Getting started

Rolling Hard said:

MB, don't be so difficult

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LOL...sorry.

But seriously, it's OK to coil, and then move forward (I don't like to use "stride" because that denotes shifting the weight forward as in taking a "stride" when you walk), as long as you continue maintaining (actually increasing/tightening) the coil as you move/stride forward.

What a lot of young/developing hitters have a tendency to do, is that they do "coil and then stride forward", but begin uncoiling as soon as they start forward, and lose all or most of the coil that had started with or created earlier.

Not saying that's what your DD did w/o seeing video, but I'd suspect that was/is the case...as I saw it a lot in quite a few of the hitters that came to me from other instruction.

Less "difficult" I hope?

Rolling Hard said:

She needs to get in time with the pitcher. Each pitcher has a different song to dance to.

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I know this but it is difficult for me to try and explain to her how to do it since I never thought about it when I played. She just needs to figure it
out for herself like I obviously did (or didn't do if you consider I am now a desk jockey )

Mudders Brudder said:

LOL...sorry.

But seriously, it's OK to coil, and then move forward (I don't like to use "stride" because that denotes shifting the weight forward as in taking a "stride" when you walk), as long as you continue maintaining (actually increasing/tightening) the coil as you move/stride forward.

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Yes many coil and then move forward, stride/reach. Everyone isn't coiling while moving forward or coiling with the ball coming at you.

What a lot of young/developing hitters have a tendency to do, is that they do "coil and then stride forward", but begin uncoiling as soon as they start forward, and lose all or most of the coil that had started with or created earlier.

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Yeah their not working on (off) the backside. The coil can be a very small action. It does need to be maintained.

Rolling Hard said:

Dancing with the pitcher requires rhythm and timing. The best mechanics in the world won't help, if you can't dance. Think tra la la booms away. Same with pitching too.

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I often focus on 5 keys in hitting. #1 is rhythm. May seem overly simple ... but important none-the-less.

RichK said:

What's interesting to me is that he gets started with load and leg left before the ball leaves the pitcher's hand even in this slow toss situation. This is a very important mechanic to learn and to teach and very difficult to change once a hitter gets in the habit of waiting to see the ball before making any 'move' -- it is the reason why fast pitching weeds out many hitters (and why for others fast pitching is no big deal).

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Yes ... he gets in the way to get out of the way.

FiveFrameSwing said:

Yes ... he gets in the way to get out of the way.

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Whatever you call it (and that's certainly pithy ) I think what's most interesting is he uses it/practices his early timing move even when he doesn't need to...obviously he doesn't need to "time" a warmup pitch to catch-up to it but it is part of the swing pattern/mechanic that he is BURNING in. Too many hitters in that same situation (and I've thrown ten tons of front-toss in my day) wait to see the ball in the air to load and find direction and then they're screwed when in game play they HAVE to have an earlier timing mechanism against faster pitching -- they haven't trained their swing to be able to tap into a timing window they can move up or back....

RichK said:

Whatever you call it (and that's certainly pithy ) I think what's most interesting is he uses it/practices his early timing move even when he doesn't need to...obviously he doesn't need to "time" a warmup pitch to catch-up to it but it is part of the swing pattern/mechanic that he is BURNING in. Too many hitters in that same situation (and I've thrown ten tons of front-toss in my day) wait to see the ball in the air to load and find direction and then they're screwed when in game play they HAVE to have an earlier timing mechanism against faster pitching -- they haven't trained their swing to be able to tap into a timing window they can move up or back....

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My experience is completely different ... and I throw front-toss virtually 7-days/wk. I expect a hitter to time the ball with their core regardless of whether they are facing soft-toss or full game speed pitching. All of my hitters do this. It is part of what I consider the second most important part of the swing. If a hitter I am working with doesn't do this then the lesson stops right there until they begin doing this.

Mudder has been advocating a drill from Hudgens I believe where you have a hitter balance on a 4x4 with the rear leg and learn to lower the front foot using the rear side to control the fall. In all of the P&S videos out there by noon the commonality of the hitters is the front foot being off the ground at pitch release and being lowered as the ball is on it's way. This is controlled by the rear hip coil and how a hitter creates stretch against the hip coil.

pattar said:

I know this but it is difficult for me to try and explain to her how to do it since I never thought about it when I played. She just needs to figure it
out for herself like I obviously did (or didn't do if you consider I am now a desk jockey )

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Everyone has a different time required to load and if you do not have enough time to load correctly, you cannot execute. Rushed/incomplete loading is a huge destroyer of swings. Some take longer than a second to load and others do it in a half second. I kind of like the long loading pattern in that it allows the hitter to pickup a point in the pitchers wind up to start which seems more repeatable than trying to pick up an out of the hand ball distance. You are vulnerable to being fast-pitched, but that's a little rare.

One thing that helps tremendously is learning how to hover and hold the coil as long as possible trying to never give up the front foot. Once a hitter can learn to use coil to suppress their out move, they can build-in precious fractions of a second in which they can deal with off-speed and starting the load too early. If you consider that if you start late, you are dead, then you will sometimes start early so as to not die . Hovering will compensate for the sometimes early start (still best to be perfect though).