Alexis 12yrs

[Eric F]

For my DD- Note the slight "drop" at 2-3 seconds. The major problem though is its all too late and she has to quickly drop her foot and swing instead of a more smoother movement pattern and does not generate as much force forward as she could and not driving through the ball. So a ball like this which flew to mid RCF , would be possibly hit to deep RCF gap.

Thank you for your kind words about Maddie.

A thought for your DD..."Ball in the air, foot in the air". In other words, when the pitcher releases the ball, she should be picking up her foot for her forward move. Don't get the foot down early. Get it down at the right time. Control the move with the rear leg.

 

[Cornbread]

Thank you for your kind words about Maddie.

A thought for your Alexis..."Ball in the air, foot in the air". In other words, when the pitcher releases the ball, she should be picking up her foot for her forward move. Don't get the foot down early - get it down at the right time. Control the move with the rear leg. This needs to happen on every pitch. This will also significantly change the tempo of her pre-launch sequence significantly, and it's going to take some time getting used to a new approach.

Maddie has a great swing obviously. She’s a very gifted athlete with a pretty decent dad to help hitting

Maddie has good timing and that produces results. Most hitters have bad timing. I think that bad timing comes from the teaching of the gather. Maddie gathers and moves out-in BP and vs live pitching. Many hitters pipe it in front toss and can’t hit live. This is the reason why imo. If I were coaching Maddie I’d put her in the 3 hole and say go get’em. Nothing else

 

[Eric F]

Maddie has a great swing obviously. She’s a very gifted athlete with a pretty decent dad to help hitting

Maddie has good timing and that produces results. Most hitters have bad timing. I think that bad timing comes from the teaching of the gather. Maddie gathers and moves out-in BP and vs live pitching. Many hitters pipe it in front toss and can’t hit live. This is the reason why imo. If I were coaching Maddie I’d put her in the 3 hole and say go get’em. Nothing else

She doesn't listen to me - LOL. I pay @Mike-Coach Q to say the things I want to tell her...in addition to the great insight he has that goes well beyond my knowledge level. Maddie has done a ton of work on her swing over a lot of years, and has certainly had issues to sort out.

Maddie has had plenty of struggles with her timing, and it mostly relates to staying in control of her forward move. For Maddie, getting stacked on top of the rear hip is critical. If she gets forward of her hip, she's essentially falling to her front foot, and is then reliant on adjusting with her arms, which is not ideal, and she struggles. Maintaining the slow and early tempo, and working over and behind her rear hip is where the magic is (for her).

 

[Work=wins]

Does stay tall mean don't move your head backward? Load against your head while still loading that rear glute area. Would you say this action takes place as the leg is being lifted or before or depends....?

My observation is that it is one move. At least in the Trout and Betts example above. To be clear I can see how it is easy to lift my front leg especially if spread out and not load the glute/hamstrings properly. It appears to be one blended move.

yes. It’s one move. I don’t teach a stride. The gather picks up the stride. The glutes actually and resistance from the head. Think down into the ground when you gather, not back and forth. Do you see a stride or a gather and then a stride? When does the stride take place? After the gather?

 

[Work=wins]

 

[big_bruiser]

yes. It’s one move. I don’t teach a stride. The gather picks up the stride. The glutes actually and resistance from the head. Think down into the ground when you gather, not back and forth. Do you see a stride or a gather and then a stride? When does the stride take place? After the gather?

View attachment 21169

If I had to pick which happens first between picking the front leg up or loading into the ground it would have to be loading into the ground or the gather. Loading into the ground first makes it easy to pick up the front leg the right way. Here is Miggy gathering before his swing. He is not striding but you can see his front foot being lifted by the loading in the lead side oblique. Similar to you though I still see it as one move.

 

[Shawn]

But you don’t need to teach “go back to go forward”. The knee lift will shift the weight back for you.

It’s not about weight shift, it’s coiling from the toes to the head. Our muscular system is spirally formed like our galaxy. God loves spirals.

 

[Work=wins]

Last 3 gifs. Please note the legs and what they’re doing or not doing.

 

[Cornbread]

So y’all see a load into the ground resulting in the front heel coming off the ground. I see it as the front heel coming up creating the gather. If you read this board everyone teaches some kind of gather. I have too. My experience is that teaching a gather can get you in the weeds quickly and create timing issues. I know slow and early. For the dads on this board that have timing issues I’m offering a slightly different solution. The gather and the front heel coming up happen simultaneously for many of the best hitters and I’ve had success teaching it. If you can get them to gather and go and be on time, that’s great. If they are late try what I suggest and see if it helps.

 

[clemenslee1]

So y’all see a load into the ground resulting in the front heel coming off the ground. I see it as the front heel coming up creating the gather. If you read this board everyone teaches some kind of gather. I have too. My experience is that teaching a gather can get you in the weeds quickly and create timing issues. I know slow and early. For the dads on this board that have timing issues I’m offering a slightly different solution. The gather and the front heel coming up happen simultaneously for many of the best hitters and I’ve had success teaching it. If you can get them to gather and go and be on time, that’s great. If they are late try what I suggest and see if it helps.

I'm only speaking about younger players, but many that are taught gather associate that as a rearward negative move, in which they then push to go forward. Often times this leads to issues of lunging etc. What happens, a coach says quit lunging, stay back. So what does the player do, gathers rearward, and gets stuck there. I think teaching them a move from the middle initiated by a north/south action (Can be starting with the front hip for ex.) is a better solution. Will they have a rearward move, Maybe. But they will have better control of it because it will be against the rear hip leg instead of on the rear hip/leg. All just IMO

***Additionally, with younger players, they have a rough time knowing how to control their "Power Meter" if you will. Meaning they don't have a sense of in between. The switch is either on or off. So lets say their meter is a scale of 1-10, they are at a 10 from the get go. Which causes loads of problems. Instead of moving out controlled at a 3-5 and once leveraged turn it on to a 10. All these things including above create timing issues.