better than inside and her current batting coach is always harping on the uphill swing. If you could, could you clarify the statement that her COM not get back, but into her hips? Also, what is back to middle?

Thanks for the insight - Ernie

erniekru said:

Wow, great insight from a single swing analysis.... She absolutely hits outside pitches better than inside and her current batting coach is always harping on the uphill swing. If you could, could you clarify the statement that her COM not get back, but into her hips? Also, what is back to middle?

Thanks for the insight - Ernie

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I sent you a PM

erniekru said:

Eric - Thanks for the reply... Your posts and daughters progress in travel here in socal has kept me motivated to keep working. Anyway, my daughter is not a naturally gifted athlete with regards to finesse of movement! These seemingly small adjustments take SOOO much time but we continue to work. I agree with your assessment of the hand path..To me the start is everything. As discussed above, I'm trying to let the swing evolve a little more organically (ha, that sounds mumbo-jumboish) and not hamper her instincts too much... She just changed to a beast of a team and her size and aggression at the plate got her selected. There's 17 girls on the team and everyone is FIGHTING for at bats and playing time. The pitching she faces on a weekly basis is always the who's who of socal teams, this gif was from a 54/55mph (on my pocket radar) pitcher. Any change in her at the plate mentality will hurt... Good thing July is way away!

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My DD has dealt with some of the same issues I see in your DD's swing. Primarily, the hands getting out away from the rear shoulder. My DD has found improved success with focusing on keeping her hands close to the rear shoulder, and keeping her swing short and quick, rather than adding length in a misguided effort to generate more bat speed. It took her a while to believe that she could generate sufficient power without making things long. Sometimes, those old habits will drift back into her pattern, and her success will quickly start to fade.

Just had a pretty amazing experience this weekend. DD's team traveled from SoCal to Viera, FL to participate in a USSSA hosted experience. The Pride hosted skills testing and the top 3 girls in each division were asked to participate in a true home run derby in the USSSA Space Coast Main Stadium. What an epic facility. Anyway, DD was selected as one of the 3 for 12u based upon Exit Velocity from a Tee. The home run derby was Saturday night after the days games. None of the 12's or the 14's could get one out of the 225' park from front toss. Girls were given a minute each. 16/18's were impressive... All of the Pride players participated and the eventual winner was an 18u batbuster hitting 16 in one minute. Then went head to head against I think Alex Powers and parked 7 out of 10. LEGIT.... Anyway, here is my DD's best video clip. She got 3 one hoppers to the fence in her minute, but couldn't find the extra couple of feet. Pretty amazing experience for me and hopefully for her too.. She was SOOO nervous.

Man, from SoCal to Viera, quite the haul!! Hitting like that at 12u, she'll be a beast in a few years. Great job dad and daughter!

Wow that was a bomb! 225 ft. come on that's further than most college fields.

Ernie - Hitting power like that is why she's with the team she is with. I wish her much success. Keep up the good work!

Gents, thanks for the kind words. Analyzing and debugging your DD's swing is truly equivalent to jumping down the rabbit hole. I'm learning that I have to be patient and let her have her own "identity" to her swing. Eric, I believe you posted a youtube link to turning the barrel that I'm going to try and implement over the break..

Since the video is pretty new, did you have success with this method of teaching? I think that during the break I'm going to try the tack of not trying to change the result (bat drag) and instead try to change the input (turning the barrel) and see if that helps the DD's swing.

And finally, I'm really liking putting relevant progress in one single post... Haha, it's so funny to watch the first gif posted on page 1 when my daughter was a first year 10u. Still some of the same issues, this girl is stubborn!

DD hit her first OTF HR this past weekend. This is 2nd year 12u. Pretty exciting moment for her and of course me. She has been close so many times, but this one was a shot. Really really high, but when pop ups usually die this one kept going and going. Cleared the fence by 10-15feet. The video is super grainy, taken from the teams live streamed periscope acct. Not a lot can be deduced from it. I liked her getting the inside pitch early, didn't like the leaning forward bit. What does everyone think of hand/bat path? Seems like she was earlier than she wanted to be, ball was left field almost into foul territory.