11 year old swing tips and pointers (swing eval)

[jdint]

I'm going to jump into the fray and ask for some opinions and/or tips on DD's swing. Not the greatest video for
evaluating, but it's the best I have at this point. Honestly it's a video I made while trying to teach myself how to
make videos on my phone.

Anyway DD is 11 years old. First year 12u. Any advice would be helpful.

 

[Towny9]

The first thing I noticed is that her head drops down quite a bit when she loads. This changes her eye level and makes hitting a moving target difficult. I will try to get her to keep the eyes more level when she loads.

 

[clemenslee1]

I'm going to jump into the fray and ask for some opinions and/or tips on DD's swing. Not the greatest video for
evaluating, but it's the best I have at this point. Honestly it's a video I made while trying to teach myself how to
make videos on my phone.

Anyway DD is 11 years old. First year 12u. Any advice would be helpful.

For the most part, Id say she looks pretty good. My only advice would as of now, Start earlier and slow. That way she can slow down, and set her body up better at the launch position. Right now she is very fast and rushy with her movements. I think you would see a lot of improvement just by implementing this.

 

[MadBandit22]

I'm going to jump into the fray and ask for some opinions and/or tips on DD's swing. Not the greatest video for
evaluating, but it's the best I have at this point. Honestly it's a video I made while trying to teach myself how to
make videos on my phone.

Anyway DD is 11 years old. First year 12u. Any advice would be helpful.

To be honest I could see much from the back view. When she’s wearing the light blue shirt from back of home view I saw a little more.
She has too much movement in her swing. Her initial stance looks fine and then it looks like she does a standing crunch (bending down working the abs) before she strides forward.
You don’t need that bending action. Load and then stride forward towards the ball. Like I tell my girls stride to the ball, hands to the ball.
Should be a quick, simple, explosive movement. No need to change your eye level. Just makes things more complicated/difficult.

 

[djcarter1966]

Definitely get us a side view...but so far this is what I see.

The beginning motion does seem rushed, but honestly if it's working as a timing thing for her I'm not to worried about it because she seems to get to exactly where she needs to be at toe touch, lot to like here. It is the first thing you notice about her swing but not sure how much harm it's doing except for the eye level change, do want to keep head as still as possible during the swing.

On some over those swings she does seem to rolls over her hands too much on her follow through almost dumping them down across her body then trying to finish high.

Bat/hand path is not my really strong suit and with angle it's kinda hard so I'll reserve judgement. How is she doing in game performance?

 

[jdint]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

As far as her head dropping pre launch, I agree it's a lot of head movement. This came about through her experimenting with different stances in order to try and get a more powerful launch. Previously she had a very arm dominated swing with very little lower body action. This seems to be her way of getting her body engaged and ready to swing. Her hitting coach is OK with it because once she gets to toe touch her head stays "relatively" still. May be something we look at trying to ween her off of over time.

On some over those swings she does seem to rolls over her hands too much on her follow through almost dumping them down across her body then trying to finish high.

This has just started to creep into some swings, along with what I guess you call "swinging around the ball" and pulling the ball way left. I have her doing a drill I saw on Antonelli's page that seems to be helping. Not sure what the drill is called, but the batter starts in an open position and almost tilts back and swings up through the ball.

How is she doing in game performance?

Pretty streaky and inconsistent during summer ball, but during fall ball since she adopted the new stance she hit very well. Hit .464 with good power and only one strike out. Her team plays the top teams in the area (St. Louis), but how that stacks up against other areas I don't know. So it's kind of hard for me to judge the level of pitchers she is facing.

That was a way longer response than I was planning on. Thanks again for the comments. Always trying to learn something.

 

[_MIA_]

I have her doing a drill I saw on Antonelli's page that seems to be helping. Not sure what the drill is called, but the batter starts in an open position and almost tilts back and swings up through the ball.

It is one of the many variants of the Stretch-and-Fire drill (SNF)

 

[_MIA_]

Looks pretty good. One thing I would say is if the HI was trying to "coach her finish" in the segment where the tosser is blanked out (starts around 26) I would tell your DD not to worry about that...Other than that I would agree that her (sagital?) load does seem to be a bit rushed and a bit overdone. If you could get it to be a bit more like Trout's here it might help some.

 

[jdint]

Looks pretty good. One thing I would say is if the HI was trying to "coach her finish" in the segment where the tosser is blanked out (starts around 26) I would tell your DD not to worry about that...Other than that I would agree that her (sagital?) load does seem to be a bit rushed and a bit overdone. If you could get it to be a bit more like Trout's here it might help some.

0h man Pattar, you went "Sagital" on me. That term causes an immediate short circuit in my brain chemistry.

 

[_MIA_]

0h man Pattar, you went "Sagital" on me. That term causes an immediate short circuit in my brain chemistry.