Deltoid / Rear Hip Iso Drill Revisited

[Wellphyt]

Howard, thank you! I have not had time to get her on a tee yet with what we have incorporated. We were just getting started and we finally got a nice night that we could go outside. I will get her on the tee tonight at practice and will make sure she is tracking the ball. I did make her open her stance last night as I was remembering your belief on the two eyed look and I noticed while I was pitching to her that I could not see all of her right eye. She said if felt better to be open.

I am sorry but you lost me on the "E's" & "R's". I think I got it but I am not sure. Load at K and start to stride at release?

Wellphyt,

She asked if I would get her in the cage this week and throw to her a lot. She loves the feel of this swing but she got frustrated being ahead of it so much. She will get it back. She is a really good hitter so I hope she gets it back. If not her mother is going to kill me.

Thanks
Mike

I believe that once a hitter gets their mechanics the way they like them, then it's hit, hit, hit against live pitching. It's amazing how much more comforatable my DD already looks with just four live hitting sessions.

I forgot to mention that one drill Epstein has recommended in the past for hitters who are always early, is to wait until they hear the ball hit the tarp behind them before they swing. With each swing they gradually swing a little sooner until they start ticking the ball, and eventually start making solid contact.

The idea is to help the hitter get a better feel for how long they can wait and still foul the ball off. I wish my DD would do this drill, but her brain/perosnality won't allow her to swing and miss the ball, which is necessary early in the drill. It's really hard for some kids to understand that the object of batting practice is not always about hitting the ball solid. Somtimes it's important to experiment so you can gain knowledge and learn where your limits are.

 

[Hitter]

Howard, thank you! I have not had time to get her on a tee yet with what we have incorporated. We were just getting started and we finally got a nice night that we could go outside. I will get her on the tee tonight at practice and will make sure she is tracking the ball. I did make her open her stance last night as I was remembering your belief on the two eyed look and I noticed while I was pitching to her that I could not see all of her right eye. She said if felt better to be open.

I am sorry but you lost me on the "E's" & "R's". I think I got it but I am not sure. Load at K and start to stride at release?

Mike

Mike

If I were standing in the batters box facing a pitcher when do we begin to load?

At what point in the pitchers wind up or delivery do I decide to start moving?

Some explain it as a counter move to the pitchers move and I explain it as dancing with the pitcher and working together.

When I think of throwing I teach the hitter/ thrower to slide the right foot into the left foot and my hands are still in the gathered position and centered in my chest and then when I step with my lead foot I break my hands and the ball hand goes down and my elbow is up and my glove hand is pulling back as my ball hand is coming over so I am in motion to throw the ball and flowing forward. I stepped on the ball of my foot and flexed my lead foot knee and the weight is shifting forward and my back leg follows me around.

E is how you say one in Chinese and R is how you say two in Chinese. So I would drag out and make the one sound longer by saying EEEEEE and then R trying to get them to explode on the ball and not be so passive by just saying load and step.

I was trying to get them to shift their weight into the back hip and then sit on the back hip and left their lead foot to allow the weight to shift forward based on the pitchers movements and E was done during the K position and R was done at the window of the pitchers release....thus EEEEEEEE (at the K and during her motion down ward to the window of release) and then R (at her window of release). A verbal ooooooooooooooonnnnnne, two!

Getting the girls to understand momentum and how the body works takes on many creative ways to teach and reach each one in my opinion.

I use a half full or half empty water bottle ( depends on your view of life) and remove the label so they can see and feel the water shifting in the bottle. I hold the bottle in the palm of my hand and they place their hand under mine. If I shift my hand rearward or load and they see and feel the water move and if I do nothing else the gravity and motion of the water moves forward on its own until gravity will seek out its own level and the water stops moving.

Now I want them to be in control and shift the water based on their feeling it in their hands and they turn the hand or tip it and then tip it the other way without going so fast as they can maintain control of the waters movement from one end of the bottle to the other.

I then point to their hips and say this is where the water is moving as to the hips and when do we start that movement and how can we control the movement?

It starts with slow to load and soft to step on a flexed front knee never allowing the water to stop and start however how do we keep it moving or flowing is the key concept we are trying to get across.....for me that is timing and rhythm!

Another analogy I have used if you are on a swing at a play ground you sit in the swing and put both hands on the rope or chain and take your feet and plant them on the ground and push your body rearward until your body can not go back any further and you pick up your feet and your body moves forward from momentum and gravity and then to go higher you fold your legs back under you and pull against the rope or chain at the bottom of your up swing and kick your legs forward at the exact time and you gain speed and momentum and go higher.

When and how to load the body is not instinctive until they can relate to what it looks like and feels like in my opinion.

There is a great poem.....On Children
by Kahlil Gibran
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Being able to teach them what this is all about without loosing the relationship with your child is very important and I have seen relationships destroyed over sports and over bearing parents who wanted it more for them than the child and it got lost some how and so did the kids and parents.

What I have seen parents and coaches do to teach the game that is considered our national past time would make you sick however that is another story!

She will get it and show patience in how you teach her to understand it and see it, feel it and fix it has worked well for me. I want in the end for them to teach them self and understand when it is good, better or best and when it goes wrong how to fix it.

Thanks Howard

 

[mkral]

Thanks Howard!! I appreciate all of your help.

I unfortunately am one of those overbearing parents. I try to not be but I am. I admit it. I am going to try to take a step back and teach with more sympathy and compassion. I love my DD's to death and I know I cannot live my life through them. That is a great life lesson. My kids are good kids and always will be and they need to live their lives as they see fit and want to.

Mike

 

[Shawn]

Mike,

About your hitter, clip posted.

