Critique DD’s swing

Eric F said:

The two things that jump out at me are the "chicken wing" rear elbow, and the lack of use of her back. There are certainly lots of players that use a high rear elbow with success, but if it's getting above the rear shoulder, it's excessive (IMO). For my DD, we found that keeping her rear elbow low works better for her. In the side-view clips, you can see that her torso is leaning forward. There's no pulling with the back muscles. When this is happening, it often results in a downward barrel path producing pop-up and weak grounders. I would prefer to see her engaging the muscles of the back to keep her torso and head stacked over the rear hip (pulling rearward a bit behind the hip is okay, too). Make sure the rear hip joint is getting fully extended.

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rdbass said:

Add seems to swing around body. Hands seem too tight to body. Which makes it easier for hands to follow the rotation of the shoulder/body around.
Camera angles/shots make it difficult to be positive of my critic. So, take that into consideration. Like to see opposite side of batter box video.

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RichK said:

What happens with that high elbow with her is that it becomes the pivot point around which her swing revolves. That makes it long and as RDbass said tends to make it around rather than out from her body. She needs to feel that the swing pivots around her hands/forearms, which is a 'tighter' pivot point and will shorten/quicken (snap!) her swing. It really is a feel thing. Maybe start by just talking about how she uses her hands to work the handle, both directionally and to initiate her swing. She's very athletic and getting good results, this is about building for the next level.

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Rolling Hard said:

"In the side-view clips, you can see that her torso is leaning forward."

That is the only thing I noticed. I think she is "using her back" but not as efficiently as she could if she straighten(stacks) her spine or torso. Elbow thing is very minor. She has a great swing. Any tweaks to her swing should be done slowly with tee work. I have a problem with trying to reach the nirvana swing. If the ball is leaving the yard on a regular basis, it's a good swing. They are playing ball not a HR derby or who can hit it the farthest. Anything over 210 ft is a HR. Again if she is hitting it out- it's a great swing.

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Rolling Hard said:

"In the side-view clips, you can see that her torso is leaning forward."

That is the only thing I noticed. I think she is "using her back" but not as efficiently as she could if she straighten(stacks) her spine or torso. Elbow thing is very minor. She has a great swing. Any tweaks to her swing should be done slowly with tee work. I have a problem with trying to reach the nirvana swing. If the ball is leaving the yard on a regular basis, it's a good swing. They are playing ball not a HR derby or who can hit it the farthest. Anything over 210 ft is a HR. Again if she is hitting it out- it's a great swing.

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4 girl's dad said:

This really is a big talking point for us. Unfortunately, she reverts to the old swing in games. I have shown her video and we have done some drills but, in the season we are in now, we have very little time for one on one. That is why I am asking now so that we can have somethings to work on when its done, hopefully not till August.

Any drills and thoughts to help her understand these concepts that have worked for your hitters? We are getting a lot of work in but its all team work, hardly any individual work at this point.

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Eric F said:

Just because the swing works now doesn't mean it will at the next level. I have seen plenty of girls who has lots of success with mediocre swings at lower levels, and the parents would often rave about how good their kid could hit. Then, they move up (age and/or level of competition), and they struggle. A couple of years ago we had parent pull her DD off our team because we "ruined" her swing. The parent didn't grasp the concept that 10U rec ball and 12U TB are not the same thing.

Build a swing that will continue to be successful as they grow.

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4 girl's dad said:

This really is a big talking point for us. Unfortunately, she reverts to the old swing in games. I have shown her video and we have done some drills but, in the season we are in now, we have very little time for one on one. That is why I am asking now so that we can have somethings to work on when its done, hopefully not till August.

Any drills and thoughts to help her understand these concepts that have worked for your hitters? We are getting a lot of work in but its all team work, hardly any individual work at this point.

Click to expand...