8 year old Tessa swing

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Dec 5, 2017
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[video]https://youtu.be/FZPpficTYFI[/video]

Anyone care to critique her swing. Things I see are the rear elbow getting ahead of the hands, not enough turning of the barrel and for some reason she started her hands lower than usual. We only recently started talking about the elbow slotting and turning the barrel. I messed her swing up so much in the past that I have slowly been trying to work on it again.
Sorry for the long slo mo, I took it on my phone and wasn't sure if real time or slo mo would be better.
 
Last edited:
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
[video]https://youtu.be/FZPpficTYFI[/video]

Anyone care to critique her swing. Things I see are the rear elbow getting ahead of the hands, not enough turning of the barrel and for some reason she started her hands lower than usual. We only recently started talking about the elbow slotting and turning the barrel. I messed her swing up so much in the past that I have slowly been trying to work on it again.
Sorry for the long slo mo, I took it on my phone and wasn't sure if real time or slo mo would be better.

Looks pretty good. I wouldn't worry about her initial handset too much. The reason she isn't consistent with it is because....she's 8. I know I have one of those too :p. She does need to get them a bit higher at swing launch however. There are some other things she could work on as well (more stretch/separation being one), and I am sure others will chime in, but truth be told at 8 I would just have her hit a bunch and keep it fun.

What does her live ball swing look like? Does she play kid pitch yet?
 
Last edited:
Dec 5, 2017
514
63
Looks pretty good. I wouldn't worry about her initial handset too much. The reason she isn't consistent with it is because....she's 8. I know I have one of those too :p. She does need to get them a bit higher at swing launch however. There are some other things she could work on as well (more stretch/separation being one), and I am sure others will chime in, but truth be told at 8 I would just have her hit a bunch and keep it fun.

What does her live ball swing look like? Does she play kid pitch yet?


We hit off the sling still, starts kid pitch this fall. She normally starts with her hands in a much better position. Her biggest issue with live hitting is she tends to get tall and can’t cover the plate. She tends to be late a lot also. I commented on your post about your dd’s swing that I have stopped messing with her swing because I was overloading her and trying to “fix” too many things on a 7 year olds swing. We just recently starting working on small things, slowly. In our last fall tournament she hit great- no strike outs and nice line drives to the outfield or really hard grounders over 2nd.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
First, I think the super slow mo is great. The real experts here probably don't need it to identify problems, but I can see some things I wouldn't in full speed (which also helps me learn this stuff, so thanks!).

First thing I notice is all back/all forward. This may be a tricky one to fix, but "walk away from your hands" is the one cue I've had some success with, so maybe give that a try.

Of course, others might say there are more important fixes, but I think I'm right in suggesting that she needs to understand this concept pretty early in learning to swing.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
In our last fall tournament she hit great- no strike outs and nice line drives to the outfield or really hard grounders over 2nd.

Great!! Going to the plate with confidence that you can crush the ball is half the battle.

Initial handset is a style thing really as is feet placement (closed,open,neutral). Seems as if my DDs stance changes weekly..one week it will be slightly closed the next slightly open. I don't really
comment on it with my DD as long she has good posture over the ball when she is hitting (which doesn't always happen at the moment). At
that age they are still trying to get comfortable with how their body works it seems. They will eventually settle into something which they are comfortable with.

With regards to the slo-mo, you can slow down a video on youtube so there really isn't a need to do it. Sometimes seeing things in full speed can
be enlightening as well..e.g. seeing what sort of quickness/bat speed she generates, etc.
 
Dec 5, 2017
514
63
Great!! Going to the plate with confidence that you can crush the ball is half the battle.

Initial handset is a style thing really as is feet placement (closed,open,neutral). Seems as if my DDs stance changes weekly..one week it will be slightly closed the next slightly open. I don't really
comment on it with my DD as long she has good posture over the ball when she is hitting (which doesn't always happen at the moment). At
that age they are still trying to get comfortable with how their body works it seems. They will eventually settle into something which they are comfortable with.

With regards to the slo-mo, you can slow down a video on youtube so there really isn't a need to do it. Sometimes seeing things in full speed can
be enlightening as well..e.g. seeing what sort of quickness/bat speed she generates, etc.

Her handset is usually good, I think the fact that I was videoing her threw her off. Her first swing was all over the place, I told her to forget I was there and swing like you normally do and it was much better. We have done the feet together,step and hit drill in the past, would that be a drill to go back to and make sure she walks away from the hands more?
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Her handset is usually good, I think the fact that I was videoing her threw her off. Her first swing was all over the place, I told her to forget I was there and swing like you normally do and it was much better. We have done the feet together,step and hit drill in the past, would that be a drill to go back to and make sure she walks away from the hands more?

Yes the intent of that drill is to create more separation between hands and rear hip. Many like that drill and I have used it with my DD. Matt Antonelli posted an above view of Griffey the other day which is a good illustration
of creating stretch/separation:

https://twitter.com/MattAntonelli9/status/950457369909170176
 
Dec 5, 2017
514
63
Yes the intent of that drill is to create more separation between hands and rear hip. Many like that drill and I have used it with my DD. Matt Antonelli posted an above view of Griffey the other day which is a good illustration
of creating stretch/separation:

https://twitter.com/MattAntonelli9/status/950457369909170176

Like Antonelli's stuff a lot. He may not be a hitting guru but is very to the point and easy to understand. His video about the front shoulder flying open being misdiagnosed helped me with the biggest problem my dd was having and it was causing her to strike out a lot or hit weak grounders to first.
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
Biggest thing when transitioning from tee to live pitching is understanding that they don't have to generate all the power. Off a tee hitter feel they have to generate some extra power because the ball is static so you see a lot of all back and all forward.

I think hand path is good for her age I would start working a few drill to get her to staying back as her front foot comes forward...Looking pretty good
 
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
At this age, focus on building a good sequence. Get her away from an all-back/all-forward movement pattern as soon as you can. Get the sequence in order, and nit-picks like handset will likely sort themselves out.

With young players being late on their swing, the biggest issue I see is them waiting to see where the pitch will be before starting their process. This will become more critical as she gets older and faces better pitching, but it's an issue I see frequently with littles, too. She needs to expect that EVERY pitch will be one to hit, and get started early enough to make a good swing at the right time. LOTS of front toss work can be a big help with this.
 

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