10U Swing Help

[rballdad]

Hey everyone. My dd is a steady contact hitter that rarely strikes out, but that comes at a price since she mostly hits grounders to the right side. Before I give my thoughts, if anyone is interested in offering some advice and opinions, I would be more than receptive. Here is a video of two at bats from a game yesterday with two different pitchers. I'll say one thing since you can't see it from the video, in my opinion she always starts the sequence too late, usually after the ball is in the air or about to be released, which forces her to rush everything. Here is the clip:

Thanks all

 

[Shawn]

She is using the arms to swing. Lots of slop.

You use the hands to turn the barrel. The arms support the hands.

Be back.

 

[Shawn]

Still can’t upload to YouTube, my download button vanishes.

Here is a gif. I don’t think these swings are the same frame rate or maybe they are correct.

I’m showing Bregman because he has a very tight sequence. He is hitting a HR on a middle in pitch. He is completely fused together.



Your daughter has dead hands. Arms and hands are not fused to the body.

 

[rballdad]

OK, this is helpful. I would not have picked up on that necessarily. Thanks for the side by side. I see that she also doesn't extend, she kind of swings around instead of through. We have worked on turning the torso and letting that bring the shoulders around and then use the arms. But she does looked disconnected there. Are there 2 or 3 specific drills you would recommend to work on this?

 

[Shawn]

OK, this is helpful. I would not have picked up on that necessarily. Thanks for the side by side. I see that she also doesn't extend, she kind of swings around instead of through. We have worked on turning the torso and letting that bring the shoulders around and then use the arms. But she does looked disconnected there. Are there 2 or 3 specific drills you would recommend to work on this?

Oh yeah, helicopter drill to feel the hands turning the handle. Just the hands first so you can feel the arms and forearms supporting the hands. And then use an entirely fused body to help turn the handle.

She has to learn how to use her hands and I don’t mean pushing the hands forward. The hands actively turn the handle/barrel.

That’s the difference between Bregman, the body supports the hands. Your daughter doesn’t actively turn the handle. Her hands are dead, as her arms and bat collapse into the body. The arms try try to bring the barrel around. This is why she hits ground ball to second, the barrel is dragged forward and then she tries to use the hands late pushing into the ball, barrel is always lagging at contact.

The second drill is a rubber play ball held between the back arm (top hand/forearm). It’s call the fusion ball. Try to swing (and hit off a tee) by turning the hands as the arms are fused to the body. Your talking the arms away from her with all the focus on the hands. You can’t take a complete swing obviously. That not the point, the point is the arms are taken away and the focus is on the hands.

I think Mike Quiroz has video of the drills.

You don’t have to worry about extension in a good swing. Extension is a result, you don’t have to try to extend in the correct swing. Extension is also a timing mechanism, you can adjust the swing. Your daughter has to try to extend and push late.

Tight turn of the hands, deep arc, snap, barrel flies forward. This is also a good drill have them start in the neck slot bat slightly on the shoulder. Great drill.

See how the arms supports the hands?

Here’s another great neck slot clip.

Thank you Dmac for sharing this clip with me.

 

[Shawn]

Here’s a good link to a thread by Mike coach Q.

https://www.discussfastpitch.com/threads/haley’s-hlp-lesson-with-richard.41407/#post-618521

 

[BigSkyHi]

Maybe this will add some insight

 

[efastball]

At toe touch, her bat is mostly flat (green),. It should be up abt 55 deg(yellow). This is causing her to drag the bat around. She lost all her leverage, and must use the arms to pull it to contact.

Also, her hands are a couple of inches too far away from the shoulder/armpit. The tighter the rotation, the faster the swing.

 

[Work=wins]

When you learn that adjustments and or launch is done after the front foot/toe gets down then you can see things a bit clearer. Otherwise you will try to fix symptoms of the late leveraged swing w so many things it’ll make your head spin.

 

[rballdad]

This is really helpful guys. I have researched a lot of this stuff and see drill after drill but never am quite sure of myself. I am glad I finally put this video up to get some insight. I will continue to work with her on this stuff. Shawn, the clips in the link you posted are great we will be working through those this weekend. BiSkyHi I like the Antonelli video, it sums it up nicely, now just to implement that!

And eFastball, that's funny(not really) because I have actually taught her to put her bat like that, I saw somewhere, or heard that it will make it much quicker to bring it around since it is already flat. So quicker and easier to get on the plane of the pitch. But with all the places these tips are taking me I can see it's more of an arc...