9 Minutes Per Day - hitting routine - dev. by my 12 YO - Incorporating Glasco's Tips

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Sep 1, 2014
85
8
If you are like me, you hate having to tell your DD to go practice hitting. After years struggling to make her go out in the garage, my 12 YO DD developed her own process. She went to a Gerry Glasco hitting camp this summer (he is our favorite hitting coach by far!) and learned a hitting progression and then tailored it to a process, as follows:

Her Process:
3- figure 4 swings with her bat at her shoulder (lead leg up balancing on back leg, then coil and swing) - this is a surprisingly very powerful swing!
3- figure 4 swings but with her bat starting upright but down at her waist
3- regular stance but with bat starting upright but down at her waist - she pulls scap back and up as front foot strides towards bownet
30 swings - 15 normal stance but bat resting right at shoulder top (slightly on the outside but at shoulder height actually) and 15 normal swings

But here is the magic...she created her own little scorecard and rates each of the 30 swings after each ball hit - A= Good, B=Medium (hard but maybe down a little), C=Bad (cut popup or weak swing). She rates the swings - her scoring. But the magic is that she is not mindlessly grabbing ball after ball and swinging away - she wants a good score and she focuses more and quickly makes an adjustment if she has a bad swing. Before her new process - she would just grab another ball and swing away.

Then she puts 6 balls in the bucket and gets me if I am around and I video those swings (I like to video because I can slow it all down to see if there are any problems and to just document progress) - 3 with the bat at the shoulder and 3 regular position swings.

I can honestly say her swing has gotten more powerful, consistent and less long (Glasco told her to do a lot of swings with the bat at the top edge of shoulder to eliminate her tendency to get long - she was getting the bat ahead of her hip turn and losing power as a result)

She went to a tryout last week and was hitting consistent hard line drives to left center - harder than she had been hitting. Her process fixed it and gave her a manageable way to get her practice in and it only takes 9 minutes away from her TV time!

And for her, the beauty is that the process takes 9 minutes...no more marathon 2 hour sessions in the garage with Dad.
 

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Apr 20, 2018
4,581
113
SoCal
I am not sure I understand all the swings or drills but self critical and short lessons on a daily basis is a recipe for success. May I suggest, when available, do the short lessons with a long tee. Long tee or soft front toss where she sees the ball's flight is optimal. Feedback is a great tool. Find a field with large surrounding backstop and let her see ball's flight for the first 70 feet. Less time shagging.
 
Sep 1, 2014
85
8
I am not sure I understand all the swings or drills but self critical and short lessons on a daily basis is a recipe for success. May I suggest, when available, do the short lessons with a long tee. Long tee or soft front toss where she sees the ball's flight is optimal. Feedback is a great tool. Find a field with large surrounding backstop and let her see ball's flight for the first 70 feet. Less time shagging.

Couldn't agree more, RH. This process is designed to be something she does on her own in the garage (without Dad out there!). Knock on wood...she has done it without complaints for over 2 1/2 weeks. Was like pulling teeth to get her out there prior to the process. She really gets a kick out of doing "her process." I get a kick out of the results.

Regarding long tee - I agree - she did that at the tryout - it was an indoor facility - and she was hitting the wall on a line drive off the tee from a good distance...was an eye opener for me...this showed me the Glasco drills were really working. She actually did those tee swings with the bat pinned to her back shoulder (like I described in orig post)...to keep her from getting too long. Gerry said she could even do it in a game if she found herself getting too long. Megan Wiggins had a game swing that was similar...and I think she is still playing pro in Japan.

To provide immediate feedback for her solo hitting - I strung a red ribbon through her bow net at line drive height - she knows if it was a good hit - ie center of ball by the ball flight into the bow net. If its below the red ribbon, she most likely hit top part of the ball or with a descending blow...if she hits the top of the bow net (or worse the garage wall!!!) she knows she swung under the ball and maybe hit more tee than ball. But I do like to go to a field or cages to do front toss. We do modified front (actually side) toss into the bownet and I try to place it at various heights and in/out. But I really like the visual that you describe at the fields.

