Help with my 14U daughter

[sjl05232006]

So my daughter has started something that I can't seem to fix. If you watch the video below, she seems to be dropping her hands and almost golfing by the time she makes contact. While she makes contact, she pops 75% of everything up in the air. It just started this season and I can't seem to figure out where she is going wrong. Would this be casting, dropping her hands? She is normally a line drive hitter with good power. Any suggestions? She was bawling at her game today. 0-4 4 pop outs to the infield.

Please excuse the sound. I had to slow it down so you could see the swing. She's playing HS ball (50mph or more)

 

[Gags]

A few things jump out at me - looks like she’s dumping the barrel behind her, possibly casting her hands, barring her front arm, and there also some bat drag.

Can you post video of her previous swings?

But I like the slow motion - the bumble bee photo-bombing your video is awesome!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Work=wins]

She seems very mobile. There are a few issues. She opens to swing. She swinging w her front foot in the air.

I would start w the opening early. Get her spine angle and shin angle to match during stance. Maintain Into toe touch. Get both knees to face towards the plate during stride for as long as comfortable. Or even a bit towards the catcher. They will open. Just want it to happen later. She can do this w dry swings. Once somewhat comfortable put her on a tee then toss.

use the suggestions along w the drill below. Film, post. Then we can see where’s she’s at.

 

[fanboi22]

She levels the bat by foot down. She seems to do this by pushing the hands back from the shoulders during the stride up to foot plant. She then brings the rear elbow down/externally rotates and gets the elbow close to the side before swing initiation/launch. This then leads to the second and third picture below, severe elbow drag, pulling/dragging the barrel thru with a front extended arm bar.

The drill that W=W suggests is a good one. I also think just working on keeping the hands up and barrel still until toe touch will be beneficial. She will then start feeling a completely different muscle group needed to swing. Along with this, when launching the swing, the 'connection' between hands and shoulder should remain until releasing to the direction of the pitch. all my opinion of course.

My DD also did this, but it was because i used the cue 'walk away from the hands' and it got overbaked. I have tried to correct the issue by keeping her hands up at shoulders with more of a vertical barrel until launch. She should be able to step out and toe touch without the barrel moving until you are ready to swing. Eventually the more slotted barrel position should be fine, but for my DD i tried to completely eliminate the early movement to get to a good starting point.

Foot Down.

 

[Shawn]

Use the hands, not the arms!

 

[efastball]

During the stride, she looks really good to this point. Most kids look bad here.


Then, things go horribly wrong from there to toe touch:



1. Rear forearm
1a green - the rear forearm is vertical (bad), it should be flat/horizontal (see 1b yellow. She lost all her leverage and will almost always have bat drag after this (she does)

2. Bat
2a- The bat is almost flat and is wrapped around her neck (bad). This by itself will also sometimes lead to bat drag
2b the bat should be almost vertical at toe touch. It gives you the best leverage position

3. Striding with front leg
3a green she reaches with the front foot/leg too far (notice her leg is almost straight)
3b yellow you should stride with the back leg, not the front (the front leg must land very bent)

Then as we continue the swing, she makes things even worse:


Notice how she has pulled her hands back toward the catcher almost a foot (very bad)

From toe touch to hip slot, the hands must remain near the rear armpit. Dont push them backwards, dont push them towards the plate.

I recommend some dry drills (no tee, no ball) 1. stride to toe touch, then 2. drill from toe touch to hip slot (back elbow drops to hip as the hands stay near the armpit)

Do this and nothing else for a few days. Her swing will be twice as powerful afterwards.

 

[sjl05232006]

She seems very mobile. There are a few issues. She opens to swing. She swinging w her front foot in the air.

I would start w the opening early. Get her spine angle and shin angle to match during stance. Maintain Into toe touch. Get both knees to face towards the plate during stride for as long as comfortable. Or even a bit towards the catcher. They will open. Just want it to happen later. She can do this w dry swings. Once somewhat comfortable put her on a tee then toss.

use the suggestions along w the drill below. Film, post. Then we can see where’s she’s at.

Thank you for the input! Obviously your understanding of swing mechanics is way above my own haha! Can you explain a bit on what you mean by spine angle and shine angle matching during stance? I'm trying to picture how that would look.

 

[cnardone]

I believe W=W means, get into an athletic position with your knees slightly bent. Your knees will now be over your toes (give or take). Notice your shins are not at 90 degrees / perpendicular to the ground. They have an angle. During your stance, your upper half / Spine should have a the same angle to the ground that your shins do. So if you extrapolated lines through the shins and spine, the two lines would be parallel.

 

[sjl05232006]

I heard that possibly keeping the bat on the shoulder will help prevent casting of the hands, so we hit a few after her game today. This was before I saw the replies.

 

[sjl05232006]

I believe W=W means, get into an athletic position with your knees slightly bent. Your knees will now be over your toes (give or take). Notice your shins are not at 90 degrees / perpendicular to the ground. They have an angle. During your stance, your upper half / Spine should have a the same angle to the ground that your shins do. So if you extrapolated lines through the shins and spine, the two lines would be parallel.

That makes better sense! Thank you