Another Dad looking for swing analysis and some hitting advice

[Chance42]

I've been lurking for several months now, absorbing all of the great information and advice in these forums. I'm at a point where I need some additional sets of eyes to help me get my daughter's swing to the next level.

A little background first. Maybe it isn't relevant, short version of questions and video clips are down below if not . This is 15yo DD's first season of TB, on a 14U B-level team (she just turned 15 in May, so will age out of 14U after this season). Last year, she was on a C-level league-play team, and prior to that played rec softball and tee-ball, going back to when she was four years old. She has always been an excellent contact hitter. Last year, season average was .625, highest average and OBP on the team, leadoff hitter, etc. She had trouble during the batting portion of tryouts with several teams because everyone used pitching machines. She was able to hit live pitchers with no problems, but couldn't hit a machine to save her life. Finally, she made a team on her speed and fielding abilities.

New coach immediately spends the winter working on her batting. Altered her swing and batting footwork noticeably. She can now hit the heck out of a pitching machine. However, it became apparent during the first live scrimmages and tournament games that she could no longer hit against a live pitcher. She just couldn't make contact, she was always just above or just below the ball, and had no power in the rare instances when she did make contact. Coach basically moved on to all-fielding practices once the weather warmed up, and left her to fend for herself. I went online, found this site, and have been working with her to try and improve her swing the rest of the way.

We've made progress; she is consistently making contact now, lots of foul balls and a fair amount of weak grounders and slow/low line drives that are easily fielded. Average is ugly, hovering around .190 after 30+ games. Coach always wants her to bunt because he doesn't trust her batting, and although her bunts are beautiful when she can lay them down, it is still a 1-in-4 probability against the improved pitching she sees, and she often finds herself with two failed bunt attempts for strikes, having only one strike left to actually swing away on. She has typically been an adjusting hitter, and will give up a couple of strikes while zoning in on the pitches, then hits the next one. Now, she can rarely do that because coach nearly always wants her to try a couple of bunt attempts first.

So, at this point I have two questions:

1. Any advice for improving her ability to make quality contact when she only has one strike left to work with?

2. Are there any other elements of her swing that need to be addressed, hopefully with an eye towards getting the additional power she needs to get the ball past the infielders?

I've taped a tee hit in full and slow motion, and a front toss hit in full and slow motion. Since I made these last Friday, I've been doing additional work on getting her to fire her hips ahead of her shoulders to a greater degree, but she hasn't made quality contact in the two games she has played since then, so I am unable to judge the results just yet. Any advice will be greatly appreciated! It looks like I can do one video per post, so I'll add the others in additional replies.

 

[Chance42]

 

[Chance42]

 

[Chance42]

 

[MountieSB]

Welcome, Chance42! Here is what I see from her swing:

Your daughter really pushes with her back hip and swings with her arms (with level shoulders) into contact. You can see her body drift forward - her shoulders get out in front of her center of gravity. She's really trying to generate power, but it's an inefficient way to do so. This kind of swing leads to lots of ground balls, which at the high school/16U level means outs. Because she's fast and has a good glove, you want her to be dangerous in the batter's box as well.

Here's what I would recommend: Check out this thread from a dad who posted yesterday, and read the suggestions from rdbass's first post (with the Cabrera clip in it). That's where she needs to start. She doesn't get any stretch after her load. She strides (versus "falls") and her back elbow starts to slot (move forward). She wants to get stronger when she strides/falls, and to do that she needs to stretch/load the hands as she strides. Some people call it "walking away from the hands" and some people call it "creating a corner". See which cue works for your daughter, but get her to do it. She also needs to load by coiling into her back hip and holding that coil through her stride/fall.

After that, I would have her work on turning the triangle. Imagine a triangle that is created by the hands and arms: the top of the triangle is the hands, the two forearms are the sides of the triangle, and the space between the bottom of the elbows is the base. That triangle needs to be shown to the catcher during the loading of the hands (see above paragraph), and then turned, with the hands acting as the pivot point, to be shown to the pitcher. She can only do this if she laterally tilts her shoulders into contact. That tilt is created by her front-side obliques "pulling" her back side around. In the videos of your daughter, she wants to push with her back side, rather than pull with her front side. That pulling creates a lot of power because that is a really large muscle group doing the work. Take a look at rdbass's GIF in post #10 in that thread and have your daughter do this as a drill (the "Noontime Drill #2" as I refer to it). Work on a lot of deep tee work to get her to feel hitting the ball deeper.

The last thing I would look at is keeping her shoulders behind her hips through contact, rather than allow them to drift over her front side. I call it a "power line" that runs from her front foot to her shoulders in this fashion \. Her shoulders should be behind her hips which should be behind her knees which should be behind her feet. When she fires from this position, she'll see an immediate increase in power.

It sounds like her confidence is shaken a bit, but she should see this as an opportunity to get better! If she works on these things and studies what is in that thread, she'll get better, and that will improve her confidence. Good luck and keep us posted by posting her progress. She can do it!

Mike

 

[softballphreak]

For starters, see recent post #11, jbooth image: http://www.discussfastpitch.com/sof...93-looking-advice-see-video-2.html#post178463

She is doing a LOT wrong with her hands/arms. Bat drag, level swing, etc.

 

[MountieSB]

For starters, see recent post #11, jbooth image: http://www.discussfastpitch.com/sof...93-looking-advice-see-video-2.html#post178463

She is doing a LOT wrong with her hands/arms. Bat drag, level swing, etc.

What he said!

 

[softballphreak]

What he said!

Actually, what YOU said! I didn't see your post until much later. VERY good advice!

 

[rdbass]

FFS suggestion to my DD:
This alone ... the transition from 'stance' to 'launch' ... is something worth practicing nightly for 10-min/night for 2wks. Can't emphasize enough how getting this portion perfected can lead to a healthy repeatable swing.

Extra brownie points if you can arrive at the launch position with the shoulders angled downward.

Do you see how Cabrera turns his lead leg in during the beginning of the transition ... what Ted Williams referred to as a front knee cock ... that is something that I treasure in a swing ... and for me, I treat it as an absolute. That action is semi-present in Laura's swing ... but could be improved. It's almost as if she wants to perform a front knee cock, but doesn't know about it. When you have this lead knee cocking action ... then you will better understand what people mean by "lead side resistance" ... by "falling forward" ... by "leaning into it".

See how Cabrera brings his hands back in a BHUT like motion (Bottom Hand passing Under the Top hand). Your daughter is more BHAT (Bottom Hand Around Top hand). Changing this alone would go a long way towards correcting the excessive ELAE.

 

[Chance42]

Thanks a bunch for the advice, everyone, I really appreciate it! Especially you, Mike, that was a great explanation of some terms and concepts I had seen thrown around in other threads, but which I didn't really have the background to understand or visualize. It's a lot easier to communicate problems and solutions when working from a common vocabulary, and the light bulb has definitely gone on now.

We'll start chipping away at these points, and I'll post back once she's had a chance to commit some of these changes to muscle memory.