"Hands to the ball" help

[NorthMS]

I had my 1st video session with my oldest DD last night. We broke down some swings in slow motion. It was an eye opener for us both. She even got to the point where she was embarrassed and kept apologizing. lol I told her she was doing fine and pointed out the differences between a few of her swings. She could see for herself what I have been telling her. She's ready to get to work even more so now.

Then we looked at my middle DD's swing (7YOA). She's actually using her hips some and gets her elbows and bat barrel in a good slot. Now, she wants to tinker with her swing too.

Something to point out to those who are just starting to use video to work on a swing, have something of contrasting colors in the middle of their waste. My DD just happen to have her draw string out on her shorts and it was a good reference point while looking at the video.

 

[Mr T]

Cues are just that, cues. Squish the bug and hands to the ball aren't my favorite cues by any means. OTOH would I like it if all my young ones squished the bug?

"Hands to the ball" - is there a precise definition of this? It's not a cue I've used, but one of my player's dad was a hitting instructor at the Ted Williams school and I believe it was taught. To him it means the knob goes out, palm-up, palm-down bat-on-the-plane of the pitch. If fired at the right time that doesn't sound so bad to me.

When you hear "Hands to the ball" what do you think of? Are coaches using that to teach just throwing your arms at pitches and not use the body?

Meeting more coaches and learning that these cues can mean different things to different people.

 

[CoachKevin]

Well it's not what the different cues mean to the coaches, but what they mean to the players. In HS the coaches were always saying "keep your weight back". Well when I got my players back for TB I noticed they were not having a good weight shift. I asked one of them why she was doing that and she said, "Cuz Coach said to keep my weight back". I then explained to them that what they meant was keeping the body over the back leg during the swing, but you still have to have good weight shift initally to hit the ball hard.

I've tried to explain this to some other coaches in our organization but it has kinda gone on deaf ears. When I hear "hands to the ball", or "take a level swing". I ask my players to show me how they can do that with a pitch low and outside. Some of the attempts to show me have been really funny too.

 

[Mr T]

Good point Kevin. I was sort of thinking along the same lines. I see in here some cues have become anathema and equated with bad technique. And this is all too true some of the time. But cues are just cues. It's not necessarily what cues you use, or even what you know, but what idea are you conveying to a player.

 

[Dragoncoach]

Im not sure I like the cue flat hands as they might think of them being flat and level to the ground instead of slightly tilted hands which would keep the hands above the barrell through the zone.

 

[softballphreak]

With any cue, it's important that the players understand what you mean when you say the cue. When I say get the hands flat they have already been taught what I mean by that. A lot of things we say to the players I'm betting some of them don't really understand it. It might be a good idea to test that every once in a while.

 

[shockcoach]

I use hand inside the ball as a que. Get yourself a click bat or make one. I made up a half dozen the other day with some EMT and PVC conduit. I was amazed at how well this works for instant feedback to the girls. My thanks to one of Marc Dagenais' videos. These things are awesome for working that part of the swing.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I then explained to them that what they meant was keeping the body over the back leg during the swing, but you still have to have good weight shift initally to hit the ball hard.

I've tried to explain this to some other coaches in our organization but it has kinda gone on deaf ears.

To be honest, your description here isn't very clear. Might want to reword things a bit.

 

[SBFAMILY]

We use to teach hands flat or what some call palm up palm down. If you actually study video and grip the bat like we know teach the top hand is plam down, but the bottom palm is slightly behind the bat.

 

[Dragoncoach]

With any cue, it's important that the players understand what you mean when you say the cue. When I say get the hands flat they have already been taught what I mean by that. A lot of things we say to the players I'm betting some of them don't really understand it. It might be a good idea to test that every once in a while.

Agreed. Its amazing how literally they take things, especially at the 8u and 10u level.