Alexis 12yrs

[Work=wins]

This is a bit deeper than you might want to go.. but The early planing that Alexis is doing is why the barrel isn’t accelerating at go. It appears that she has been taught to get the bat ‘on plane’ early.... horrible cue imo. Almost always leads to a ‘push’. It should be get the bat on plane ‘deep’.

what really should be happening is the barrel/hands/arms should be kept out of plane so segmenting or sequencing of the upper can happen. It tightens the springs of the upper body and will help create better whip. The lower has more time to leverage and create more separation with the core as well.

a simple cue of ‘keep the barrel vertical longer’ or don’t plane the pitch until as late as possible should help. Your dd has a flatter bat set so it should work more back towards her head during the forward move. Not a cue just a result; Keeping the barrel ‘closed’ longer. A simple hand cock down can give the body more time to stretch as well. Some call it tip and rip. Personally I like a modified ‘halfway home’ drill. To each his own.

sorry, I lost track of your thread the last week or so.

 

[Quigs10]

Ok, haven't had any games since before xmas but finally started playing again. So, Alexis doesn't do it on every hit or impact, but as I've shown in the past she has a tendency to drop her hands and not completely drive through the ball upon impact. We've done various drills on finishing through impact, extension, trying to get more "coil" in preload, but here are a couple hits from this past weekend that demonstrate the loss of power (I think she is losing power) due to not continuing the bat path.

Part of me thinks it might be just lack of hand strength at 12 or that her bat (31/20) may be too light for harder pitching now and maybe slightly heavier bat will help upon impact. She hits the ball fairly deep, but doesn't seem to have the "HOLY shirt" bomb like power coming off the bat. if that makes sense. Could be also hitting the ball too out front and extended away from her body as well.

But as you see in one of the videos her bat literally ricochets straight up after impact. Thoughts on drills or ideas on why ? thx!

Both of these hits were balls away (one was up up and away) and she does go with the pitch, so that's good. But, her hands "dying" or dropping" is just something I'm hyper-focused on now when I see it.


WW- nah, I haven't really ever taught or even talked to her about getting "on plane early". Sometimes describing in those terms is confusing to me, let alone a 12 yr old. So, that could be happening physically, but hasn't been really learned or taught.



SloMo: (bat pops straight up)




SloMo:

 

[Strike2]

Ok, haven't had any games since before xmas but finally started playing again. So, Alexis doesn't do it on every hit or impact, but as I've shown in the past she has a tendency to drop her hands and not completely drive through the ball upon impact. We've done various drills on finishing through impact, extension, trying to get more "coil" in preload, but here are a couple hits from this past weekend that demonstrate the loss of power (I think she is losing power) due to not continuing the bat path.

Part of me thinks it might be just lack of hand strength at 12 or that her bat (31/20) may be too light for harder pitching now and maybe slightly heavier bat will help upon impact. She hits the ball fairly deep, but doesn't seem to have the "HOLY shirt" bomb like power coming off the bat. if that makes sense. Could be also hitting the ball too out front and extended away from her body as well.

But as you see in one of the videos her bat literally ricochets straight up after impact. Thoughts on drills or ideas on why ? thx!

Both of these hits were balls away (one was up up and away) and she does go with the pitch, so that's good. But, her hands "dying" or dropping" is just something I'm hyper-focused on now when I see it.

In the first video, I see a nice job hitting a pitch that looks high and a bit outside. I see some extension toward RF, and that bat movement after contact looks like her hands finally rolling over. I see a bit of barrel drop in the second video set, but I also see what looks to be an outside pitch sent to RF, which is where it should go. I also see what is, IMO, some unproductive movement in her hands at the load and perhaps a bit too much bat wrap around the head, which can lead to inconsistent swings and not getting the barrel around and "on plane" quickly enough.

Lack of drive through contact can be a strength issue and the bat's mass could also factor in. I'm not sure you're ever going to get many "HOLY shirt" bombs out of a 20 oz bat, but if she's getting the ball fairly deep on opposite field hits, that's not bad. If she can handle a 32/22, find one with good balance and see what happens.

Is she squared up at contact? Is she putting solid bat on the ball? Is she hitting the ball where it's pitched? If the answer is usually "yes", I'd say you're on the right track. I do use a one-handed bat drill off a tee, done from a knee, that forces DD to drive her hand through contact but, IMO, what happens after the ball leaves the bat ultimately isn't that important. DD's follow through sometimes isn't that pretty, but when she hits into the gap or over the fence, it's easy to look past it. I've got some great video of a HR swing into a stiff wind last season. In real time, the swing doesn't look that great to me, and it doesn't even look like she hit the ball square. However, at the moment of contact, her posture, barrel position, and weight transfer was perfect. Given the ~20 mph wind, it had to be.

FWIW, your DD's hitting style was very similar to mine at that age, and my kid wasn't hitting bombs at age 12 either. Most of the few girls I saw who could hit it out at that age ate their way out of the game before finishing HS.

Do you work with her yourself, or does she also see a hitting instructor? If not, I'd suggest finding someone well regarded and get his/her opinion during a lesson where a variety of pitches are seen. Another set of eyes can easily pick up things you don't, and may not be concerned about what worries you now. There's a lot of knowledge in these forums, but also a lot of different opinions and complex language that is useless when talking to a 12yo. If you can't describe what you're looking for in simple terms, it's fully worth it to pay someone who can.

