Hitting

[FIRE SOFTBALL]

A few girls on my 12U team and dropping their back shoulder when swinging. I also have a few girls leaning into the pitch. I was told to do alot of hitting off a T , will this correct this? Maybe there are better drills to correct this. Any help would be great....TYVM

 

[Mark H]

I'm not sure they have anything to correct. Depends on what you mean by dropping the back shoulder and leaning into the pitch. Which of these clips might illustrate what you describe?

Analysis

Photo 12 of 16, Fastpitch

Photo 4 of 16, Fastpitch

 

[FIRE SOFTBALL]

Well dropping the shoulder and not hitting with enough power to get it out of the infield. The same girls that hit with a level swing hit line drives then.Leaning into the pitch where all your weight is on the front foot and there is no power to hit off of the back foot since the weight has allready transformed to the front foot.Hope that helps....

 

[Mark H]

http://imageevent.com/siggy/hitting/analysis?p=19&n=1&m=20&c=4&l=0&w=4&s=0&z=9 If this is what you mean by dropping the shoulder, ok, yeah that's a problem. Lots of great hitters have the back foot off the ground or on the toe at contact. Sounds like maybe you are describing lunging? Any chance you could get us some video of them to look at?

To answer your question, no, hitting off a tee won't help a thing if they just practice their bad habits.

 

[Ken Krause]

Agree with Mark on this one. If they are dropping their shoulders back and then swinging (as opposed to driving the back shoulder forward and then down), working on a tee will probably make the problem worse.

But I think first we need to get an idea of what they're doing. Despite their success right now, if the girls "swinging level" are swinging level to the ground, long term that success will go away. All good hitters have their back shoulder lower than the front at contact.

 

[SBFAMILY]

Could we agree that the back shoulder does not actually drop? If the back elbow gets ahead of the top hand the elbow action forces the shoulder to tilt upward forcing the back shoulder down ward or giving the appearance of dropping or in my world tilting. The disconnection of the elbows not working together as a unit could been seen when hitting off a tee if the net was marked. Using a 51 (represents about 26 degrees) and 39 inch line (represents about 10 degrees) horizontally from the floor with a line vertically in the center and the tee about 4.5 feet from the net (measuring off from home plate at the back corner with the tee located in the middle about two to three inches forward of home plate) would give the hitter an idea if the ball is way over the 51 inch line what they could possibly be doing to make the ball go that high and it could be the elbow is getting ahead. If the ball is going under the 39 inch line you may be pushing the bat or the hands are ahead of the back elbow. Of course it also depends on if my hitting the top, middle or bottom of the ball has any effect on it either and that would be launch angle and the lines can help you there also. Making a good first move by allowing the lead elbow to move forward about two to four inches and up like it is going up a ramp (not like a chicken wing) is a good visual while the back elbow is lowering at the same time working as a unit. Elbow work as a unit and the knob leads the elbows and we release the barrel of the bat to the ball with our wrist. Use a piece of rope or stretch cord and have the hitter hold it like a bat and have someone stand behind the hitter towards the umpires position and put a little tension on the cord or rope to help them feel separation and as they start their move forward to contact where did their hands go? Towards the plate or inside the path of the ball? Did the elbow get ahead of the hand? Did the hand get ahead of the elbow? If they stayed connected they will feel very powerful and you will see it and they can feel it. Did the back elbow clear the hip/ rib cage area? If you think the elbow should be close to the hip have them move it there and ask them to pull forward and they will not be able to do it. Now have them move it a little farther away and you and the hitter will feel the difference in leverage gained by clearing the elbow verses getting it to closed and the will feel the mechanical advantage. I also do not think in terms of driving the lead shoulder verses pulling the bat from behind my head so everything is flowing towards contact and through the ball.

Agree with Mark on this one. If they are dropping their shoulders back and then swinging (as opposed to driving the back shoulder forward and then down), working on a tee will probably make the problem worse.

But I think first we need to get an idea of what they're doing. Despite their success right now, if the girls "swinging level" are swinging level to the ground, long term that success will go away. All good hitters have their back shoulder lower than the front at contact.

 

[Ken Krause]

I think there can be more causes than just the back elbow getting ahead of the hands, although that can certainly be a reason. I've seen kids collapse the back side, or drop the shoulder and elbow in an effort to "line up" with the ball so they can swing "level." Especially younger kids.

I've also seen it result as part of the load. If the bottom hand pushes upward during the load, the bat flattens out. From there you're almost committed to a level swing (level to the ground) because of the bat angle. (Hopefully that translates in words; I know what I'm seeing in my head.) The flat bat comes around during the swing, so the shoulder drops in order to get the bat low enough instead of dropping the bat head on an angle per the pictures on Siggy's site.

Bottom line, there's rarely only one cause of any problem in my experience. And just when you think you've figured out all the causes, some kid will prove you wrong.

 

[FIRE SOFTBALL]

they drop just like the ones u have in the clip but, they are not as strong as those girls in the clips either.They also pull their heads out. The girls in the clip look like robots with no movement with their heads.