I like your suggestion about rythm. I will implement that soon. I like a lot of what your saying over all, but I have to use simple things like the towel to get a point across. Using the water bottle sounds very complicated to me, which would make it very dificult to get a point across to my daughter using it. Please e plain the harm in using the towel to feel connection. I am not seeing it but that doesn't mean I can't if you point it out.
A couple of swing videos of my daughter
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- May 13, 2008
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Examine, then, this clip of Pujols...
Tell me what is happening with his hands between the time he gets to toe touch and heel plant. Particularly between frames 5 to 8. Are his hands moving forward as he strides? How is this, aside from pitch location, fundamentally different from Bustos?
Tell me what is happening with his hands between the time he gets to toe touch and heel plant. Particularly between frames 5 to 8. Are his hands moving forward as he strides? How is this, aside from pitch location, fundamentally different from Bustos?
- Oct 12, 2009
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Examine, then, this clip of Pujols...
Tell me what is happening with his hands between the time he gets to toe touch and heel plant. Particularly between frames 5 to 8. Are his hands moving forward as he strides? How is this, aside from pitch location, fundamentally different from Bustos?
Up through Frame 10 Pujols' hands are connected to and moving with his back shoulder.
The hinge angle also doesn't change.
The towel drill that's shown can promote maintaining the hinge angle and not activating the hands too soon, and that IMO is a good thing, especially at the start of the season or when a hitter is trying to convert over from a more hands-y approach.
P.S. It's really hard to say anything definitive about what Bustos' hands and bat are doing in that clip due to all of the blurring, which is why I don't trust clips like that. They leave too much to the imagination. That then allows people to project pretty much any idea about hitting onto them. If you want to talk about what a good FPS player's hands do when during the swing, let's use this clip as the basis for that discussion.
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Frames 8 through 17 is what I am tying to reenforce with my daughter. Frames 1 through 7 looks to me more. Result of this young ladies personal style, but by frame 8 her hand is just back of the shoulder and she is doing a slight turn back with her shoulder and then the swing happens. Through the swing her hand seems to stay near that same position relative to her shoulder until she releases for contact. That is what I amtrying to emulate by using th towel. 8 to 17.
- May 13, 2008
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I'm not at home where I have the tools to illustrate this, but compare the hands and hips for Pujols and where they are in space. The hands, starting at frame 5, barely move while the hips move forward.
- Oct 12, 2009
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Frame 17 is the critical frame IMO.
Many players can get to and start out in that position. However, in too many cases, like my own son in the past, in the equivalent frame the hinge angle is starting to open up and the bat is much farther away from the shoulder than in this clip.
- Oct 12, 2009
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Not really.
Pujols isn't a good example of walking away from the hands. He sets the angle of his front elbow and then holds it.
Hanley Ramirez is a much better example of walking away from his hands. He starts out with his elbow flexed 90 or so degrees and then extends it as he walks away from his hands.
However, in my opinion and experience you have to be REALLY careful with the idea of walking away from the hands because it's easy to take it too far, lock out and bar the front arm, lose your adjustability, and create a hole over the inner 1/3 of the plate. This is particularly true of younger players who may not have the strength to manage the forces that are created by walking away from the hands.
I prefer that hitters always keep some bend in their front elbow as Pujols does.
- May 13, 2008
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I never really mentioned walking away from the hands. I agree that a locked out, barred arm is bad, and it isn't what I'm getting at. Maybe these attached pics will help my explanation...
I have bisected the knob of the bat and the front of the shoulder to illustrate the difference.
I have bisected the knob of the bat and the front of the shoulder to illustrate the difference.
Attachments
- Oct 12, 2009
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That to me looks like scapular action and adduction of the front upper arm.
I don't see the angle of the front elbow change.
In many cases, when hitters walk away from the hands what you see is more than just scapular action.
I spent a considerable amount of time last night viewing my daughters videos in slow motion. I see three things I want to work on right off the bat )(pardon the pun).
1st of all, she is lifting her front foot and setting it right back down with an almost straightish leg and a flat foot when she starts her swing.
2nd, she isn't loading up good, getting that negative movement. (probably why you all say to lose the towel).
3rd, she is pushing her front hip out of the way and back. I think I can work on the 1st two, but how do I correct the last point? I need to man up and just quit letting her do live swings and start working from the ground up and fix what I can I think. She will hate me for it, but she has too many swing flaws to just try and use constraints to correct while she swings at balls off a Tee.
1st of all, she is lifting her front foot and setting it right back down with an almost straightish leg and a flat foot when she starts her swing.
2nd, she isn't loading up good, getting that negative movement. (probably why you all say to lose the towel).
3rd, she is pushing her front hip out of the way and back. I think I can work on the 1st two, but how do I correct the last point? I need to man up and just quit letting her do live swings and start working from the ground up and fix what I can I think. She will hate me for it, but she has too many swing flaws to just try and use constraints to correct while she swings at balls off a Tee.
