Feedback and drill ideas

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

May 15, 2014
16
3
DD is 11 playing mostly 12U travel and we’re starting to focus on hitting more since it’s taken a backseat to pitching for a while now. One thing she has struggled with consistently is staying through the ball. This is something that she focuses on at home and at her batting lessons. She’s on the petite side and is a bit stubborn, not personality wise just needs a lot of reps before she’ll change a bad habit. After watching this particular swing my husband is now convinced she’s in a big hurry to start running and get to 1B (she’s a pretty slow runner). Feedback/critique on the obvious and other issues you see here and ideas for drills to help her out?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
May 15, 2014
16
3
90de04a7a3a9a0e3dedcb7e9a7cbad68.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
Do you have a video?

One of the best "drills" for hitting is just hitting, especially if it's somewhere she can see the ball fly. Hitting off a real pitcher is ideal. Front toss from 15-20' is next best.
 
May 15, 2014
16
3
Video should be in my reply above ^. Reps is what she has currently. Batting with her team 1x week, batting lesson 1x week, batting at home 2-3x week (front toss, tee and sometimes at the field) and games on Sundays. I was hoping there might be a way for her to feel what she’s doing or better yet feel what it needs to be because she’s not aware of what she does until we show her video and she struggles to make an adjustment. This has been something she’s struggled with early on and has definitely improved but still needs a lot of work on.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
Video should be in my reply above ^. Reps is what she has currently. Batting with her team 1x week, batting lesson 1x week, batting at home 2-3x week (front toss, tee and sometimes at the field) and games on Sundays. I was hoping there might be a way for her to feel what she’s doing or better yet feel what it needs to be because she’s not aware of what she does until we show her video and she struggles to make an adjustment. This has been something she’s struggled with early on and has definitely improved but still needs a lot of work on.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

With video, we can offer suggestions of what to improve. However, some of those suggestions may be contrary to what she's being told by her hitting instructor, which may confuse things for her.

Needing lots of reps to implement a change isn't "stubborn", it's normal. You're trying to get her to adjust a complex movement pattern that relies heavily on muscle memory. Changing muscle memory programming is difficult, and often slow. Also, when she slips back to the old pattern, it reinforces that pattern again, which slows the progress towards making the new pattern the "normal". For my DD, there were some issues that took years to get past, and a few others that we are still working on. You might also see her do everything right off a tee, but not off front toss. She might also do fine off a tee and front toss, but it all goes away in a game. This is typical. Keep working until the body doesn't know how to do it the old way. It takes time.
 
Feb 16, 2015
933
43
South East
Her swing in practice has made gains from where she was.


https://youtu.be/e7Y_7uC2af8

https://youtu.be/XaFIvee4jck


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My .$02 Your daughter is currently swinging the bat with her body (mainly shoulder driven) and not her hands. In my opinion her hands are along for the ride instead of being one of the drivers, the other being the hips. IMO the body should be reactive to the hands. Once your DD learns how to load correctly the only focus should be on turning the barrel and in my opinion the body will support that goal. There is a lot of video and discussion on this site about the loading process (coiling, the pull back, etc) you just need to search for it and become obsessed with the loading process. Best of luck to you & your daughter.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Staff online

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,477
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top