HOW do you Teach TILT!

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Jul 21, 2008
414
0
I am having a hard time getting younger girls to understand tilt. Can everyone share how you teach a hitter to tilt?
 
Oct 25, 2009
3,331
48
I use a low tee, at the knee, and NO ground balls. Long tee, of course. Many repetitions.

Once they understand and feel the tilt, then place the tee at different heights and have them maintain a relative tilt.

Be prepared for a lot of "my coach says that's dropping my shoulder". Especially for those that keep hearing "swing level".
 
Oct 12, 2009
1,460
0
Be prepared for a lot of "my coach says that's dropping my shoulder". Especially for those that keep hearing "swing level".

First, don't (inadvertently) teach it out of them by using cues like the ones above.

As I have said before, I was once at a cage next to a SB dad. He was criticizing his daughter for not tilting and for dropping her hands while telling her to stay upright.
 
Jul 5, 2011
55
0
The first thing I do is make sure they start in a good athletic position, which includes tilting forward at the waist. Then I have them swing in slow motion while maintaining their athletic position so they can get the feel of it. Then, as softballphreak said, lots and lots of long tee work with the tee at the knees, then the T at different heights for adjustment. Then lots of front toss at the knees.

Then I tell them to nod and smile when they hear, "swing level" or "you're dropping your shoulder".
 
Jun 17, 2009
15,019
0
Portland, OR
Anterior tilt can be thought of as bending at the waist ... as an example, you step in the batter's box and establish your pre-sets ... which likely includes establishing dynamic balance between the quads/hams (i.e., bending at the knees) to activate the muscles in the legs, weight distribution along your feet, grip or wrist/forearm angles, etc. .... and among that 'etc' is a bending forward at the waist that activates your core. This bending may be slight ... perhaps on the order of only 12-degrees or so, but it is there as a means of activating the core. Additional dynamic anterior tilt is often added as the swing progresses.

Lateral tilt can be thought of as the tilting backwards that occurs at swing initiation ... it can be seen as the shoulders slanting down hill towards the catcher as the core/hips rotate ahead of the upper torso. Those that advocate not dropping/lowering the rear shoulder should be careful not to remove lateral tilt and encourage a "level shoulder type swing".
 
Jan 14, 2009
1,589
0
Atlanta, Georgia
I am having a hard time getting younger girls to understand tilt. Can everyone share how you teach a hitter to tilt?

My daughter has had a lot of success using two pieces of material from Epstein. One is his "Torque Drill" which does a great job of teaching kids how to lateral tilt and rotate the shoulders simultaneously. Basically the drill teaches kids how to take two movements and combine them into one seemless movement.

Once they get that down, I introduce Epstein's "Weather Vane" concept. This concept really only works if the student knows how to correctly slot their rear elbow and get their front forearm max up off the chest to establish connection. Assuming they have that part down, it becomes a simple matter of using the front elbow as a guide to determine what your shoulders are doing. IOW, my daughter knows that if her front forearm is level to the ground, then her shoulders are close to level to the ground, which means she is getting on top of the high pitch. If her front forearm is working up, then she knows that her shoulders are tilted, which is what she shoots for on lower pitches. Of all the things we've worked on this is probably the one she does the best. It shows up in her game swings all the time. It's most noticeable on high pitches in game swings where she just reacts and levels out, getting on top of the pitch, resulting in a line drive. Those are probably my favorite hits to watch because it's so easy to see what she's doing in real-time.

Hitters can't really see their shoulders when they are hitting. However they can see their front forearm because it's in front of them. The forearm therefore can be used as a rear view mirror for the shoulders. The "Weather Vane" concept basically teaches kids not to have grooved shoulder tilt. It lets them know that it's ok to vary shoulder tilt depending on pitch location. It' not so much about what to do, as it is about what's ok to do".
 
Oct 6, 2011
57
0
This 13 year old still has some issues with the back arm extending prematurely and flattening the bat too soon, but I was happy with our progress after 3 sessions.



To have quality "tilt" you must have quality lateral drive from the back leg in order to counter or balance the "backwards" lean.
The tilt is a combination of a few things: the position of the front leg (we want front knee positioned well behind the front foot), the tilting of the pelvis which tilts the torso back and resisting premature opening of the upper half.
 
Jan 25, 2011
2,278
38
Dr.,I think the old swing looks so much better then the new one,on the old swing she needed to get more coil and uncoil,hips lead the hands.She is losing so much energy now.You like how her wrist are snaping,she is losing all the energy she gained.Sorry but IMO you are completly wrong.You need to spend some time looking at the model swings on this site.
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
42,860
Messages
679,870
Members
21,568
Latest member
ceez12
Top