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Oct 13, 2014
5,471
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South Cali
As I have stated before... hands plane the pitch. The barrel follows. A ‘level’ swing is what is sought after at the mlb level. That’s what ‘long through’ means. Every pro knows wherever the knob goes the barrel will follow. JD is referring to his top hand in this demo as the ‘plane matcher’. Why do you think that is?



Level.


Level.


 
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
As I have stated before... hands plane the pitch. The barrel follows. A ‘level’ swing is what is sought after at the mlb level. That’s what ‘long through’ means. Every pro knows wherever the knob goes the barrel will follow. JD is referring to his top hand in this demo as the ‘plane matcher’. Why do you think that is?



Level.


Level.




Ok, great. However, when you ask a young player to show you what level means, it's parallel to the ground. Good hitters do not swing the bat to make contact with their hands at the elevation of the ball, and the barrel parallel with the ground.
 
Oct 13, 2014
5,471
113
South Cali
Saw some improvements I think today. Seems to be turning the barrel. Any thoughts on a whole? It’s a work in progress. Baby steps.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Notice HOW Torres gathers. Notice the posture. Compare to your dd. I’m not saying she needs to do this exact thing. But her stride and hand load(scap retract) are out of sequence. Torres is pretty similar to the Trout gif I posted earlier.

 
Nov 8, 2018
774
63
Notice HOW Torres gathers. Notice the posture. Compare to your dd. I’m not saying she needs to do this exact thing. But her stride and hand load(scap retract) are out of sequence. Torres is pretty similar to the Trout gif I posted earlier.



So retract a little earlier. Good to know.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Oct 13, 2014
5,471
113
South Cali
So retract a little earlier. Good to know.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Actually later. She does it first. It should be done after the body gets going forward.

Torres gathers up. A slight lean forward with the body, then the scap retracts. My bad. It’s wasnt the best example to present. I’ll try to post another closer to your dds small stride style.

Added:


Hands release back after the forward move starts.
 
Last edited:
Oct 13, 2014
5,471
113
South Cali
Ok, great. However, when you ask a young player to show you what level means, it's parallel to the ground. Good hitters do not swing the bat to make contact with their hands at the elevation of the ball, and the barrel parallel with the ground.

Ok. Great. But you don’t leave planing a pitch to interpretation of a child do you?

If you explain that getting the hands on plane is what ‘level’ means. I think you will get the desired barrel path. No loops or circles. It will be direct and short.
 
Oct 13, 2014
5,471
113
South Cali
No loops or circles of what? The hands or the barrel? The barrel has to go from 2 feet above JD's head to his waist..I would think that barrel path would qualify as loop..no ;) ?


:sneaky:Glad quality control is around and in full force. I will restate... the ‘smallest loop’ possible. Thanks buddy.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
:sneaky:Glad quality control is around and in full force. I will restate... the ‘smallest loop’ possible. Thanks buddy.
You are welcome even though I deleted the post (again) because I figured it was unnecessary and everybody knew what you meant except me..thanks for the clarification though :)
 
Last edited:
Jul 29, 2013
1,199
63
Saw some improvements I think today. Seems to be turning the barrel. Any thoughts on a whole? It’s a work in progress. Baby steps.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Turn the barrel involves raising the back elbow to shoulder height with front elbow down. Then simultaneously lowering the back elbow to the ribs while elevating the front elbow to the height of the shoulders and aligning the front forearm to the shoulder plane. Ideally, the hands stay near the back shoulder the entire time until release after contact.
Look at her elbows and front forearm compared to these:Screenshot_2019-10-16-00-13-20.pngScreenshot_2019-10-16-00-25-08.pngScreenshot_2019-09-28-11-15-04.pngScreenshot_2019-09-20-07-26-55.pngScreenshot_2019-09-20-00-38-02.pngScreenshot_2019-09-19-21-30-44.pngScreenshot_2019-08-03-09-07-49.pngScreenshot_2015-07-13-09-41-06-1.png
 
Last edited:
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
Ok. Great. But you don’t leave planing a pitch to interpretation of a child do you?

If you explain that getting the hands on plane is what ‘level’ means. I think you will get the desired barrel path. No loops or circles. It will be direct and short.

My point was about how a young player envisions the swing, and how they execute it with their own body. Unfortunately, it is common for their understanding to be affected by coaches who have grabbed words or phrases, and applied them literally, but wildly incorrectly.

I have no idea how one swings a bat without a circular(ish) path. When pivot points are involved, rotation happens.
 

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