 

[cnardone]

In the first video. Pause it and step through each frame with the < and > keys.

It looks to me like at contact the bat goes down and back. It then pops up as she pulls the bat through.

My dd started seeing a hitting instructor recently. Her first at-bat this winter, her bat did the same exact thing. I showed him the video and he told her she needs to drive with that top hand.

 

[clemenslee1]

Ok, haven't had any games since before xmas but finally started playing again. So, Alexis doesn't do it on every hit or impact, but as I've shown in the past she has a tendency to drop her hands and not completely drive through the ball upon impact. We've done various drills on finishing through impact, extension, trying to get more "coil" in preload, but here are a couple hits from this past weekend that demonstrate the loss of power (I think she is losing power) due to not continuing the bat path.

Part of me thinks it might be just lack of hand strength at 12 or that her bat (31/20) may be too light for harder pitching now and maybe slightly heavier bat will help upon impact. She hits the ball fairly deep, but doesn't seem to have the "HOLY shirt" bomb like power coming off the bat. if that makes sense. Could be also hitting the ball too out front and extended away from her body as well.

But as you see in one of the videos her bat literally ricochets straight up after impact. Thoughts on drills or ideas on why ? thx!

Both of these hits were balls away (one was up up and away) and she does go with the pitch, so that's good. But, her hands "dying" or dropping" is just something I'm hyper-focused on now when I see it.


WW- nah, I haven't really ever taught or even talked to her about getting "on plane early". Sometimes describing in those terms is confusing to me, let alone a 12 yr old. So, that could be happening physically, but hasn't been really learned or taught.



SloMo: (bat pops straight up)




SloMo:

I like how she waits for the first pop of the glove from the pitcher before getting everything going, That must help pretty well with her timing.

 

[_MIA_]

Ok, haven't had any games since before xmas but finally started playing again. So, Alexis doesn't do it on every hit or impact, but as I've shown in the past she has a tendency to drop her hands and not completely drive through the ball upon impact. We've done various drills on finishing through impact, extension, trying to get more "coil" in preload, but here are a couple hits from this past weekend that demonstrate the loss of power (I think she is losing power) due to not continuing the bat path.

Part of me thinks it might be just lack of hand strength at 12 or that her bat (31/20) may be too light for harder pitching now and maybe slightly heavier bat will help upon impact. She hits the ball fairly deep, but doesn't seem to have the "HOLY shirt" bomb like power coming off the bat. if that makes sense. Could be also hitting the ball too out front and extended away from her body as well.

But as you see in one of the videos her bat literally ricochets straight up after impact. Thoughts on drills or ideas on why ? thx!

Both of these hits were balls away (one was up up and away) and she does go with the pitch, so that's good. But, her hands "dying" or dropping" is just something I'm hyper-focused on now when I see it.


WW- nah, I haven't really ever taught or even talked to her about getting "on plane early". Sometimes describing in those terms is confusing to me, let alone a 12 yr old. So, that could be happening physically, but hasn't been really learned or taught.



SloMo: (bat pops straight up)




SloMo:

What does contact look like in regular front toss? I would keep working the sequencing drills mentioned previously in this thread. Right now it looks like her swing is too much arm-powered hence the lack of bat speed at contact and hence the recoil...

 

[Work=wins]

As Pattar said the swing looks rushed meaning that her timing is off. Rule of thumb for me is ‘forward on the release’. It universally works for most. Your dd gets
forward when the ball is halfway there. Too late imo.





tough to see the release but it’s there.

 

[Quigs10]

Yep, agree with the moving forward or getting "ready" too late. She does it very quickly and I'm working with her to move out more slowly, but begin sooner. I also think that in tee work and soft toss there is no recoil and her stride is usually longer and more forward than in games.

In games, like the two at bats here, she sometimes picks up the front foot and immediately puts it down without much forward stride. Not always, but it is evident in the two videos. Which, to me limits her forward "drive" and slows acceleration into the ball.

Agree on need to start movement sooner on windup, but slower and more controlled.
Agree on maybe more stride length forward with front foot. (Babe Ruth drill...which we do a lot already)
Agree on top hand driving or finishing through (drills to help with this?) top hand Bonds drill?

 

[Quigs10]

Strike2: "Is she squared up at contact? Yes, usually.
Is she putting solid bat on the ball? Yes, some miss hits off end being a bit early and cueing ball.
Is she hitting the ball where it's pitched? Yes, something she's always been pretty good with. She is usually up the middle or RCF. Not much a pull hitter. So sometimes inside on the hands jams her.
If the answer is usually "yes", I'd say you're on the right track. I do use a one-handed bat drill off a tee, done from a knee, that forces DD to drive her hand through contact but, IMO, what happens after the ball leaves the bat ultimately isn't that important."

Have a link to video of one hand drill? top hand or bottom? We've used both but have focused on top hand drills mostly past season.

thanks!

 

[Cornbread]

Goes back to “load” and stays back. That’s the timing issue. Then she’s rushed. Knee lift forward. Think load forward. Try to eliminate any rearward movement. Don’t pick the foot up and put it down in the same spot. Pick it up and move the belly button forward. Don’t teach any gather stuff.