DD Bat Drag ?

[rdbass]

She is trying to turn the barrel but is having a hard time because her weight is shifting to the front side. You can't turn the barrel once your weight gets to the front leg. When tossing that deep she has to have the goal of getting behind the ball. The only way to do that is to stay with the rear hip.

Your DD is shifting her weight forward to soon and her hands go with it. Hands move forward before your DD can get into a good top hand swivel position.(swearing in,elbow under hands) From there your DD pushes the bat/barrel to contact. Push the hands towards the pitcher. I see your DD swing more with her arms which is where she believes and gets her power for her swing. You want the hips to pull the hands not the hips to push the hands. This is a problem that many hitters seem to have regardless of their age. I am reading this now on 2 other sites same issue with much older hitters. I posted the 2 gifs because to me they are almost the same. If this was my DD I would go back to just the tee. I would not be in a big hurry to move on to soft toss, or live pitching for awhile. I also would be trying to get more stretch/seperstion in your DD swing. I believe if she grasps this concept it may help get the hips leading. Still alot to like in a 9yr old hitter that has come pretty far. JMHO.

 

[HYP]

Your DD is shifting her weight forward to soon and her hands go with it. Hands move forward before your DD can get into a good top hand swivel position.(swearing in,elbow under hands) From there your DD pushes the bat/barrel to contact. Push the hands towards the pitcher. I see your DD swing more with her arms which is where she believes and gets her power for her swing. You want the hips to pull the hands not the hips to push the hands. This is a problem that many hitters seem to have regardless of their age. I am reading this now on 2 other sites same issue with much older hitters. I posted the 2 gifs because to me they are almost the same. If this was my DD I would go back to just the tee. I would not be in a big hurry to move on to soft toss, or live pitching for awhile. I also would be trying to get more stretch/seperstion in your DD swing. I believe if she grasps this concept it may help get the hips leading. Still alot to like in a 9yr old hitter that has come pretty far. JMHO.

Good post.

She has to get her hands in control. I would also work on throwing. Have her feel how her body works throwing and try to implement that into the hitting. I would like to see a video of her throwing to see if she has similar issues.

I know this will sound wrong but you may just try to tell her to feel like she is leading with the barrel. That the barrel is the first thing that gets moving. Barrel to the ball. That is it. See what happens.

 

[rdbass]

I'll bet she throws well because in the first gif the front leg is bent. From this site I have learned and later been able to see that most girls throw with their front leg locked. Seems they need to be taught to bent the lead leg when throwing.

 

[rdbass]

Stretch/seperation

 

[softballphreak]

Stretch/seperation

Don't try to imitate that finish.

 

[RayR]

I don't think it needs to get more complicated then what is bolded below.

Good post.

She has to get her hands in control. I would also work on throwing. Have her feel how her body works throwing and try to implement that into the hitting. I would like to see a video of her throwing to see if she has similar issues.

I know this will sound wrong but you may just try to tell her to feel like she is leading with the barrel. That the barrel is the first thing that gets moving. Barrel to the ball. That is it. See what happens.

 

[theaddition]

Moved from tee work to (deep) soft toss today. Worked on tossing the ball deep and having her hit to opposite field. Also, placed a punching back behind the plate to help her concentrate on a shorter bat path.

Jayla 11-25 Soft Toss - YouTube


Doesn't appear to be dragging...

This is bat drag. And the elbows are the effect not the cause of her bat drag.
<a href="http://s1140.photobucket.com/albums/n569/bucketdad/?action=view&current=batdrag-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n569/bucketdad/batdrag-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
And this is where it starts:

She simply doesn't use her hands correctly.
This too is bat drag:

"turning the frigging barrel" will not help her. You've been getting bad advice which you are choosing to follow.

 

[HYP]

This is bat drag. And the elbows are the effect not the cause of her bat drag.
<a onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'Outgoing', 's1140.photobucket.com', '/albums/n569/bucketdad/?action=view&current=batdrag-1.jpg']);" href="http://s1140.photobucket.com/albums/n569/bucketdad/?action=view&current=batdrag-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n569/bucketdad/batdrag-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
And this is where it starts:

She simply doesn't use her hands correctly.
This too is bat drag:

"turning the frigging barrel" will not help her. You've been getting bad advice which you are choosing to follow.

Using your hands is not bad advise. She needs to position herself to do so. Her weight slides from rear hip to front hip. Her chest opens to the pitcher to soon. Her hands get back to early. From the position she gets to the only thing she can do is go forward. The hands have to move back as the lower body opens. She is loading all back. So, she gets all forward.

There is a lot that can be fixed but, what can be accomplished over the internet and through the written word is complicated. Starting with trying to figure out how to position the body in a strong position to get the barrel moving by using the hands is a good start.

JMHO

 

[batdragon]

"turning the frigging barrel" will not help her. You've been getting bad advice which you are choosing to follow.

theaddition I believe you mentioned about 400 posts ago, that flattening the barrel too early in the swing leads to bat drag. I noticed that on her tee swing that her bat barrel does not flatten behind her head and she has far "less" bat drag. When she hits soft toss, she flattens the bat behind her head. I know when she was hitting the punching bag and off the tee I was having her raise her back elbow up and tipping the barrel of her bat slightly towards the 2nd baseman. This hitch seemed to prevent her from flattening out to early and bringing the barrel behind her head.

Is that what you are referring to when saying something upstream is causing her elbows to get in front of her hands ?

If so, what is your suggestion (ie. drill) to fix this ?

Thx,
BatDragon

 

[HYP]

theaddition I believe you mentioned about 400 posts ago, that flattening the barrel too early in the swing leads to bat drag. I noticed that on her tee swing that her bat barrel does not flatten behind her head and she has far "less" bat drag. When she hits soft toss, she flattens the bat behind her head. I know when she was hitting the punching bag and off the tee I was having her raise her back elbow up and tipping the barrel of her bat slightly towards the 2nd baseman. This hitch seemed to prevent her from flattening out to early and bringing the barrel behind her head.

Is that what you are referring to when saying something upstream is causing her elbows to get in front of her hands ?

If so, what is your suggestion (ie. drill) to fix this ?

Thx,
BatDragon

I know that you asked someone else but...When she slides her weight from back to front the only thing that can happen is to drop the barrel and turn. She needs to throw the barrel fro a balanced back strong position. An athletic position.