Analyze DD's swing

[Chris O'Leary]

One reason she drops her hands at first is because she starts out in such a funky position. I would just start her hands and bat in plane with her front arm.

I would also improve her posture.

 

[Eric]

I don't like the back elbow, either. In what way would you improve her posture?
You're right about her starting her swing before heel plant.
I'm open to all opinions and suggestions

 

[Mark H]

Suggestions. First dump the instructor. Second, compare everything any of us or any instructor or anyone else tells you about hitting to slow motion video of elite hitters. Third, leave her alone for a little while and study like crazy. Or find a good instructor. Or get Englishbey's stuff, Yeager's stuff, Right View or even Epstein's stuff and follow it. All of those would be a huge improvement over what she is being taught. Compare your daughter's swings to these swings and tell us what you see. Siggy's Hitting Clips - ImageEvent


Some good posts in this thread. Don't get in a hurry. The poster who said it's not that complicated is right. The difficult part is seeing what is there through the curtain of your current understanding. You have enough time. Get with it though.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

Have her watch this clip 100 times (seriously) and absorb it and then try to do it.

Repeat.

 

[mrslug01]

One of the things I see some hitting instructors do in softball is teach the girls to start with the hands above the shoulder to hit the rise. We had one in our area doing that. It caused my daughter to do the same thing your daughter is doing with her hands. I stopped using the instructor and learned alot online. O'leary's site was one of the best I found. Also use the siggy slips that are referenced alot. You can learn alot from them. With that and video analysis software you can work on copying good swings like above or Crystal Bustos. This is a clip of my daughter after a year of work with the websites and analysis. YouTube - courtlinedrive nationals.avi. Her hands tend to be a bit higher now than in this clip but she has better posture now, 2 years later, and can start a bit higher. But I would drop your daughter's down to shoulder level and teach her the concept of tilt which she's not using at all in clip 3 to get the low outside pitch. I look at my daughter's clip it looks similar to above. Short stride, same negative load.

Chris, I have to give you alot of credit. I've been on your site for 3 or 4 years now and it helped alot. My DD just received a DII scholarship to play OF in big part because of her bat.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

One of the things I see some hitting instructors do in softball is teach the girls to start with the hands above the shoulder to hit the rise. We had one in our area doing that. It caused my daughter to do the same thing your daughter is doing with her hands.

The high hands thing makes sense in the abstract, but it doesn't work in practice. I've never seen a bat rotate in a plane above the shoulders.

I'm a baseball guy and am still learning how to deal with the riseball, but my current thinking, as with high hard stuff at the top of the strike zone in baseball, is to try to recognize it and lay off of it.

But I would drop your daughter's down to shoulder level and teach her the concept of tilt which she's not using at all in clip 3 to get the low outside pitch.

Agreed.

She's appears to only be adjusting with her arms in the 3rd clip.

Chris, I have to give you alot of credit. I've been on your site for 3 or 4 years now and it helped alot. My DD just received a DII scholarship to play OF in big part because of her bat.

Can I quote you on this? ;-)

 

[mrslug01]

Can I quote you on this? ;-)

Certainly. Now I hope I can learn as much from the pitching site because my 13 year old pitches and hits and they give pitchers even more money lol

 

[Mark H]

Looks like a good athlete making an adjustment to an inside pitch? What does she look like on something down in the zone? That would be interesting.

 

[mrslug01]

My DD love it inside and middle up. It's very hard to get speed by her. But I've taught her that once the pitcher finds your weakness they'll use it. And she knows when she hits college, she'll face the same pitchers alot so they will know her as well as she knows them. She can take outside stuff to the Right side gap. She's not a big fan of the drop but will either foul it off or bang it through the IF. When I work with her now, that's what we work on. I do drop drills with her alot. We set up the Juggs lite flite throwing sliders to various spots. I also have a bunch of old lite flight balls that come in slower than new ones. So they are like change ups. Gives her a chance to foul them off. Hitting old dirty baseball size balls in a dark basement all winter certainly helps when we get outside again lol.

 

[Hitter]

Thanks for the input, if anyone else has some good info or tips, I would appreciate it. Her first movement is dropping the hands. I know the first pitch was inside, second was middle of plate, and the 3rd pitch was low. I have been trying to get her to uncock the hands later. To get more bat speed, shorter swing. More pop.
She just turned 14, has a cannon for an arm. She just needs to improve her swing, a lot.

Any suggestions?

Eric we teach throwing before we teach hitting...your statement" has a cannon for an arm." Without telling her please video her throwing. What I look for is when she steps does she land on the front foot on the ball of the foot slightly flexed with her nose over her toes, chest forward and does the back leg release forward and come around? It has been my experience if there is not a good weight transfer in the touch toe touch phase for hitting they are not good throwers either especially when you do not see the back leg release. If she throws well and has a good weight shift you need a new instructor for hitting as he or she is not communicating what she should feel.

I see no separation as as she goes to toe touch and very little movement of her hips which is an indication of lack of weight shift. As when we throw we separate our hands slightly or walk away from the hands and that is your choice of what you see to build momentum to throw and separation for hitting. We use a half full water bottle and lay it horizontally in our hand and the hitter puts their hand under ours. I make the water shift and they can feel it and then I ask them to do it. Then I point to their hips and say the water is here and by stepping on the inside edge of her lead foot on a bent flexed, knee she should feel that flowing movement.

Next get a piece of 1/2 inch diameter rope and stand behind her like a catcher not behind her back and have her set up as if to hit. Think slow to load and soft to step on a flexed front knee and separate the hands rearward slightly and direct the elbows straight back. Make sure the hands are away from the shoulders and not in too close. I use the width of the hand plus extending the thumb as a general guide. Now put a little tension on the rope and ask her to start her swing SLOWLY! Look for where her hands went, over the plate or inside the path of the ball. Did the elbows work as a unit or did the back elbow get ahead of the hands. We try to get them to think the elbows, lead elbow takes a direction of forward and up like it is going up a ramp. The back elbow comes down with the hand stacked directly over the elbow or what we term staying strong on the backside side. As the elbows begin their movement we are look to see if her tilt and turn are out of sequence. If she just moved her elbows forward without turning this would be an indication the hands and elbows were too linear. She should feel what it is like to be in this powerful pulling position which in my mind is what bag lag should feel like. We make sure they understand the elbow clears the body and too keep the elbow away from the hip and not against it. When have her pull on the rope ask her to put the elbow in closer and see if YOU feel the difference in her ability to pull on the rope. Now do it again with it further away and she is stronger. This is another key point with females as going through puberty they gain more upper body mass and the elbow must clear more than with males.

For hitting we try to make it sequential...measure off from home plate, stance width, we use a one to two inch open stance, get a good two eyed look, bend at the waist and soften the knees in that sequence. For me posture is not balance, posture is what balance looks like. Ask a kid to get postured and see what kind of look you get. We start off with the top of the top hand at the top of the shoulders and no higher than the ear hole in the helmet and tap the back of our helmet with the pony tail is normally worn, coming out of the back of the helmet and this sets our bat angle of about 45 degrees. Lead elbow is down and the back elbow is away and not up at shoulder level height. We say the elbow is away and not up or down as it must be away to come down as the back elbow begins to lower or slot. If it is down already how can it come down more?

I hope this is not too much information however she needs to see it, feel it and then work on fixing it.

Howard