11yo Maddie

[Eric F]

Any thoughts on why she isn't getting extended?

As best as I can tell at the moment, it's primarily an issue of her bat-energy not having a big enough advantage over ball-energy when facing full speed (50+ mph) pitching. In other words, impact with the ball is stopping/slowing the momentum of the bat, and it's interrupting her extension. With slower pitching (i.e. recent cage clips), she has no problem getting to full extension, which leads me to believe it's not a mechanics or understanding issue.

 

[julray]

I am in no way an expert, but maybe she's not getting full extension and loosing bat momentum because she seems to sitting on her back foot a little and not engaging the back hip as much as we see in her batting practice videos, squishing the bug sort of speak. Either way, I think she has a great swing. Congrats!

 

[rdbass]

 

[rdbass]

Eric, I hope you don't mind(looking for the comparable gif/pujols)

My focus is on the belt line & number which I think is good. Then I move to the hands, bat/barrel and that's where I believe the break down occurs.

I'll find the gif on my work computer tomorrow. In the mean time :

 

[Eric F]

I've been trying for a long time to get her to tighten the V in her rear arm, and load the hands up closer to the rear shoulder. The close-up gif may help her see what she's actually doing, which is different than what she thinks she is doing. The work continues...

 

[rdbass]

Eric, Just letting you know I really like her swing. This gif shows just how good it is. Like most on this site and others 'we' are always looking for ways to improve.

 

[crankermo]

Eric,

She's using her upper body to transfer weight which is why she pulling up instead of driving through the ball. Really work on driving that lower half and create resistance with the upper. There's no whip which is why you don't see extension. That barrel is decelerating instead of accelerating.

 

[Eric F]

Eric,

She's using her upper body to transfer weight which is why she pulling up instead of driving through the ball.

Could you clarify what you mean by this?

Are you seeing the same thing in her recent cage swings?

 

[crankermo]

Notice how her upper half gets over her front side and she just sits and spins. There's no linear shift with the lower half. She's not creating resistance because her upper is the engine and not the lower. Have her do some happy gilmores and video those. Give her the idea of driving off the back toe but make sure she doesn't drive/push up all the while resisting, keeping the hands back and creating a good pivot point and watch that barrel fly through the zone.

There's A LOT more in her buddy. Even the cage swings could be more explosive. She needs to feel the linear drive coupled with the proper resistance. She's not far off just needs to feel it.

This might not make any sense but she's trying to make sure her swing gets into the "proper" checkpoints instead of letting her body get there naturally.

 

[Buttermaker]

Compare lead shoulders. Bat angle is contributing factor as well.

Attack down. Legs/hips look good but intent is to swing up to ball whether she knows it or not.

Howe has some pretty good advice on this.

Tee swings try mimic what Braun, Chipper and Pedroia talk about and do in the videos out there. Line drives to back of cage with back spin. My bet is that she will find this very difficult at first due to the bat angle and swing up approach she has burned into to muscle memory.

30/30 Red Sox: Pedroia in cage | MLB.com

And before anyone gets all huffy that I don't like her swing - I do. I have been down this path of swinging up to ball with hitters. My experience is that a more attack down approach with a good lower body is more consistent approach to handle more location and speed hitting more line drives that will absolutely carry. When you swing up to ball - you tend to swing around the ball more and have trouble staying inside the ball. Heck, how many WCWS teams have this approach?