One reason for the "late" hip and back knee, and timing issues, flow of the lowerbody and swing. Really it has nothing to do with the bat on the deltiod. It's what she does as a loading action that creates the difference between her and the college hitter posted.

Her loading is more based on lifting the front foot leg. Her middle does not move out until she starts to swing or begins rotation. It has to much swaying back and "up", up because of the lifting of the front side (to much front side loading/lifting). You could even say she pushes off the front front foot while lifting the foot/hip to load backwards (sway).

It's to much swaying, creating movement, instead of an actual natural loading. Creating a strong swing/hitting position.

This issue is added to with the attempt to load the shoulders, she has a slight inward turn, while moving everything back. It just adds to the timing issues, created from poor loading, which is going to affect what is called the unloading. Or any sequence that follows her current loading actions.

I have no problems with a back knee cue to initiate the lowerbody. Although how well the cue helps with the current issue will be a hit or miss. Which is the problem with all cues. As far as separation and a better kinetic sequence, it will not happen with her current actions in creating a load and unload.

This is an issue with hitting off a tee, trying to create to much "loading", so a test would be to see what she does off a live arm.

 

[mkral]

Ok I'm editing this because I am stupid! I was misreading a word. I guess it is an Iowa thing. Dang do I feel foolish!!

 

[tom.guerry]

Separation can be seen more obviously as graphed here using motionanalysis/kinematics in golf where there is a longer swing with more separation, but the same ideal kinetic link sequence as in hitting.

See:

Phil Cheetham The 3D Guy Blog

 

[Hitter]

Ok throwing my ignorance flag here......what is "Spatial Separation"?

Mike

Please indulge me as I am having fun on this one....

Definitions of separation on the Web:
• the state of lacking unity
• coming apart
• interval: the distance between things; "fragile items require separation and cushioning"
• sorting one thing from others; "the separation of wheat from chaff"; "the separation of mail by postal zones"
• the space where a division or parting occurs; "he hid in the separation between walls"
• the termination of employment (by resignation or dismissal)
• legal separation: (law) the cessation of cohabitation of man and wife (either by mutual agreement or under a court order)
• the act of dividing or disconnecting

Adj.1.spatial - pertaining to or involving or having the nature of space; "the first dimension to concentrate on is the spatial one"; "spatial ability"; "spatial awareness"; "the spatial distribution of the population"

When we teach throwing we have our feet separated and as a right handed thrower we slide our right foot towards the left foot with our glove in the center of our chest and and say slide, step, break and throw. They try to put rhythm into the movement by sliding the right foot to the left and then when they step/ stride forward they break the ball out of the glove down ward and then back and bring the ball up and over generating some momentum and timing to their movement or kind of like a dance move.

We are shifting our weight so they understand it as many of the young ones have no clue as to what they are being ask to do in the first place.

Then when we hit, we say slow to load and soft to step on a flexed front knee and to separate the hands rearward a little or for some walk away from the hands. However in either situation you are creating forces that are opposing each other as your foot went forward and your hands went backward and we are attempting to generate a flow or momentum or shifting our weight using the hips.

This is why we teach throwing first so they understand a weight shift is taking place and we point out with both hands on the bat our lead hand will limit how far the bat can go rearward and we only need a little tension in the backward movement of the hands and to load the hip or move it in a manner to allow it to explode for when we pick up our lead foot to transfer the weight.

One of the ways to get the kids to understand this is too have them stand so only their right shoulder is against the wall and their feet are directly under them. Then tell them you are giving them a test and if they pass it, they get to play today! Ask them to raise their left foot and hold it in the air? They will not be able to do it as they can not shift their weight as the shoulders can not move and neither can the hips.

Then ask them to spread the left leg only about 1.5 times the wide of the shoulders IE 16 inch shoulders and you would have a 24 inch wide stance.

Now ask them to step and throw and look to see if they tilted the shoulders rearward or just lifted the foot?

Repeat and ask them to hit and see how they shifted their weight inside the back leg or did they lean backwards or sway the hips?

They are starting to understand how their body works and how they must feel it to understand it.

This is why we do the ball in the hand drill and face the fire so as to keep the flow or momentum going and build on it!

There is another person on a site talking about throwing and why boys are ahead of them and do not really have to be told how to throw as they teach each other by throwing rocks at objects and the others pick up by watching each other throwing rocks and emulate the better thrower in the group. Remember the saying, "I want to be like Mike!"

This is a neuro muscular skill the doctors are quick to point out most girls never had the chance to learn! Most do not get involved in the throwing motions until 8,9,10 or later!

I guess they missed the MLB elite throwing class conducted at 4, 5, 6 for boys also!

I hope you had fun reading this however it also works.

Thanks Howard

 

[mkral]

Howard
I cannot tell what I feel like right now and I don't know if I can explain this or not......I completely misread the word.
Spatial to me was not what it was.....I figured it was something special or something so I really feel stupid. In fact I was pronouncing it "spatal", so man I really feel foolish.

But I like your answer and I like what you have to say on it.
Thanks
Mike

 

[Hitter]

Howard
I cannot tell what I feel like right now and I don't know if I can explain this or not......I completely misread the word.
Spatial to me was not what it was.....I figured it was something special or something so I really feel stupid. In fact I was pronouncing it "spatal", so man I really feel foolish.

But I like your answer and I like what you have to say on it.
Thanks
Mike

Mike

Notice the post was deleted and or altered to take out the word?

This is why I laughed as no one in their right mind would use the words to help a parent or coach unless they were trying to show how smart they are!

We are good and I hope we can help in some way to help you and your kids!

Doing a clinic this weekend in Pittsburgh and will be back Tuesday

Thanks Howard!

 

[mkral]

Thanks Howard!!
You are helping me and my girls for sure. Please keep up the great work and bear with my ignorance.
Have fun in Pitt.

Mike