Swing down?

With swing down (top of ball) what specific drills are using to teach this?

To practice attacking-from-the-top I simply practice having a good top-hand path ... passing through an upright vee. From my way of thinking, if I pass through an upright-vee I'm attacking-from-the-top.



The two swings above may not be considered 'swinging down' by many, but for me they are examples of 'attacked-from-the-top' ... i.e., they had a good hand path in which the top-hand passed through an upright-vee.

I perform a drill with many of my hitters in which I perform front-toss and the hitter alternates between 1-hand top-hand swings and 2-handed regular swings. The focus is on developing a good top-hand path ... one that passes through an upright-vee. It is common for me to do two buckets of this with a player as part of their warm-up ... about 50 pitches.

The following is important IMO. The 'result' of a 1-hand top-hand swing should ***NOT*** be the same result as that from a regular 2-handed swing ... doing that is asking for trouble and is a quick way to ruin a hitter. The result of a 1-hand-only top-hand swing, performed with an emphasis on a good hand-path, will have the ball more often than not, driven into the cage floor. With two hands, and an appropriate force couple, the same top-hand path should yield a sweet line-drive to the back of the cage.

Developing a good top-hand path is important ... I rate it up as #3 (to #4) in terms of importance when working with a hitter.

FFS - I'm very interested in how the 1-hand/top hand drill looks in practice. This is one area where my DD is limited by old habits.

Eric F said:

Found it...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnG_9M3bXnQ

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Lauren comparing what she doesn't want to what she wants .....



Not that dissimilar to demonstrations from certain pros, such as Pujols ....

Eric F said:

FFS - I'm very interested in how the 1-hand/top hand drill looks in practice. This is one area where my DD is limited by old habits.

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I noticed that as one of her current swing issues. At the 19-sec mark of the "052516 Cage Hacks" video she receives a pitch low in the zone and responds by swinging through a Lazy-L.

FiveFrameSwing said:

I noticed that as one of her current swing issues. At the 19-sec mark of the "052516 Cage Hacks" video she receives a pitch low in the zone and responds by swinging through a Lazy-L.

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Do you have a clip of what a 1-hand/top-hand swing should look like?

FiveFrameSwing said:

Lauren comparing what she doesn't want to what she wants .....



Note that dissimilar to demonstrations from certain pros, such as Pujols ....

Click to expand...

This is AP's idea of staying inside the ball. In the full clip, he shows the wrong way of staying inside - barrel dump. Very similar to what Braun was showing here.



This is Brauns swing thought:

Howe said:

This is AP's idea of staying inside the ball. In the full clip, he shows the wrong way of staying inside - barrel dump. Very similar to what Braun was showing here.



This is Brauns swing thought:

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That’s right … and folks should take note that Braun is thinking of his top hand when he thinks of his hand path.

During the segment where your last clip above is taken, Braun is focusing on his bat path and he correctly believes the focus for that should be the top hand. What he says here is “stay over the ball”.

Interestingly enough, just before he performs his first tee swing in that video, he first performs a dry swing mechanic that is very similar to what we see Pujols doing above. He doesn’t talk about why he performs this pump, he just naturally does it as part of his pre-swing routine.

FiveFrameSwing said:

For me, swing down is a swing in which one is attacking from the top. On the other hand, one can attack from the top, and depending on one's usage of the phrase, not be swinging down.

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and

FiveFrameSwing said:

To practice attacking-from-the-top I simply practice having a good top-hand path ... passing through an upright vee. From my way of thinking, if I pass through an upright-vee I'm attacking-from-the-top.

The two swings above may not be considered 'swinging down' by many, but for me they are examples of 'attacked-from-the-top' ... i.e., they had a good hand path in which the top-hand passed through an upright-vee.

I perform a drill with many of my hitters in which I perform front-toss and the hitter alternates between 1-hand top-hand swings and 2-handed regular swings. The focus is on developing a good top-hand path ... one that passes through an upright-vee. It is common for me to do two buckets of this with a player as part of their warm-up ... about 50 pitches.

The following is important IMO. The 'result' of a 1-hand top-hand swing should ***NOT*** be the same result as that from a regular 2-handed swing ... doing that is asking for trouble and is a quick way to ruin a hitter. The result of a 1-hand-only top-hand swing, performed with an emphasis on a good hand-path, will have the ball more often than not, driven into the cage floor. With two hands, and an appropriate force couple, the same top-hand path should yield a sweet line-drive to the back of the cage.

Developing a good top-hand path is important ... I rate it up as #3 (to #4) in terms of importance when working with a hitter.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the clarification. Great post...CP

FiveFrameSwing said:

Lauren comparing what she doesn't want to what she wants .....



Not that dissimilar to demonstrations from certain pros, such as Pujols ....

Click to expand...

FFS, can you help explain the thinking behind Chamberlain's clip. Her "not want" seems to get the barrel in a good spot and in the zone for a long time while her "want" seems like pushing her hands forward and a "V" swing path, similar to this Epstein clip:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjlrLwq7qM0

I'm not sure I get what Chamberlain is advocating....it seems like a cue that could cause problems.

TKS.