DD Getting Told To "Squish The Bug"

[SoCalSoftballdad]

"The Move" comes before "The Elvis". Some of us have come to realize that doing "The Move" makes "The Elvis" a no-teach". Two players that I worked with two years ago when I taught "The Elvis", are on my team this year. I'm trying to break them of the habit of doing "The Elvis" as it is so obvious watching them now how it hurts their weight shift. Players can still hit when consciously doing "The Elvis", however IMO it is not ideal.

I find "The Elvis" kind of a "catch 22". I think it has some value in teaching the relationship between front heel drop and the triggering of the hips. However, I don't want the players I work with doing it on purpose. I prefer to teach "The Move" which is further upstream.

"The Move" is one of those actions that a lot of the better athletes do naturally and therefore likely don't recognize it's significance. So it doesn't get taught. The action itself is almost undetectable because the back foot is in a cleat in the dirt. That's where swinging a bat comes in handy as well as understanding the dynamics of the overhand throw.

Some of us are ahead of the curve on this one. I suspect more and more coaches and instructors will make an adjustment in how they teach as info on "The Move" spreads across the internet. I made my adjustment a few months ago.

Is the "Move" the pushing off with the big toe on the back foot?

 

[Wellphyt]

The sequence is "The Move", followed by "Eversion", followed by what most describe as "pushing off the ground with the ball of the back foot or big toe".

When I became aware of what my back foot was doing when I swing, I quickly realized that I don't actually push off the ground with my back foot. What I'm really doing is applying pressure against the ground in a counter clockwise (LH) direction during the coil to balance out the internal rotation of my front leg when I pick it up to stride (equal and opposite). When the coil reverses to the uncoil, there is a sudden increase in force felt at the back foot. Basically the back foot is absorbing the increase in force generated at the moment the hips reverse direction. Something has to provide support for the hip reversal. IMO the support is in the form of the back foot in a cleat in the dirt.

IMO, this guy is not pushing off the ground with his big toe or ball of his foot. I see his forward weight shift pulling the back foot off the ground. If you look closely you can actually see his back foot turn out sightly leading up to the uncoil.

[video]http://www.chrisoleary.com/videos/Hitting/Clement.gif[/video]

Since "The Move" is upstream of eversion, I choose to teach it instead of "The Elvis".

 

[SBFAMILY]

If you attend a Bustos clinic she explains why on a female she doesn't teach this and teaches the Elvis move. This is a big difference between those that come from baseball and those that instruct females.

http://www.baseballdebate.com/ If you would like to read about the move it is being discussed in detail on this baseball site.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

If you attend a Bustos clinic she explains why on a female she doesn't teach this and teaches the Elvis move. This is a big difference between those that come from baseball and those that instruct females.

BASEBALLDEBATE.COM If you would like to read about the move it is being discussed in detail on this baseball site.

Despite hearing from people like Mike Candrea, Sue Enquist, and many others ... we still get some folks that think there are big differences in the female and male swing. From my viewpoint, the lower body mechanics are extremely important ... and it is not the case that males or females should be squishing bugs.

 

[SBFAMILY]

Not the swing, but how the female body works. Sue and Mike both would tell you that, if you talked to them in person! Bustos can't even do some of the things that are posted on here and she is in better shape than 90% of the young girls that posters are working with. Another source that may help in this discussion on how the body works is Marc Degenais. He did a good job working with my dd on how the female body works.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Not the swing, but how the female body works. Sue and Mike both would tell you that, if you talked to them in person! Bustos can't even do some of the things that are posted on here and she is in better shape than 90% of the young girls that posters are working with.

As an fyi ... I have spoken with both Mike and Sue in person.

 

[Wellphyt]

If you attend a Bustos clinic she explains why on a female she doesn't teach this and teaches the Elvis move. This is a big difference between those that come from baseball and those that instruct females.

BASEBALLDEBATE.COM If you would like to read about the move it is being discussed in detail on this baseball site.

LOL! I instruct females. I even live with three females. My wife has a medical background. I keep sharing with her your comments about why our daughter can't swing like a male and she doesn't agree that females are as physically challenged as you seem to think.

A few weeks ago when we were discussing balance, I asked my wife if she could just get into an athletic position or did she have to first think about bend at the waist and then soften the knees. She was able to just get right into an athletic position. Similar to how I would. Her comment at the time was that it's not so much that females can't do many of the same movements as males, it's just that females don't grow up doing the same things as males.

