How to use the wrists

[coachdan]

I agree with most of the other posters.

Swing 3 is a far better swing. Looks like she pulls off the ball right at contact. I would like to see her get more extention. At and through contact. Lot of good stuff going on in this swing.

Swing 2 is more of a squish the bug swing or the gate swing. She get almost nothing out of the lower half.

Swing 1 is more of a hands/arm swing. Notice how the hands are the first this that move to the ball, this causes the hands to lead the hips and therefore she loses connection. She also has no back knee drive and gets nothing out iof the lower half. This girls may be a good contact hitting but she will not a power hitter with this swing.

Dan

 

[cshilt]

Here is one of the 13-year old kids that plays on my team. Notice, the work of the shoulders is done prior to contact, and through the hitting zone. We use our shoulders as our GPS, to get on plane, and we try and release the angle we've got on the ball.

Now that is a nice swing.

 

[Mark H]

I am not sure what you would consider a good alignment at contact, but I use clips as ones below as a reference. If there is not a straight line from the elbow through the bat something is amiss regardless of pitch location.

And whether these players understand what is happening or not they have the ability to use their scaps effectively to get into this contact position

One motto I use with the players is: In line is on time.

Nice thread guys. On alignment, I would prefer to see contact slightly before the straight line/lead arm forearm and bat becoming parallel. Gives you a little more room to adjust for the unanticipated off speed pitch without giving up that much in power/bat speed at contact.

 

[Mark H]

We use our shoulders as our GPS, to get on plane, and we try and release the angle we've got on the ball.

If I understand you, I agree!

 

[Fastpitch Trainer]

Looks like we are in agreement.

 

[Bouldersdad]

Maybe.

But, if she was using her shoulders as you say she would have pulled off the swing. And she clearly hasn't. A shoulder dominated swing is dominated by first move of the rear shoulder dropping. Once this happens there is no other way to get the bat around. This player is making a first move with the scaps.

Keep in mind that the shoulders are a connection point for the arms to the scaps. So, you see the shoulders turning/yanking - I see the scaps in action. I see freedom of movement of the upper torso.

Her shoulders are relaxed which allows the scaps the freedom of movement they need. And the scap movement is what creates a tight radius for the upper torso to rotate without pulling off the ball.

What is the main difference in these players?

They are both powering the swing with the shoulders. You can see this in how they drop the back shoulder to get the swing started. Kind of the opposite in golf where as the over the top move signals a shoulder dominated swing.

So, you may worry about a top down swing with the drill I shared but I am looking the player to figure out how to get some movement out of the scaps and to link the bat to this movement.

Then we can go forward.

Number 3 is defiantly the best of the three clips,,,,,,,, 1- would be pretty close to what i call a bug squisher,,,,, 2- is a rotational hitter from the way i see it no forward momentum,,,, 3- has her weight transferd nicely.small correction on the shoulder wind and she is in business.
I posted this once long ago on here but it is the same style hitting.

YouTube - Rotational & Linear combined hitting

Tim

 

[RayR]

Thanks to all for the props on hitter #3 (DD).

I think I understand the position of FP trainer. I think we are on the same page, just not quite the line...

I agree there are kinks to work out with hitter #1 re: her demo of this drill.

Her front arm (humerus bone) is out of alignment from the start an that will lead to issues down line.

Keep in mind this is a drill to fix the arms, but not the final product.

Ultimately, I would like to see the arms swinging independently of the shoulders/torso, but not to the exclusion of torso rotation.

My DD is especially lacking in her ability to let the arms swing free of her torso.

We keep practicing and learning...

 

[softballphreak]

Thank you all for the advice.

I must not be describing the problem correctly. Perhaps it is more of a timing issue. On the last Right view pro analysis we had done the problem does not occur at all. It only seems to manifest itself during game situations and hitting off of live pitchers during BP. It is not evident at all when she is doing her tee drills.

She is able to make the adjustment in practice and correct her swing but in games she tends to put the first swing into play with a blooper to the right side.

MTS thank you for the drill but I believe if anything she is opening her torso to early and leaving the barrel behind.

I am really trying to get her bat parallel to her arm at contact.

Thanks again for all your help.

I had this same issue with a player. Part of the problem was she didn't have an attack mentality. This also affected her follow-through but only in games. But the main problem was the top wrist wasn't uncocking into the ball. It improved fairly quickly with one-hand top-hand drills off a tee.

The unpopular pad hitting that you mentioned is actually not a bad idea. I use a punching bag (equally unpopular I guess). The fence drill that Mark H mentioned is also good. A similar one is to hang a carpet or something similar over a clothes line and hit it so that the bat is parallel at point of contact. With the right material you can get it to sound a rewarding pop when it's hit correctly--parallel.

 

[Mark H]

Exactly. .

 

[Wellphyt]

My DD seems to push her hands through the zone and not release her wrists until extension. This leads to her having what I would call bat lag or pulling the bat along the ball rather than hitting through the ball. She hits quite a few weak balls to the right side of the field due to her hands being ahead of the barrel at contact. I was going to have her hit a padded pole to work on snaping her wrists but that seems to be an unpopular decision.

How can I help her learn to release her wrists at the proper time?

Thank you

Gary

Study the clip of Bustos in post #14 of this thread. IMO, her swing is probably as close to a pure MLB swing that you'll see in FP. She is doing something with her hands, very early in her swing, that the best hitters in MLB do, but few FP hitters do. Once your daughter figures out how to use her hands like Bustos uses her's, my guess is that her "hand push" will disappear.

A common reason why hitters "push" into contact, is because they rotate their shoulders, but fail to get their hands started. The shoulders turn and the hands get left behind. The hands know they have been left behind, so they do the only thing can do, which is to push forward to catch up. The result is usually some serious bat drag.

Williams, Epstein, Mankin, and HI.com, all teach what Bustos does. They all use different terms, but the basic principle is the same. Williams was probably the best ever at doing it.