Help with my 14U daughter

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Feb 18, 2021
27
3
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.
View attachment 21689
View attachment 21690
View attachment 21691


I think you nailed it! She never did this until she started smashing balls. I feel like she is pulling those hands back because she feels like her arms need to go way back to generate power, which of course isn't the case. I also think she moves her arms, bat, hands way too much prior to her front foot even landing. I'm going to have keep the barrel vertical for now, with her hands up, until toe touch. I think that will help a great deal. When you said the connector between the hands and the shoulder until release in the direction of the pitch is also a good suggestion. She has WAY too much movement going on.
 
Feb 18, 2021
27
3
During the stride, she looks really good to this point. Most kids look bad here.
View attachment 21698

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

View attachment 21699

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:
View attachment 21700

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.


Wow! All of you guys know your stuff. This is great, and 100% on point, but I've never been able to break it down frame by frame. I will have her work on dry drills the rest of the week and then repost some recordings. Feel free to give me critique on what I'm doing wrong. Thank you so much!
 
Oct 13, 2014
5,471
113
South Cali
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.

See how Mike and the young hitter both have their chests a bit more over the plate in stance and their shins’ angle match the spine angle. This is the reason for the upside-down posture and early ‘swinging’ your dd is experiencing. She’s just unbalanced to begin a very athletic movement. She’s using her quads and front side of her body bc her back side (glutes) isn’t available. It’s the reason gags and efastball are saying she drags etc. and Shawn is saying use the hands. She’s stuck. The rest of her moves are pretty good imo.

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Last edited:

TDS

Mar 11, 2010
2,926
113
Stretch and contract within the s-plane (swinging "down to" against the hips extending) allows for rotation to be the result.

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Last edited:
Feb 18, 2021
27
3
She might need a few more tweaks after the stance/posture change. So work on some stuff. video and post.

I completely agree. She has so many games, so we will have to wait for the weekend, but I will post some stuff up of some dry swings this weekend. Thank you!
 

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