Howard Drill

[FiveFrameSwing]

SL ... I located the soft-toss video that I believe you were referring to.

It reminded me of this clip.

The building of the 'stretch' is important ... some even consider it an absolute.

The question I have for you is other than a mental image of this ... what mechanics do you feel are important in teaching this stretch? Do you simply use a verbal cue like "KaaaaaaaPOW", or do you teach physical mechanics that help obtain the 'stretch'?

I see LClifton is posting here now. Sure would love to here his thoughts on teaching "stretch".

SL ... here is a swing clip extracted from the soft-toss video. I selected the first clip in which Howard had her perform on her own, unassisted from his verbal cue/sound. IMO, Casey is not including mechanics that would assist her with building 'stretch' into her swing. In fact, if you play this frame-by-frame, I think you'll even note an absence of hip/shoulder separation.

I do like the cue ... but I believe it works best when the hitter has been taught mechanics that favor building the 'stretch' into their swing.

Let's see if LClifton might chime in.

 

[Shawn]

5frames,

Saying the hitter needs to develop separation or stretch mechanics or trying to teach it isn't a simple task.

The movement pattern in the hitter shown is backside and top hand dominate. Very mechanical in the swing. Trying to move everything forward together.

I like the spring analogy and something from a long time ago when we talked about there being "torsion".

When creating stretching, you have to ask what exactly is being stretched? Usuaully whatever you try to stretch will dominate the swing just as the seen in the clip above of a dominate backside/top hand.

It's very common for the hips to appear late in a dominate backside, because of the forced action. The harder you try something, the more difficult it becomes (hip rotation for example). In a good swing the hips peak very early, and it's the entire body working against the front leg as the arms springing forward that carry the hips through. In the situation above the upper body takes over without any of the fore-mentioned taking place. It's a simple forced mechanical swing.

We talked about this before, the coach was very pleased with the effort the hitter used to hit the ball. Smiling several times after a few swings as to say that is how it's done.

Hitting into a screen that is only a few feet away can often create the stimulus to try to kill the ball. I don't know why this is, only that it was one of the first flaws I noticed when I first started coaching. I knew something was wrong. When in reality hitting a ball 5 feet provides little feedback to the quality of well you actually hit the ball or swung. For some reason many hitters over exert themselves creating muscled up spasm swings.

We really don't know much about the hitter, maybe she had bat drag and a strong top hand stopped the issue? So analyzing a few swing into a net can only tell you about the hitting environment, goal, mechanics used to hit a ball 5 feet.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

SL ... here is a swing clip extracted from the soft-toss video. I selected the first clip in which Howard had her perform on her own, unassisted from his verbal cue/sound. IMO, Casey is not including mechanics that would assist her with building 'stretch' into her swing. In fact, if you play this frame-by-frame, I think you'll even note an absence of hip/shoulder separation.

I do like the cue ... but I believe it works best when the hitter has been taught mechanics that favor building the 'stretch' into their swing.

I think this is a totally bogus criticism.

This is an above average swing with separation.

 

[Shawn]

I think this is a totally bogus criticism.

This is an above average swing with separation.

It's just a soft toss swing into a net, nothing above average about it really. More the norm then anything.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Shawn, ... Howard makes good use of a small hitting area. He uses lines to define the upper and lower limits in terms of height, as well as markers (shirts) to define left/right. He does what he can to provide nearly instant feedback to the hitter. But I do agree, it's difficult to beat hitting into an open field ..... we just don't always have that luxury.

IMO, obtaining hip/shoulder spatial separation, is more a matter of getting the Kinetic sequence correct, than in forcing hips ahead of shoulders. I do agree that this looks like a forced mechanical swing ... ... and my thought here is that with a cleaner sequence, that the separation we are speaking of would be natural and occur without conscious effort on the hitter's part.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I think this is a totally bogus criticism.

This is an above average swing with separation.

I personally didn't consider my post to be either 'bogus' or 'critical'. The feedback was sincere. Consider it just someone's opinion ... of which the user can simply toss, or attempt to verify.

I agree with Shawn. To me the swing looks forced & mechanical.

IMO the sequence is not Kinetically clean and could be improved significantly. Consider SB's three step basic sequence .... IMO, this swing would fail the first two steps ... and those first two steps are considered absolutes by many. Clean up the sequence, and this athletically gifted kid would benefit significantly in terms of her potential when facing top level pitching at her age level. Just my opinion.

 

[Towson 15]

I personally didn't consider my post to be either 'bogus' or 'critical'. The feedback was sincere. Consider it just someone's opinion ... of which the user can simply toss, or attempt to verify.

I agree with Shawn. To me the swing looks forced & mechanical.

IMO the sequence is not Kinetically clean and could be improved significantly. Consider SB's three step basic sequence .... IMO, this swing would fail the first two steps ... and those first two steps are considered absolutes by many. Clean up the sequence, and this athletically gifted kid would benefit significantly in terms of her potential when facing top level pitching at her age level. Just my opinion.

I submit to CO that if you are making your judgement on this hitter's swing based on the rear view ,you may change your mind if you take a look at the side view.This hitter is top hand dominant as pointed out several times above and elsewhere.If this player started with an offset and rotated into footplant after having loaded the scaps,there would be no issue with separation.It appears to me that the drill as taught by HC has the hip contribution ending early and since there is little separation ,the arms disconnect and push forward and out to the ball.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

This hitter is top hand dominant as pointed out several times above and elsewhere.If this player started with an offset and rotated into footplant after having loaded the scaps,there would be no issue with separation.It appears to me that the drill as taught by HC has the hip contribution ending early and since there is little separation ,the arms disconnect and push forward and out to the ball.

There's no evidence of this if you go through the clip frame by frame.

She gets very good whip, which you don't get if you're pushing too much.

 

[straightleg]

Allot of you have LARGE opinion's on picking apart someone else on what they do or how they do it.

NEVER see ANY video of what drills you do, or a hitter you work with.

Only MLB swings that you give YOURSELF credit for.



Straightleg

 

[Shawn]

Townson,

Exactly, In the rear view there is no off set. There is no trunk coil, the hips and shoulders never close up to help create an off set.

The front shoulder opens before the foot is planted, what can be seen (before the the front leg shows it's firmly on the ground). This itself is a good indication of a backside dominate swing and proves that there is a sequence issue. 5frames is correct on there being a sequence problem.