DD soft toss swings! Advice and analysis please!

[IS4AU]

This is a video of me throwing soft toss to my DD after her pitching lesson yesterday. I've posted some tee swings recently but I thought maybe soft toss would be better. She has been pitching so much I feel like her hitting has taken a back seat. I want to really work on this during the winter offseason. Some of the swings are bad I know. She has no problem making contact and seeing the ball she just doesn't have as much power as I feel like she should have. The one where's he puts her hand over her mouth is because she about hit me with a rocket shot, but I was sitting behind and l-screen. Thanks for any advice.

Hylan Soft Toss - YouTube

 

[Rocketech1]

A couple of major issues: balance and consistency. She does not start with a good balance to her stance and subsequently is falling all over the place after the swing. For example, she has a tendency to pull her front foot to the left which takes her off the ball. I would start from the ground up like all good instructors do. Also, you notice how she swings at every single pitch no matter where it is. Not productive. She needs to understand the strike zone and if the ball is too high, low, inside or outside don't swing. This only reinforces bad mechanics and mindset to swing at bad pitches.

If she was my DD, I would have her see a hitting instructor immediately who will start from scratch, showing her proper grip, stance, hand/arm position, load, unload, swing to POC, extension, and finish. Hitting is about balance, consistency, and repeatability with good mechanics. Right now she is just free swinging away. She has a lot of power but you need to build the foundation so she can take advantage of it. Just my .02. Good luck.

 

[IS4AU]

rockettech thanks for the insight, as far as swinging at every pitch when she is in a game she does not do that, she is one of the best at determining whats a strike and whats not, I will tell you this the last four tournaments weve played she has struck out ONCE so its not that she doesnt know what a strike looks like i garuntee you that she can work a count and doesnt swing at bad pitches.

 

[Sweet Lou]

I'm no expert and you'll probably get better advice from others but it looks like she has weight transfer issues. She's getting way over her back leg when loading and transferring too far forward on the swing, almost lunging at it with her shoulders it seems to me.

 

[IS4AU]

thanks sweet lou for the feedback, I also think she has weight transfer issues. Ive been doing a drill recommended to me by some on here where she drives the rear leg towards the front while swinging ending up with the shoe laces down. And like rockettech mentioned her balance is bad. I really wish she wouldnt load back before the pitch is thrown, but thats why I said we were gonna work on it during the winter, obviously from the ground up.

 

[Rocketech1]

rockettech thanks for the insight, as far as swinging at every pitch when she is in a game she does not do that, she is one of the best at determining whats a strike and whats not, I will tell you this the last four tournaments weve played she has struck out ONCE so its not that she doesnt know what a strike looks like i garuntee you that she can work a count and doesnt swing at bad pitches.

Maybe I am a little strict with my players and DD/DS (or just plain crazy)but I never want them swinging at bad pitches, ever. Especially if they are in the cages for batting practice. In general, we practice with a purpose and goal in mind and work on solid fundamentals to improve and get better each time. The advice I gave you above is exactly what I have done with my two kids so I thought I would share with you.

 

[Sweet Lou]

Try teaching her a soft landing in with the front. One cue that helped my older DD with her stride to keep her from getting too far out front was SSS - short, straight soft.

 

[IS4AU]

thanks for the feedback rockettech, i didnt mean to come off as rude, she just never has been one to swing at bad pitches during a game, but i will definately utilized this more during hitting.

 

[Dukhunt22]

Off topic, but what's the deal with the left and right pics? What am I missing?

Chad

 

[Eric F]

PC - Please stop. Your mirror-image gifs are hard to look at, let alone get any useful information from. The additional frame-by-frame slide-show is equally useless...as is your obsession with foot position.

IS4AU - The pitches are coming so fast, she doesn't have a chance to get into a balanced starting position before she needs to swing again. This isn't realistic for a game situation, and ends up repeating bad mechanics in a rush to hit the next pitch. Hitting moving balls is a good thing, but reinforcing bad mechanics only makes the corrections harder. As your DD's primary source for learning (as all of us dads are), I encourage you to educate yourself on what is involved in a good swing, and learn how to teach it to your DD.