Well put!
Without trying to sound redundant, coach them from where they are AT, not from where you want them to be!
Deemphasize loading?
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Well put!
Without trying to sound redundant, coach them from where they are AT, not from where you want them to be!
Agree that kids need to get comfortable with coiling early in the learning process. Ted would also agree with you
It's no coincidence that the very first hitting movement that Ted discusses in "TSOH" is the hip cock/coil. He was obsessed with creating proper hip action. He clearly understood that coiling the hips was a loading action.
I can't believe I coached that action out of my DD at age nine. A giant mistake on my part. It upsets me every time I think about it.
The challenge with the coil is that it requires the kids to turn their hips away from the pitcher. Many kids have a hard time believing they have time to turn their hips back and get them turned back around in time to hit the pitch. The ones that figure out how to do it with timing, will kill the ball.
There is a 14 year old girl in our area that has a really good hip cock and she just crushes the ball. I have her on video and the stretch part of her sequence is not very good. Almost all her power comes from the back and forth swivel action of her hips. Her hip action is so good that it is easy to see in real time. I had a 13 yo girl on our team last year that had the same action. She basically just stood at the plate and did this little hip swivel thing, and just killed it.
Both of these girls have very, very quick bats. Which was another thing Williams preached. Williams understood how proper hip action was directly related to being quick with the bat.
If the hip cock is how the lower body gets loaded, what about the upper body?
Conventional wisdom is that the stretch part of the sequence is the upper body load:
I believe most knowledgeable coaches and instructors see this part of the swing correctly.
The appearance of the hands moving back during the stride is what many consider to be how the upper body is loaded. Some refer to it as "winding the rubber band" prior to swing initiation.
Some of us believe that the very best hitters have a secondary upper body loading mechanism. I've been talking about this second stage of loading for two years. IMO, nobody did it as well as Williams. Apparently Tewks is finally starting to figure this out. This secondary loading action is related to how the back arm works when the back elbow slots.
The image on the left below is taken at the first sign of forward hip movement. The image on the right is taken just before Ted's hands begin to get moved forward by torso rotation. IMO, Ted is loading during this time frame. Notice the creases in Ted's jersey in the right hand image. IMO those creases are visual confirmation of additional stretch or loading. Williams would say he is just getting his hands flat or flattening his barrel to the swing plane. The key was his vertical bat handset and how he timed his flattening move with the opening of his hips. Basically he was loading while he was flattening. Flattening the barrel the way Williams did is what allowed his hips to get out in front. Notice how his hands never move forward towards the pitcher even though his barrel has flattened significantly. Even though his barrel moves a lot his hands stay back.
Conventional wisdom is that the stretch part of the sequence is the upper body load:
I believe most knowledgeable coaches and instructors see this part of the swing correctly.
The appearance of the hands moving back during the stride is what many consider to be how the upper body is loaded. Some refer to it as "winding the rubber band" prior to swing initiation.
Some of us believe that the very best hitters have a secondary upper body loading mechanism. I've been talking about this second stage of loading for two years. IMO, nobody did it as well as Williams. Apparently Tewks is finally starting to figure this out. This secondary loading action is related to how the back arm works when the back elbow slots.
The image on the left below is taken at the first sign of forward hip movement. The image on the right is taken just before Ted's hands begin to get moved forward by torso rotation. IMO, Ted is loading during this time frame. Notice the creases in Ted's jersey in the right hand image. IMO those creases are visual confirmation of additional stretch or loading. Williams would say he is just getting his hands flat or flattening his barrel to the swing plane. The key was his vertical bat handset and how he timed his flattening move with the opening of his hips. Basically he was loading while he was flattening. Flattening the barrel the way Williams did is what allowed his hips to get out in front. Notice how his hands never move forward towards the pitcher even though his barrel has flattened significantly. Even though his barrel moves a lot his hands stay back.
FiveFrameSwing
Banned
Wellphyt ... yes ... what you refer to Williams as flattening the barrel, was in fact a load. That's how late in the swing loading takes place.
