Football under back arm drill?

[Geekydad]

I'm working with DD on her swing to get rid of her bat drag and have been concentrating on "elbows" part of the Matrix drill. But when we get to full speed swings, to get to the knob pointing towards the pitcher, she's tucking her back elbow too much that it actually gets forward of her hand.

Poking around, I found this video on what I think is Jen Yee's of Ga. Tech Youtube channel (gatechsb10) with a batter with a junior sized football taped under her arm.

What is the purpose of this drill?
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[Daddy O]

What, nobody has any ideas? Good/ Bad? what exactly is being enforced here? Thanks.

 

[Hitter]

What, nobody has any ideas? Good/ Bad? what exactly is being enforced here? Thanks.

Geekydad

I have seen variations of this from Turtle Thomas....rolls up towels and puts them under both arm pits to set the shoulders and elbows.

Another one is using a knee saver pad and they made a strap to hold the knee saver pad in place like you would as a shoulder holster for a gun.

What has worked well for me is two things.

One, I want them to feel like they are pulling the bat and directing the knob of the bat inside the path of the ball. I use a WhipHit as it has a ball on a rope and they separate to toe touch doing the matrix drill and I keep a little tension on the rope. As they think elbows and start to turn the corner, we then say knob parallel to contact and they are at bat lag. Then I ask them to pull on the bat a little and see where the back elbow is, as to a head of the hands or are the hands a head of the elbow. We want them to be more lined up or stacked. Then they pull a little harder and yet stay under control. By this I do not want them trying to use their whole body, just their shoulder and elbows. They will feel a stronger or weaker position depending on the distance of the elbow away from their body. If the elbow is up too close they have no leverage and will not be able to pull on the bat handle.

If the back elbow is to far away they have no leverage, so it is finding out what feels right and we do this while they are looking into a mirror. See it, feel it and fix it!

So for me the rope or WhipHit serve a similar purpose as to the elbow clearing the body however it is the feeling that I feel works better and the rope works for me.

Once the matrix drill is done using a target area to hit in, they see where the ball is going and feel what it is they are doing to make it happen.

I just did a Skaypes lesson with a lady and her two daughters from Iowa the other night and we used her husbands belt as a substitute for the rope. By using the matrix drill and the belt we were able to communicate by video and within 70 minutes she could hear a difference in the sound of the bat. What was funny is the taller girl was hitting harder and the end cap popped out of her Rip It bat!

Thanks Howard

 

[Chris O'Leary]

What, nobody has any ideas? Good/ Bad? what exactly is being enforced here? Thanks.

I think the idea is to keep the back elbow from leaking forward, which can be a good objective. However, I haven't tried this so I'm not sure that this works to fix bat drag.

It could also have negative consequences since you sometimes want the back elbow to get away from the back hip.

 

[Geekydad]

Thanks, Howard.

I tend to be more of a visual learner. Do you have any pictures or video of the "pulling on the rope" that you describe? Are you standing behind home plate when bat knob is pointed towards the pitcher? When you used the belt, was the girl just holding on the end of belt itself?

 

[Hitter]

Thanks, Howard.

I tend to be more of a visual learner. Do you have any pictures or video of the "pulling on the rope" that you describe? Are you standing behind home plate when bat knob is pointed towards the pitcher? When you used the belt, was the girl just holding on the end of belt itself?

The bat is the belt/ rope so you will move with the device and will be off set just as if you were the catcher when she is at bat lag or the knob of the bat is inside the path of the ball.

We think the feeling of pulling the bat just before we release the bat barrel is important as to feeling it.

Thanks Howard