After separation

[soreshins]

12u girls get good separation with hands. 1-2 get to much. My question is what is the best drill or drills
after that. There is so much info here, it is hard to put together. I would like to see more with the lower half of the swing. I feel we use our hands a little to much. We teach "hands inside the ball" or "hit the inside seam". We use the reverse top hand to get good extension thru. I am probably asking a lot here but what would be the best 3-4 drills. Thanks in advance.

 

[Dragoncoach]

You might try a walk thru hitting tee drill or Howards face the fire drill to work on sepearation of upper and lower body. short to the ball, long thru the ball is a good cue when using these drills.

 

[kls_hittingacademy]

12u girls get good separation with hands.

When you say separation with hands are you talking about the hands moving away from the back shoulder toward the catcher?

 

[PEPPERS]

I've seen what your talking about, too much seperation where the upper body twist and the head/eyes are turned so much it is hard for the hitter to have a good two eyed look at the pitcher.

How I do it is in slow motion at first, the hands come back about two inches seperate from the front foot like a rubber band connected to the hands and front foot. It is a suttle move not a big move NO EXTREEMS!!!! When a hitter does well in slow motion drill then we do a full swing, tee work, soft toss, front toss and livepitching.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

When you say separation with hands are you talking about the hands moving away from the back shoulder toward the catcher?

I think he's talking about arm bar but I'm not sure.

 

[soreshins]

Chris is right on with what I was talking about. The bottom hand arm almost goes straight. Yes hands back to the catcher.

 

[ifubuildit]

Shins

Tell her to watch her front shoulder while she practices the move. Her front shoulder should come close to touching her chin. At that point she has pulled the bowstring, made the negative move, walked away from her hands, but more important she has loaded her shoulders to unload them during the swing. It is important to not counter rotate the shoulders and trap the hands behind the body or as another poster stated impair the vision of the ball. Move the hands straight back.

This should stop the arm bar.

Dana.

 

[Wellphyt]

12u girls get good separation with hands. 1-2 get to much. My question is what is the best drill or drills
after that. There is so much info here, it is hard to put together. I would like to see more with the lower half of the swing. I feel we use our hands a little to much. We teach "hands inside the ball" or "hit the inside seam". We use the reverse top hand to get good extension thru. I am probably asking a lot here but what would be the best 3-4 drills. Thanks in advance.

IMO, the best drill is the one that you the instructor comes up with to communicate what you want to teach. My experience has been that in almost every instance, cookie cutter drills are not the answer. In fact many times an over reliance on drills causes issues of their own.

Lets take the issue you are having with some of your girls. What you call separation, I call stretch. The same stretch that I see occuring in a properly synced overhand throw. There is your first clue to fixing the problem you are seeing with some of your girls.

When you throw overhand how does your throwing arm go back? Specifically what does your upper arm (humerus) do? Remember the adage "what loads, unloads". Do you really want your girls to move their hands straight back? If they load their hands straight back, the odds are that they will bring them straight forward, meaning their back elbow will simply adduct to slot. Is this what you see elite hitters doing? Do you see elite hitters moving their hands straight back and then dragging the bat straight forward. Caution...do not let shoulder rotation camouflage what is really happening with the hands.

Instead of creating a vision for your girls of the hands loading back, perhaps a better vision would be one where the hands are "cocked" by slightly internally rotating the back upper arm. Similar to how it works in the overhand throw. Be careful with the "bow" analogy. Do you want your girls pulling the bowstring straight back towards the catcher? Or, do you want them pulling the bowstring more in the direction that would poke the elbow out from behind their back. Two totally different loading patterns.

Of the two, which way of loading the hands would help keep the girl's hands from getting outisde of their back foot as they loaded their hands? Can you see how keeping the hands from getting outside of the back foot during the stride would prevent arm bar?

What does walking away from the hands really mean? Does it mean moving the hands straight back towards the catcher during the stride? Or, does it mean, keep the hands connected to the back shoulder during the stride? IOW, does it simply mean "keep the hands back", or put another way; "don't escort the bat forward during the stride".

In my experience, if the kids don't have a correct vision in their head of the proper sequence; drills are of limited use.

I would keep weeding through the info and piecing stuff together until your understanding of the swing gets to the point where you can communicate to the girls what you need them to do, in your own unique way. Learn it, and make it your own.

 

[Dragoncoach]

You might try this, stand behind them. when they stride grab ahold of their hands and push them back towards the catcher and slightly up, and cock the bat for them all at the same time (get knob facing toward catcher). You may have to fight them for a while to get them to sepearate, but soon they should be able to do this on their own.

 

[Wellphyt]

Here is a good example of how the overhand throw motion can be adopted to hitting. Check out what Slaught says and does at about the 1:02 mark. Notice how he is holding the bat with just his back hand. What if you were to get a small 25 inch 15 ounce tee-ball bat and have the girls do this? You may even have them literally throw the bat through the air. If done correctly the bat will fly over where the pitcher would be standing, like a helicopter blade. If the bat pin-wheels instead, then you know that their rear elbow is not getting down correctly.

If the girls throw the bat correctly, the lower body will automatically do what it needs to do to assist the hands. Try it yourself and you will see that your hips naturally get out in front to power the throw. As Slaught mentions, the throw is more of a sidearm throw. My experience is that the bicep to forearm pinch will naturally tighten up when the lead hand is added to the mix (both hands holding the bat).