I see Bustos doing "The Move" in her game swings. Most of the better athletes do it naturally. I've been coaching and teaching for 10 years and the biggest challenge I've found is to try and break down into a teachable format things I do naturally like throwing a ball overhand. The Hodge overhand throw material was a very humbling experience as it woke me up to the fact that I didn't know what I did when I threw overhand. Now I'm always on the lookout for movements I do naturally that I don't know I'm doing. "The Move" is one such movement. I didn't know I did it. It's one of those natural movements that seems so insignificant that it totally flys under the radar. Nobody sees it because the back foot is in a cleat in the dirt. Unless the back foot slips, all the action is under-the-hood. Unless a person swings a bat with the express purpose of isolating the forces being felt at the back foot, they'll never grasp it's significance. I can't express enough that what I learned from Hodge is that a lot of the stuff that I do naturally and consider unimportant, can be very important.

My experience with my daughter and several of the other players on our team, as well as input from my wife. Has me convinced that there is nothing in the female anatomy that prevents a female from applying force against the ground with their back foot in a clockwise direction (RH) to maintain balance during the coil and at the moment the coil reverses to uncoil.

What coaches and instructors focus on is the rear knee turning down and in because that's the movement that "we can see". Just like the "L" position in the overhand throw is what "we all see". We see the "L" so the "L" gets taught. What we don't see is the position that the arm is in just prior to the "L". Nobody I have ever talked to since viewing the Hodge info, realizes the connection between the turn over of their front thigh and their throwing arm. Just like the important action in the overhand throw occurs just before the arm gets to the "L" position, IMO the important action in the weight shift when hitting happens just before "The Elvis".

Just my opinion of course.

 

[RichK]

Could someone explain the elvis move? Is it just front heel down back heel up? Or is there something more to it? Thank you.

I have been dealing with a spinner/squisher on our team and have been trying to apply what I've learned here. I didn't start her with "the move" but focused first on being 1) dynamic balanced (which I've tried to describe to her as feeling the ground under her and feeling her body over her legs -- which is necessary to make a dynamic weight transfer rather than a swing with no bottom engine), 2) coiling to weight shift back and then 3) uncoiling with, for her especially, a focus on an aggressive rear hip thrust to the ball/pitcher.

Those three things are helping her to stop spinning on her rear foot.

This came after a first focus on just putting a bucket behind her rear foot and encouraging her to turn without hitting it. That teaching approach led to a linear sway -- not what we wanted.

After working on balance/coil/uncoil-thrust, I put the bucket behind her and she cleared it without thinking about it.

I do think that a focus on the rear foot/ground could help further in firming up the back-side for the coil and moving out of it. I'm not sure I see how the elvis move fits in as a teaching point rather than something that happens naturally

 

[cshilt]

LOL! I instruct females. I even live with three females. My wife has a medical background. I keep sharing with her your comments about why our daughter can't swing like a male and she doesn't agree that females are as physically challenged as you seem to think.

A few weeks ago when we were discussing balance, I asked my wife if she could just get into an athletic position or did she have to first think about bend at the waist and then soften the knees. She was able to just get right into an athletic position. Similar to how I would. Her comment at the time was that it's not so much that females can't do many of the same movements as males, it's just that females don't grow up doing the same things as males.

It's like you've been to one of the clinics! Howard says this very thing at his clinics. It isn't that the girls can't do the things we're showing them, but that they haven't been shown how. BTW, who ever said the girls were "physically challenged"?

 

[SBFAMILY]

Thanks Chris. In our last clinic with 100 plus kids and adults not one single male coach could show a young girl how to get balanced. Not one single girl could come up and get balanced, but they all could be shown how! Same goes with how to use a hammer. All bend the knees first and if you shove on them they all would fall forward or backwards. No one stated they were physically challenged, but males take many of the things we have learned for granted when teaching females. The stats on ACL's prove that females have higher injuries than males, is it that many of us males just don't know how to teach them correctly? Chris will tell you we do this at every clinic and have yet to find a dad that could come up and show his dd how to get balanced. Wellphyt I feel for you about the three females, tough getting a bathroom. Same here and the oldest in also now in the medical field.