11yo swing analysis

[whatsup]

Would appreciate some thoughts/analysis of her swing:

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Thanks!

 

[GOINGDEEP]

First thing that jumps out......that bat is WAY too big for that young lady. Bat drag big time. Get her a shorter bat and you should see a BIG improvement.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Consider getting her sequence cleaned up. See if you can get her to follow a sequence of Coil-Stretch-Swing. If Coil is too difficult for her at this age, then consider targeting the loading of her rear lower hip.

Currently her first move is to load her upper body. Instead consider loading the lower body without loading the upper body. Coil/load the rear hip first. Then load the hands during the stride ... that is the "Stretch" in the Coil-Stretch-Swing sequence.

Here's an example of a swing clip I looked at earlier today in which I marked up various sections. I'd personally avoid this degree of 'sway' ... although a small amount of lateral movement back towards the catcher is acceptable. The Coil-Stretch-Swing sequence that this girl demonstrates is more along the lines that I think you would like to see your daughter work towards.

 

[Fastpitch Trainer]

Five Frame-

Where did you get this video? This is a sample out of my new drill series, I'm just curious where you picked it from.

To talk about "sway" , yes, there is some sway that takes place here. This sway is not present in her normal swing. As you can see, there is a stool in this clip, the drill series shows the swing from the catchers angle as well. The hitter tends to sway here, simply because she is basically sitting the fabric of her pants on the stool without letting her bottom put weight on it. Therefore you'll see a little sway to help the front foot lift easier. If you'll notice, she still keeps the back knee inside the back foot, and the "hip coil" you refer to is a direct result of the tension created by the resistance of the back knee staying inside of the back foot, allowing the "hip coil" to occur naturally.

This drill is intended to teach control and athleticism of the back side in the swing. If we "stay seated" we never get to the stacked back foot, knee and hip position that is actually a losing position in the swing. My hitter's simply work at a level where they learn to resist a greater amount of tension than will ever be present in their normal swing, therefore they become explosive and in complete control of the mechanism. When they go back to a normal swing, the elements are simple and at their mercy during the swing. We learn to do what we want, when we want with our bodies.

Swaying is also an issue if it leads to swing failure. You're looking at a top 10 hitter in the country in the 2013 graduating class in this clip who trains to the point of almost getting to the point of no return, however, she gets to a point of greatest possible tension and still is able to recover in this clip to get incredible stretch and explosive movement in the swing.

Most kids can't do the drill, and when they get to the point when their lower body gets to the point of greatest tension on the back side, they can't stay seated and they begin to stand up during the positive move or during rotation.

Again, not a beginner drill, you're watching one of the best around.

Mark Mulvany
Coach@fastpitchtrainer.com

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

FPT … well done. This kid is doing a lot correct IMO. I don’t like the ‘sway’ and think it will impact her if she’s playing at the National level … which based on what I see, I think she’s capable … just lose the sway, which I believe is an easy task to accomplish. If she doesn't sway normally ... then not an issue.

I would appreciate learning the specifics of your drill here … as I tried what I perceived it to be and I believe I may be missing a point or two. If you would describe it in reasonable detail then I’d like to give it another try.

I was playing around with various dynamic balance setups in my stance today, and your drill got me to test working with the legs setup more like your student here … and from this setup I established dynamic balance. Led to a new record of hitting line drives. I’ll have to play with this some more.

If you have a photo of the stacked back foot, knee, hip position … then that would be appreciated.

You peaked my interest with the comment about swing drills with greater amounts of tension. More details would be greatly appreciated. An example drill, with a description of what portion of the body is under greater tension, would be helpful.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

FPT ... I removed the duplicate frames and re-sync'd to 'contact'. On the bomb over the fence I don't see the same degree of 'sway' ... notice the resultant forward movement of the rear foot forward, after heel plant, is much less on the clip on the left. Nice work!

 

[Fastpitch Trainer]

Five Frame-

Check out the young lady in the clip this thread is about. As her front foot lifts, she has a vertical stack of back foot, knee and hip. Once this happens, a hitter can't have a controlled weight transfer, or I should say will have a much harder time. She won't be able to control the back side because each body part (foot/knee/hip) will have to travel different distances as they go to stride. Keeping the back knee inside the foot, places the hip slightly ahead of the back knee, thus each body part (foot/knee/hip) are more easily controlled as the distance they travel during the stride is more balanced and similar.

The reason this happens is that the hitter's shoulders go in an uphill position of back shoulder under front shoulder. In the drill video, you'll see that Chaley gets close to that point, but avoids it because the front shoulder stays down below the back shoulder. If you stay downhill, then swaying becomes less likely.

 

[RayR]

First step is to get her to not drop her hands/barrel to start the swing - work from there. Let me define dropping hands in this case: Her top hand drops below the bottom hand way too early - meaning her hands get flat too early.

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[Amy in AZ.]

I agree that the bat is about 2 inches too big. She is too upright in her stance and her hands begin too low. There is a considerable amount of bat drag there.

I can tell that she is an athletic young lady, because she is making some corrections as she swings, because she can probably feel that something isn't right. I would rebuild her from the ground up, in front of a mirror, to get her posture correct.

 

[RayR]

At heel plant.

Ask yourself if there is any possible way to get the barrel to the ball without blowing the front shoulder out? The barrel is trapped behind the shoulders. She can already sense this by heel plant because her shoulders have already begun to open compared to the other hitter.



Her lower body is not bad at this point.