Critique DD’s swing

[Rich B]

Her swing isn't "ugly" at all.

A few things to work on but the major one is that IMO she doesn't finish her swing well... she rolls over too soon and her front shoulder flies out early... these are the reason IMO she is probably out front and my guess is that she is struggling with off-speed and outside pitches. I would be working on these things with tee work on an outfront tee and an outside tee.

Other than that I see little things that need some tweaking ... lower half could be more involved and hands drop some.

In reality, I think that with some work she is well on her way to having a great swing.

Why would you tell a kid that's out front to work out front T drills?

Just curious

 

[4 girl's dad]

Folks, take note that this pitch is fairly high in the zone.

To your point, her HR’s have been high in the zone. With low pitches, she breaks down even more.

Remember everyone, we are working with a 12 yr old still learning how to control her body mechanics. We have been talking lately about using her back and glutes but I dont want her over thinking at the plate. (And she says she doesn’t think about it when at the plate). So we are trying to create long lasting muscle memory.

 

[4 girl's dad]

On the hands dropping issue, that has been an ongoing problem since the beginning and why she starts her hand s back. When she starts middle and pulls back, she drops more. Hands starting back is just a band aid for that issue.


Thanks for all of the replies so far. Good stuff

 

[Shawn]

 

[Mudders Brudder]

Watch the supination talk. That can lead to a major flat bat issue

The thing she needs to do is make sure the hands are torqueing the barrel as the elbow is adducting. AT THE SAME TIME

Simply saying supinate is an issue.

I do agree with the poster here but Im simply trying to expand his analysis to be clear

Some would say that the supination of the forearm causes the effect of adduction to the elbow...and that you don't want to have a hitter thinking about adducting the elbow, as most developing hitters do that already to lower the barrel into the swing path, thus throwing off the proper sequencing of the swing.

I would agree that "simply saying supinate" the top hand or forearms is probably not going to translate well to a young hitter, but I would hope that there is more instruction/teaching that goes along with that from the coach working with the hitter, and that is not just a shortened version of the instruction that's often presented here to folks that should already understand the concept(s), just for the fact that they've been discussed in every conceivable way, shape, and form for quite some time now.

JMO...YMMV.

 

[WARRIORMIKE]

click bait!! LOL

 

[rdbass]

I don't want to say that this hitter has an 'elbow pivot point'. I don't want to say it's rear elbow slots then swings. Fix the rear elbow and have the swing slot the rear elbow.
Have a 'Kentucky stretch' going on in the front leg there......

 

[4 girl's dad]

I don't want to say that this hitter has an 'elbow pivot point'. I don't want to say it's rear elbow slots then swings. Fix the rear elbow and have the swing slot the rear elbow.
Have a 'Kentucky stretch' going on in the front leg there......

Def agree with both points and they have been discussed AT LENGTH!! Breaking that muscle memory tho...

 

[rdbass]

Didn't know this was your DD. I also don't want to unfairly compare her to Manny. Look at how he raises his rear elbow but still manages to turn the barrel by using his hands.

Also pay attention to how his rear side 'opens' the front side.

 

[Mudders Brudder]

On the hands dropping issue, that has been an ongoing problem since the beginning and why she starts her hand s back. When she starts middle and pulls back, she drops more. Hands starting back is just a band aid for that issue.

Couple things that might have already been pointed out (I have read the whole thread...my apologies up front if I repeating as a result), but too much rear arm action w/o using/taking the hands with it, has a tendency to start tall, scrunch, and then straighten up again...both of which I believe is causing the hand action (or improper action there of) that you're seeing.

So what I'm seeing with her "tall-scrunch-tall" style is that she starts in a good position hands to body wise in her stance, but then scrunches/lowers taking her hands down with her, and moving her rear elbow upwards thinking thats going to compensate for that (it doesn't), and than rises up to the "tall" position again, but forgets to raise her now lowered hands with her. This in essence disconnects her hand from her body, and she basically becomes an "arm/shoulder swinger", using mostly her upper half to swing the bat to the ball (armsy push), and doesn't use a fairly decent lower half coil that she'd created earlier.

I'd talk with her wrt to this, focus/work on "staying tall", and use a "high tee" set up at thte very top of her "standing tall" zone to keep the hands/bat/barrel up...basically forcing her to turn the barrel early from that "taller" position as the only way she's going to be able to "stay on top" of the ball, and still hit line drives over the infielders heads (goal, but obviously no infielders there to do so, so just a guesstimation on where it looks like it would have gone).

As you progress, you can lower the tee, but still have her work from that taller positioning, and adjust to the lower locations of the ball with her lower half, and hands...but still maintaining that "taller" upright position in her upper half. Mookie Betts currently is a good example of someone you might want to show her as an example of all of this...he's about as "upright" of a hitter that I can think of at the moment (I'm sure others can think of additional players that fit that bill)...

...any lowering Mookie does is to the ball with his lower half, and doesn't lower before that, only to raise later in his swing progression.

This hitter in this swing I think is another decent example...

...any lowering he's doing is with his lower half, while he "stays tall" with the upper.

Now compare your DD to those, and see if what I'm seeing makes sense, or is just a lot of worthless babble...

...watch her body "scrunch", and head lower while she's loading (compare to the top fence bar in the background), and then raising back up before her barrel starts coming around to the ball.


Hope that helps a little,
MB