16 yo struggling with SO and pop ups

[Cornbread]

I'm at my wits end. DD is a big strong kid that has a lot of potential at the plate, but her swing is consistently under the ball. Her batting coach has her in a wide stance with no stride to try and keep her eye level on plane. I see the issues (I think) but my efforts to correct have not helped.

Although she doesn't stride she still moves her weight to her front hip, she drops the bat head at the start of her swing to the extent that the bat is parallel to the ground and the bat finishes wrapping around her waist. Any help is appreciated.

Sequence is certainly off some. She is firing the upper before the lower. How is her timing? She looks a little late which causes her to rush some. Players that are late will tend to just fire the hands in an effort to just get the barrel to the ball.

A few quick fixes for misses under:
Verbal Ques - stay on top, swing over the ball, top half of the ball

Bonds/Yelich drill


You can do different variations of this drill using a tee or side toss. This drill will help her keep her hands over the ball and create a shorter path to it.

My advice for creating a higher finish is to use a ridiculously low tee if that’s something you want.

On her stance: which does she prefer? Which one does she feel the strongest with? She’s got to be comfortable

 

[Eric F]

As others have mentioned, there are sequence issues, but the biggest thing I see is is significant flaw in her hand path, and likely, a fundamental misunderstanding of good swing mechanics. This is a very powerful case of DBSF (Drop the Barrel and Swing Flat). Her hands are dropping to (or near) the level of the ball before she launches the barrel to contact, resulting in a swing that is around her body, rather than the barrel pivoting around the hands and launching from near the rear shoulder, and out from the rear shoulder. She is obviously a strong player who has likely had success based on that strength alone. Unfortunately, as pitching continues to get better, her strength can no longer compensate for the swing flaws.

If you've been paying a hitting instructor to help her for a while, and they don't recognize the hand path issue, it's time to find a new instructor.

 

[ArmWhip]

I don't know if the wide stance is responsible but I see faulty leg/hip action. It's a mistake to think that the weight goes to the front HIP, it goes to the foot. If she 'thinks' that it goes to the hip this is the cause. She starts her swing with a hip slide and puts the weight on the front hip, she should be starting with a turn which is initiated by the back leg. Compare her back leg with Albert's in the game clip that WW posted. You can see how his back knee turns in and his hips turn, your daughter's back leg stays relatively straight because she is starting with a slide rather than a turn like he does. At no time in Albert's swing do you get the feeling that he has shifted his weight to his front hip. Sticking her hip out like she does causes her whole swing plane to shift or angle towards the shortstop, and the rest of the swing is compensating for the flawed start. One issue that is often a result of a wide stance is that the front foot gets locked in a closed position, here again, compare your daughter's front foot to Albert's game swing. His foot is pointed at the pitcher, your daughter's foot is barely past 90 degrees. The foot and the hip are related to her initial slide, vs a turn.

 

[TDS]

Agree, with the arms swinging around the body. The middle needs to be pulling while the hands stay back.. This will help with the bat drag as well as the swing path.

I would do some stop swings (keeping the hands back) until she feels the core pulling.

 

[djcarter1966]

I don't know if the wide stance is responsible but I see faulty leg/hip action. It's a mistake to think that the weight goes to the front HIP, it goes to the foot. If she 'thinks' that it goes to the hip this is the cause. She starts her swing with a hip slide and puts the weight on the front hip, she should be starting with a turn which is initiated by the back leg. Compare her back leg with Albert's in the game clip that WW posted. You can see how his back knee turns in and his hips turn, your daughter's back leg stays relatively straight because she is starting with a slide rather than a turn like he does. At no time in Albert's swing do you get the feeling that he has shifted his weight to his front hip. Sticking her hip out like she does causes her whole swing plane to shift or angle towards the shortstop, and the rest of the swing is compensating for the flawed start. One issue that is often a result of a wide stance is that the front foot gets locked in a closed position, here again, compare your daughter's front foot to Albert's game swing. His foot is pointed at the pitcher, your daughter's foot is barely past 90 degrees. The foot and the hip are related to her initial slide, vs a turn.

Actually this was the one thing I noticed as well that stuck out was she slides usually you see this with hitter who have a stride and not much rotation and no stride should help fix this but maybe she is subconsciously doing this because with a wide stance she isn't getting much if any linear component to her swing, she does also have the drop the barrel swing flat issue mentioned. I would however like to see a video first before going too far with corrections of her hitting a belt high center in pitch...honestly this pitch looks like its low and away and she is fooled a little so might not be the best example, maybe something where she makes good solid contact.

 

[Mike-Coach-Q]

Not the complete answer, but the front elbow generally needs to work up .

 

[Shawn]

Out of sequence. Altogether. Get the hands/bat going back against the shift. Make sense?

View attachment 25958

View attachment 25961

Looks like the hands move forward.

 

[cufan99]

Another vid of a hit up the middle as requested.
I really appreciate all the feedback! It's giving me a lot to think about.

 

[Cornbread]

Stance looks closed. Might be why she has that funky little hip move. Body trying to clear space to allow hands to get to the ball. I like the stride swing better personally

 

[cufan99]

Mashup of 1 at bat.

I hadn't noticed the closed stance before but it looks like she's doing that consistently.