Check Abby's Swing

[cshilt]

Thank you for taking the time to view the videos and comment. No, she didn't have a load in those videos, but I don't recall anyone explaining to her what a load was--I'm just beginning to learn swing mechanics. They'd just tell her to load up. Now since she has been seeing a coach, she does load but I'm not sure if the bat lag is cured. I'll video tape here tonight in a cage and see if anything is different. What got me to think about sharing these videos and asking for comments was the "elbow leading the hands" thread. Does it look like her elbow is leading the hands in the third video?

Yes. She is dragging the bat in all three swings. It wouldn't surprise me if she has been taught to "swing level" or given that as a cue for hitting. She is dropping the bat down and pulling it around her body, essentially "dragging" it through the hitting zone. What you'll see is a lot of popups, grounders, and third base foul balls with this type of swing. I would pitch her inside, up and in, and she'd have an extremely hard time putting a ball into play in fair territory.

Anyway, back foot usually doesn't come up--I've never seen it do that. I did read the Megan 1-tee--great kid btw--and will use what I can. We did start the front one hand swing lately. We'll try the reverse back hand and see what happens.

If you look she is doing it in the second swing as well. I wouldn't worry about that one bit. IMO it is a good thing. What you don't want is the rear foot action in the first video. We'll cut her some slack, however, as the pitch location may have had some influence on that.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

In a nutshell … your daughter is using an improper swing sequence. Her upper body is static and not synchronized with the lower body.

Recommend addressing the swing sequence first.

This link discusses the swing sequence.

 

[CPSBDad]

I appreciate all the suggestions. I'll go over Megan's 1 t thread again.

This video was from lastnight. About three and half months since the third video. dark corner of the gym so it's kind of dim and you'll see some blur from slow shutter speed ( I use a Panasonic ZS7 camera that shoots AVCHD ). One last thing--she went in the cage after some HS girls were in there and they didn't turn the speed down for her.

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[cshilt]

Right now she seems to be swinging with her upper body. There is no weight shift, no coil. She is presetting the weight shift in her stance by shifting the majority of her weight on the back leg and then initiating the swing by dropping her hands and the bat.

 

[cshilt]

Start with the stance. The feet should be approximately shoulder width apart. The toes should be set so that she is pigeon-toed so she can get the weight on the inside of both feet. She won't be able to drive off of the backside as effectively if her feet are splayed like they are in this video. Think about a good fielding stance and go from there.

 

[crankermo]

The biggest thing I would do is work from the groung up and not worry about the ball. With my DD we pretty much started all over one piece at a time without a ball. Once you get the lower half working corrrectly alot of the upper half stuff comes together. Now the action of hands and the lead arm were the hardest part for Brooke but she's finally gotten it also.

The ball has a tendency to "freak" out the hitter and they totally forget about what they need to do and just swing. Take your time, listen and try what posters on here say and remove the ball until you and her feel she's ready. Patience is very important for both of you. It's been roughly a year since I first posted on here and started tweaking Brooke's swing. She had really good results last year but her swing is alot better going into this year and she's as excited as I've ever seen her. She's creating alot of buzz and the work she's done is paying off.

 

[Wellphyt]

This young lady has a very common fastpitch swing. She drops her hands and then swings. I call it "slot then swing" because it is basically a two part swing where the back elbow is slotted by dropping the hands and then the swing is initiated from there.

A hitter with this type swing can hit it to the fence when they hit a pitch square. A swing with this much bat drag is very powerful. The problem is that it is a very long and disconnected swing. Lots of pop ups and oppo side weak grounders. Little adjustability. Easily over powered by good pitchers.

This is yet another hitter that would benefit from being shown how to get the bat started correctly and learning a good sequence. I would probably start by putting the bat down and working on the overhand throw sequence. I would also isolate and teach the hand flattening action.

Click on this image to get a rough idea of how the barrel paths differ.

 

[dbias]

For Abby

Look at just the arms at set up. See how the lead arm is kinda down and relaxed.

I back arm is up. It does not have to be level up, but up close to this position.

Just arm setup will help her swing. Her back arm is low, so it slots very fast and promotes the bat drag you see.

If her arm is more up / other things will happen first.


Straightleg

I think the area to most improve on right here is the back arm/elbow. Seems she is casting the bat toward first base instead of straight back to pitcher and this motion is pulling her back elbow away from her ribcage allowing it to move forward toward the other elbow and may even be passing her hands a bit.... taking a bit of power from the palm up/palm down point of impact.

 

[straightleg]

Any new video of her back arm being up more?

Straightleg

 

[batspeed]

She looks like a pretty good young hitter. I would move her to a more stronger starting position. I would have her back elbow up a little to make it easier to get seperation fro her body. For me I really try to get my girls to use their backsides after their negative move to a strong positive position. By backside I mean back hip back elbow. If she were to start in a stronger position, and add a good negative and positve move that would allow her to rotate within her body without having to come out of a good hitting position. I hope this makes sense not always good at putting what I am trying to say into written word.