12YO DD Help (Updated 13yo now)

[Cornbread]

We still got drag! She’s a strictly pull hitter. Timing is consistently early (not the worst thing). Swings under a lot of balls. I’ve worked on fixing her swing for a long time. She feels the drag. We call it the Dragon lol! Believe it or not it’s better than what it was. She’s playing up on my 14U team and has been ok. One video is us hitting weighted balls where you can see the barrel dump. The other is a stride check drill we do to try to get to a good launch position. I posted her blast metrics down below. Any help is appreciated

 

[Shawn]

I would work on posture all day long. Learn a good swing plane.

 

[Towny9]

I see very little to no drag in the tee swing. The tee swing looks really good in my opinion. In the live ball swing she dumps the barrel behind her back shoulder and that’s where the drag comes in. The fact that she consistently pulls the ball and is early with the barrel dump is a testament to her athleticism. if she gets rid of the drag she will be scary to pitch to!

 

[Shawn]

Or is it just two different swings.

 

[Cornbread]

I see very little to no drag in the tee swing. The tee swing looks really good in my opinion. In the live ball swing she dumps the barrel behind her back shoulder and that’s where the drag comes in. The fact that she consistently pulls the ball and is early with the barrel dump is a testament to her athleticism. if she gets rid of the drag she will be scary to pitch to!

Thanks Towny and you are correct on the tee swing vs live ball swing. They aren’t matching up at all. Change ups give her fits due to having to commit early to the pitch. Also pitches up in the zone give her trouble as well. I’ve got to get that barrel to not dump. We’ve done some of the Bonds/Yelich drills and I think those have helped clean up her path some but still a long way to go.

 

[Towny9]

Thanks Towny and you are correct on the tee swing vs live ball swing. They aren’t matching up at all. Change ups give her fits due to having to commit early to the pitch. Also pitches up in the zone give her trouble as well. I’ve got to get that barrel to not dump. We’ve done some of the Bonds/Yelich drills and I think those have helped clean up her path some but still a long way to go.

Silly question maybe, but has she seen the video so she can see what she does? Sometimes a simple cue of “keep the barrel up as long as you can” may help.

she starts with her hands high and her bat rather flat towards the 3B dugout (at least it looks like that from the angle of the vid). Maybe lower her hands a tad and get the bat a little more vertical to start could help as well. Maybe somewhere around where Lorenz starts hers.

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[Cornbread]

Silly question maybe, but has she seen the video so she can see what she does? Sometimes a simple cue of “keep the barrel up as long as you can” may help.

she starts with her hands high and her bat rather flat towards the 3B dugout (at least it looks like that from the angle of the vid). Maybe lower her hands a tad and get the bat a little more vertical to start could help as well. Maybe somewhere around where Lorenz starts hers.

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I’ve tried to get her hands down lower, barrel more vertical. You know how girls are! “Daddy, I can’t hit like that.” She’s been solid with different feels but that was one she was adamant about keeping so I left it alone. I think if I could get them lower in stance it would help with the barrel dump. Gonna have to tread lightly on the one

 

[BigSkyHi]

Towny beat me to it. Great job!

At 0:05 of the tee video and at 0:03 of the swing video freeze both and compare.

Off the tee, recommend she be looking in the direction of a pitcher tracking the ball in.

If you can get videos of both swings from directly behind her, she may be able to see some other variances.

Front elbow bars out in the live swing; no should tilt down and elbow already down. Edit: There is a great hitter they called Jr. that had an arm bar.

Love her attitude.

 

[Towny9]

I’ve tried to get her hands down lower, barrel more vertical. You know how girls are! “Daddy, I can’t hit like that.” She’s been solid with different feels but that was one she was adamant about keeping so I left it alone. I think if I could get them lower in stance it would help with the barrel dump. Gonna have to tread lightly on the one

Here is the closest hitter to her start I could find. Goldschmidt starts his bat flat like your DD’s, but gets it up in his load. Maybe something like that would be a good compromise. In the end, it doesn’t matter where her hands start - just where they launch from.

 

[BigSkyHi]

I just love this concept for someone to find and own their swing