I am not claiming victory, but lately she has hit everyday and I didn't have to tell her to do it! I think she likes completing her swing scoring sheet and knows there is a defined stopping point when she goes out there (I timed it...it was 9 minutes). Previously, I was guilty of keeping her at it too long without her defined process..."one more ball..."

Now I want to get her older sister (18U) to use the same process...and that is a battle...because it was designed by a 12 YO and her younger sister!...She hits routinely but the scoring after every pitch and tracking day by day is the most valuable aspect of this process in my opinion - focusing the hitter.
 
Last edited:
Dec 2, 2013
3,410
113
Texas
Big D. We'll have to talk about this later this week. I want to see some of the drills you are describing. DD did a few camp/lessons with Glasco, but she has deviated from some of the drills or has not been using them correctly. Been trying to shorten her swing as it has gotten too long and to much wasted movement in the lower half. Before we went to Jocup I was working with her and one of the things I noticed is that her game swing did not have the some movements as her T swing or side toss swing. My message to her was her swing in the cages needed to as close to a game time swing otherwise she is wasting her time and not created good muscle memory. Furthermore, she has to know why she is doing certain drills instead of just doing them for the sake of doing them. Either you are correcting a flaw or reinforcing good movements. Good on Kaitlyn for leading the way!!!
 
Sep 1, 2014
85
8
Big D. We'll have to talk about this later this week. I want to see some of the drills you are describing. DD did a few camp/lessons with Glasco, but she has deviated from some of the drills or has not been using them correctly. Been trying to shorten her swing as it has gotten too long and to much wasted movement in the lower half. Before we went to Jocup I was working with her and one of the things I noticed is that her game swing did not have the some movements as her T swing or side toss swing. My message to her was her swing in the cages needed to as close to a game time swing otherwise she is wasting her time and not created good muscle memory. Furthermore, she has to know why she is doing certain drills instead of just doing them for the sake of doing them. Either you are correcting a flaw or reinforcing good movements. Good on Kaitlyn for leading the way!!!

No problem John. I have most of the lesson K got on video - the progression and "the why." I noticed your DD had taken up more of the Glasco swing. She might benefit from the bat at shoulder drill. K does really well with that - so much so I might just make that her game swing for awhile - Glasco actually recommended that to me when I asked him about it after the clinic. If you remember the second baseman from A&M - April Ryan - he had her do it for the first half of the season - maybe she was too long - she hit well with it. Watch some video of Megan Wiggins. The first clinic we did with Glasco started in the video room - he showed video of Megan - he coached her at Georgia and said she has one of the best swings. This last lesson was great - he had Gerry Ann doing all of the progressions.
 
Sep 17, 2009
1,637
83
She cares. That matters more than anything. She also is starting to take control of her future -- progress is under HER control. Great life lesson and too often the exact OPPOSITE is taught in travel ball (if I don't get what I want the coach isn't being fair and I need to change teams). Final thought: make sure she understands and can talk about what her drills are trying to accomplish. Then, later, if someone tells her something different, she can understand why she should or shouldn't follow it. More agency....
 
Sep 1, 2014
85
8
She cares. That matters more than anything. She also is starting to take control of her future -- progress is under HER control. Great life lesson and too often the exact OPPOSITE is taught in travel ball (if I don't get what I want the coach isn't being fair and I need to change teams). Final thought: make sure she understands and can talk about what her drills are trying to accomplish. Then, later, if someone tells her something different, she can understand why she should or shouldn't follow it. More agency....

Well said Rich. Great suggestion on the “why.” I would like her to be able to articulate the why if anyone asks. Glasco did a great job describing the why - but you are right - every hitter should be able to why. Especially if they are struggling - knowing why they do a drill may help them get out of a slump.

Example: I was doing front toss with my older daughter and she was early - Hitting everything out front...I made an observation - looks like you are turning too fast and not extending...Hard to tell without video...but you look early.

My older DD heard this...stopped and thought for a second and remembered a drill she did with her Hitting coach. Essentially stop swings - just turn the barrel and stop after contact. Looked like she was checking her swing but through contact and the stopping but she was hitting the ball hard with that swing. Hardest most solid contact she had all day...so hard and on a rope she almost caught me a couple of times at the edge of the L -screen. Then she hit well the rest of the practice. I was glad she was able to make her own adjustment.
 

sluggers

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