- Oct 25, 2009
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So I guess it would be correct to say that you are either loading or holding the load until you swing.
It occurs to me this may be a definitional issue? I'm reacting to teachings that distinguish "loading" from "stride". In particular, that loading happens first and that there's a checkpoint, where you can have a hitter freeze, that exists between the hitter's starting point (ready in their stance) and the beginning of their stride, where they've loaded but have not started to stride.
Two points:
First, I've seen in both instructional videos and at clinics, coaches get batters into their stance and then instruct them to "load". The batters make some movement and then the coach provides a critique of their "load".
If the movement and critique is limited to the subtle, initial movement --coiling into the back hip a tiny bit as opposed to swaying backwards-- then fine. But, that isn't the extent of what I consider loading i.e. the negative moves. The front heel lifts, the front knee comes in, often there's more coiling into the hip. After that there's forward, lateral movement of the hips, but the hands are still going back and that continues all the way until the stride is complete and the batter gets to toe touch.
So, loading and striding are, from my perspective, one blended overlapping movement. It's not 1) Load; then 2) Stride. It's not 1) Back; then 2) Forward.
Second point: one fundamental difference I see in style of many softball swings versus baseball swings is the amount of weight that is back in the initial setup of the stance. Many softball stances seem designed to minimize "back". Rather than back then forward, the stances seem to be start back so that there's "minimal back... mostly forward".
Two points:
First, I've seen in both instructional videos and at clinics, coaches get batters into their stance and then instruct them to "load". The batters make some movement and then the coach provides a critique of their "load".
If the movement and critique is limited to the subtle, initial movement --coiling into the back hip a tiny bit as opposed to swaying backwards-- then fine. But, that isn't the extent of what I consider loading i.e. the negative moves. The front heel lifts, the front knee comes in, often there's more coiling into the hip. After that there's forward, lateral movement of the hips, but the hands are still going back and that continues all the way until the stride is complete and the batter gets to toe touch.
So, loading and striding are, from my perspective, one blended overlapping movement. It's not 1) Load; then 2) Stride. It's not 1) Back; then 2) Forward.
Second point: one fundamental difference I see in style of many softball swings versus baseball swings is the amount of weight that is back in the initial setup of the stance. Many softball stances seem designed to minimize "back". Rather than back then forward, the stances seem to be start back so that there's "minimal back... mostly forward".
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Loading is one of the last things that I teach and this probably has a lot to do with the level of student that I have. I find that the most difficult thing to teach is handpath/swing plane. My girls naturally want to stand tall and either swing down or drop the hands/bat and lag into contact. They have trouble understanding and feeling that the swing is not level it is tilted and they should be be tilted when they swing. I have developed a bunch of drills and devices that I use but it is frustrating. Maybe it's my golf background but I often see swings posted here and while the typical comments go to the loading sequence the first thing that I notice is an upright stance and a flat swing plane.
- Oct 25, 2009
- 3,334
- 48
For years, and today, I hear parents and coaches yelling to the kids to "swing level." That is a very poor cue. Most people think of a level bat as being held out parallel to the ground. Level, IOW. You are correct that the bat should be angled—and angled isn't level.
The only pitch that would be swung at level would be up around the shoulders. Anything below that is angled, not horizontal.
As far as standing up straight, I just tell them to stick their butts out. Watching baseball on tv today I noticed how just about every player has their butt way out, about a half-squat.
Armwhip,
Here's what I did to create the feel of tilt with my DD, I set up the tee at different heights and told her to fuse her hands to her back shoulder, and show me how you are going to hit that ball without dropping your hands or dropping your back shoulder. It's a very simple drill but it worked wonders for her.
Here's what I did to create the feel of tilt with my DD, I set up the tee at different heights and told her to fuse her hands to her back shoulder, and show me how you are going to hit that ball without dropping your hands or dropping your back shoulder. It's a very simple drill but it worked wonders for her.
