Howard Drill

[cshilt]

Crystl breaks the swing down into seven basic steps to make it easier for the girls to understand:

1) Ready - Relaxed position in the batter's box
2) Stance - Bend at the waist, soften the knees, bat slotted, hands between the top of the shoulder (no higher than the ears)
3) (Load to) Toe Touch - Getting to toe touch and separation
4) Elbows/Knob - Maintain the box, elbows work in unision (bat lag position)
5) Release to Contact - Barrel to the ball
6) Extension - What some would call the power "V" after contact
7) Follow-thru - Finish (high)

The time between bat lag (step 4) and contact (step 5) is less than 1 frame for Crystl. She maintains that by having the knob in the palm and able to freely move (roll) within the grip allow the barrel of the bat to travel faster to the point of contact. She says that she quickly wears holes in the palms of her batting gloves. She does not advocate any active participation of the hands at contact.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

CO, take note that I began my post by stating that Busto’s swing is “special”. The reason for doing that was to point out that her swing wasn’t typical.

You went on to refer to her swing here as “atypical”.

Is the implication that this swing, being “atypical” in your words, should not be used as a model swing for others to follow?

Just as I wouldn't have people try to emulate many of Vlad Guerrero's swings, I wouldn't suggest that people try to copy the hand action that you see in this swing.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

Remember what you wrote .... "One of the first rules of good video analysis is to know the context of a clip." This clip you present looks to be a reaction to an inside pitch.

Irrelevant.

This is Pedroia's standard swing, not an atypical reaction to an inside pitch.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

She maintains that by having the knob in the palm and able to freely move (roll) within the grip allow the barrel of the bat to travel faster to the point of contact. She says that she quickly wears holes in the palms of her batting gloves.

Pujols uses the grip he does for the same reason.

 

[SBFAMILY]

From a prior post. She demo's this in every clinic using a RT.


Choke up on the bat and come to point of contact and ask someone to gently try and push on the end of the bat and see if you can hold them from pushing the bat rearward.

You will not be able to hold them and can see the bat move probably 4 to 6 inches rearward.

Now allow the knob to be tucked into the lead hand and try it again. You will feel you are able to resit the movement rear ward.

Hold the bat in the top hand back in the hand all the way and you will not be able to resit until the bat moves about 6 to 8 inches.

Try to hold it in the finger pad of the top hand index finger so it looks like a hook and roll the hand/ wrist downward a little so the bat is in the front of the hand and you have the grip that you can resit with in my opinion.

Also try it with your head tracking the ball and then looking for will the ball will go and that makes a difference also. Stronger with the head down!

The Rocket tech knob is smaller and fits inside your hand better and gives you more leverage to hit with in my opinion. However because it is end loaded the kids choke up and defeat the purpose and give up power by doing it and without knowing why.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Crystl breaks the swing down into seven basic steps to make it easier for the girls to understand:

1) Ready - Relaxed position in the batter's box
2) Stance - Bend at the waist, soften the knees, bat slotted, hands between the top of the shoulder (no higher than the ears)
3) (Load to) Toe Touch - Getting to toe touch and separation
4) Elbows/Knob - Maintain the box, elbows work in unision (bat lag position)
5) Release to Contact - Barrel to the ball
6) Extension - What some would call the power "V" after contact
7) Follow-thru - Finish (high)

The time between bat lag (step 4) and contact (step 5) is less than 1 frame for Crystl. She maintains that by having the knob in the palm and able to freely move (roll) within the grip allow the barrel of the bat to travel faster to the point of contact. She says that she quickly wears holes in the palms of her batting gloves. She does not advocate any active participation of the hands at contact.

Thank you Cshilt.

In #2 you wrote .... "hands between the top of the shoulder". Question is ... between the top shoulder and what?

If I understand #3 ... "load to toe touch", then this is building in of stretch that some of us speak of. Makes perfect sense ... very important IMO.

Greatly appreciate the input on Crystal's bottom hand. What you say makes perfect sense.

Agree that the hands should not be "actively participating" at contact .... that makes sense as well.

Thank you.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Irrelevant.

This is Pedroia's standard swing, not an atypical reaction to an inside pitch.

CO, Crystal's swing above is typical of the other swings I've seen of her.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

CO, Crystal's swing above is typical of the other swings I've seen of her.

This is the only decent clip of her I've seen.

If this is typical, then I'd file this in the, "Don't try this unless you are a world class athlete," folder.

If I had a kid who did this and was still successful I wouldn't touch them, but there's a reason why basically no other good hitters do this.

 

[cshilt]

In #2 you wrote .... "hands between the top of the shoulder". Question is ... between the top shoulder and what?

It really should read...

...hands somewhere around the rear shoulder and no higher than the ear hole of the helmet.

Not a lot of emphasis is placed on where the hands are in the stance as this could be a style choice. They just want to avoid extremes as that sometimes causes mechanical issues later in the chain.

They do focus on where they hands are when the bat is slotted at step 3. They should be at (around) the top of the shoulder.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Also try it with your head tracking the ball and then looking for will the ball will go and that makes a difference also. Stronger with the head down!

I think you are making a good point here, but I'm not 100% of what your conclusion is.

Are you recommending against moving the head back while tracking the ball, or for moving the head back while tracking the ball .... or am I completely off the mark with what you are saying?