hands in the swing
- Thread starter clemenslee1
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
- Oct 2, 2017
- 2,283
- 113
This is a PUSH with the hands...
Don't know why you would even post this. This is a terrible demonstration. And clearly, no one, at least on this site is promoting this LOL
Not what a HL hitter wants to nor does......
HL hitters:
Rotational to linear.
- Oct 2, 2017
- 2,283
- 113
Pitch location? What kind of hit did it produce?
- Jun 8, 2016
- 16,118
- 113
@clemenslee1 he posted it because some people were calling swings in this thread a push when they really were not. Barrel path is the determining factor in whether a swing is a push or not.
Around and along through. Like Mankin said the top hand circles around the bottom hand.
- Oct 2, 2017
- 2,283
- 113
Barrell Path I would think is more determined on pitch location. A ball that up is not going to have much of a turn or arc vs say a ball lower in the strike zone.
- Jun 8, 2016
- 16,118
- 113
IMO, the line drawn here will be similar for all pitches it would just be rotated/translated into different planes for different pitch locations.
To me (actually stealing from FP26 who stole from Tewks), the swing (in particular the curved part of the line drawn) should appear to be taking place on the catcher's side of the body. If you look at the Bustos demo, that wouldn't be the case. It would be curved initially, then a large linear part and then curved as she finally decides to use her hands to turn the barrel on the pitcher's side of the body.
Body adjusts pre-launch for pitch location to launch from a similar position:
At launch hands/forearms are used from the get go to turn the barrel and make slight adjustments, if necessary,
for pitch location. Bat drag in young kids is due to either the player not using their hands/foreams well enough at launch and/or not being in a good (strong) enough body position to be able to use the hands/forearms, in concert with the body, effectively e.g. being out of sequence, off-balance, no coil/stretch, etc. Having a horizontal elbow at toe touch definitely helps but there have been hitters who hit with a low elbow who don't drag (Molitor and Kent come to mind). I would be curious, however, to see what their swings looked like at a young age.
You don't see bat drag as much with older kids because they are often strong enough in the hands/foreams to be in bad positions at launch but still be able to use the hands/forearms to allow the elbow to not get too far in front of the hands. Doesn't mean their swing will be effective, they just won't have bat drag in the "elbow in front of the hands" definition.
Last edited:
One of the biggest weaknesses of video is angle. There are rotational components to the swing, so when the camera angle is directly to the side of the hitter, the barrel path may look different based on pitch location. But if you rotate the view of the camera along with the rotation of the swing, much of this gets ironed out. That, in a nutshell, is a product of an "out from" swing. The out from part is determined by the positioning of the body when it happens.
This is a somewhat odd thread that seems intent on altering the meaning of some hitting terms taken for granted. If you hit the ball out front, which is the ideal contact location even for a swing with depth, then yes at some point the hands (the barrel) will outrace the body's rotation. I wouldn't associate the word push with that in any way.
Get the hands ahead of the body's rotation early and yes, you've got yourself a push swing. But that's different from the hands moving through space during the swing.
Ortiz's swing example is a practice swing, which always has less effort and timing mechanics then a game swing (a tee swing has even less). Along with camera angles and slow vs full speed video, not differentiating between the mechanics in tee, practice and game swings can cause a lot of confusion, IMO.
Get the hands ahead of the body's rotation early and yes, you've got yourself a push swing. But that's different from the hands moving through space during the swing.
Ortiz's swing example is a practice swing, which always has less effort and timing mechanics then a game swing (a tee swing has even less). Along with camera angles and slow vs full speed video, not differentiating between the mechanics in tee, practice and game swings can cause a lot of confusion, IMO.
