Trouble shooting my Neice...Video

First of all she has been an allstar every year.. and a great hitter until this last year, she also played travel ball since she was ten, she is 14 now, i think that her main problem is she has been taught hands to the ball, also the soft toss and hit the ball with knob drill..I know Tewks hates that one and now i know why.. she tries to take her hands to the level of the ball path. What do y'all think ?? and what drills do y'all recommend....here is the link.>

What the heck? Are those sandals or flip flops?

Since you've already ruined the grass there, dig it out and put in some dirt in there.

She isn't getting good practice swings, doing what she is doing.

She is way off balance. Leaning to hit the ball most of this vid. She has got to keep the weight on her back leg. I'm not a fan of hands to the ball either, we teach 'bat' to the ball. Personally I don't like the back part of the front foot raised during the stance. We keep the foot down and turn on the heel of the foot. ( I truly feel that is why she is leaning and off balance, because she has gotten use to unconsciously pushing with those front foot toes. )

Uncle, you really need to get a tee and teach fundamental batting stances and swings. All the cage or live pitching time will not do any good until she gets balance. Good luck.

Amy in AZ. said:

What the heck? Are those sandals or flip flops?

Since you've already ruined the grass there, dig it out and put in some dirt in there.

She isn't getting good practice swings, doing what she is doing.

Click to expand...

YES...but i have her on film doing the exact same swing with cleats on but the video is too large so i went down to the cage quick to get this with my phone...her team won the District championship and now they go to state, her hitting has went so far down now that she pretty much Pitches, and bunts when she comes to the plate.

SEGa said:

bunts when she comes to the plate.

Click to expand...

That could be her batting problem. I know a lot of RT handed bunters that stay on the toes of the front foot to push off after the bunt. ( nothing wrong with that IF YOUR BUNTING ) But not for swinging away.

Look, stand in your living room with a wide batters stance with the front foot on the toes like in the vid. ( you'll lean more into home plate ) Now put the front foot level on the ground. ( you should fell the hips and shoulders naturally move into balance a few inches back )

I agree that she has been taught hands to the ball. Her body is doing what it needs to do to accomodate her hand path. The result is that she swings down and lunges. It's almost impossible to swing down and stay back. I see this all the time in the cages and I really feel bad for these kids as they are getting conflicting messages.

They are told to swing down...
...and they do...
when they swing down they lunge...
...the coach then tells them to stay back...

I did the same thing with my daughter teaching her the overhand throw. I was unknowingly teaching her the wrong thing. Even though I throw overhand correctly, I didn't know what I did, let alone how to break it down and teach it. Tom turned me onto Hodge and we are now working on it.

The one thing I have always been with my daughter is honest. The first thing I did is to apologize to her for teaching her the wrong thing. "Honey I'm sorry, I screwed up, I've been teaching you the wrong thing".

After the apology, the next thing I would do is demonstrate to her in slow motion the differences between the hands to the ball approach and the rotational approach, putting emphasis on the benefit of hitting in a long zone compared to a short zone. This will help change her vision of what the correct swing looks like.

Thanks...I have tried to explain what she is doing wrong and make her conscious of it. tomorrow she has a travel tourny in Jacksonville, but a have one with my girl here locally. I will update her video if she gets it worked out, still taking advice and or drills..thanks again