I know I know...swinging down is bad....BUT...

[MsDinosaur]

Is that Nicole Hudson from MU, Five?

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

MsD ... yes, the result was a game winning walk-off single.

 

[ArmWhip]

When you understand swing plane the idea of swinging down no longer makes sense. You get backspin when you hit the bottom half of the ball regardless of whether the bat is traveling up or down.

 

[RayR]

Swing plane is a result of hand path....good or bad....

 

[JimB]

Proper swing plane results from the inherent understanding that your core powers the swing.

 

[RichK]

Swing plane is a result of hand path....good or bad....

Could you elaborate MTS?

Working today with girls off the tee trying to get a few of them to break an "around" path to the ball, which results in pulling everything (even into a net right in front of them).

When we work backward by showing them a good contact point, deep, with bent elbows and hands above the barrel, and start talking about staying inside the ball and also working hands above the ball, and then playing around with a high tee and how to achieve correct contact point in that high position, at some point it seems you start talking about dropping the barrel onto the ball and swinging down and through.

That's not a bad place to get to with many girls, from where they start, I think. And that's important. First you need to break their improper swing images.

Start to add tilt and the swing plane/hand path is in a good place looking like the Nike swoosh.

Am I off? Always learning so happy to know if I am...

BTW, heard the Florida coach today on TV talking about backspin, I've never heard of backspin as a goal, it is foreign to me.

 

[RayR]

Hey Rich, sounds about right to me....learning how to "drop" the barrel on the ball is basically learning how to turn the barrel....which relies on a good hand path (which relies on a good first move).

The hand path is inside and above the ball....it is independent of the shoulder's rotation.....taking one hand swings is another good approach to learn how to make a good first move and how to stay inside and above without the aid of the shoulders....it will feel like you are swinging and jamming yourself as you learn....it may even result in a lack of power as you move through the learning process of disconnecting the hands from the shoulders....then learning to connect the hands to the rear heel release will add the power back in....

I watched the FLA game today but missed the interview....his players are not swinging down to the ball to impart backspin....just sounds like an old school swing thought.....kind of like starting down and dropping the barrel on the ball....

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I recorded Mendoza's comments ... my interpretation was that she was promoting hitting "through" the ball.

 

[tom.guerry]

I think the ?backspin idea is a less accurate traditional (BB) attempt describing the more solid/better lined up collision that results from a good/HLBB pattern handpath with early batspeed and late adjustability and a lengthy contact zone. this gives a better chance of squaring rather than slicing the ball.

but the squaring can produce backspin or knuckle or overspin depending on contact low middle or high on ball which is typically late middle or early in timing terms.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

What is ring the rag?

That should have been “wring the rag”.

Below is a presentation of the basic concept from a golfing perspective. We modify this concept slightly for the baseball/softball swing … but the video below should serve as a decent basis for understanding the concept of “wringing the rag”.




Take the time to listen to the above video … ... ... some important concepts are made leading to making a “consistent” and “powerful” swing … a swing that is “connected” … a swing that is not powered by the “upper body” or “arms” … a swing that is powered by the “uncoil” of the “lower body” … a swing that is powered optimally, with slack removed in a manner that can be ‘felt’, and hence 'reproduced'.

Now let’s talk in terms of the baseball/softball swing.

Obviously the over-rotation of the shoulders does not apply … at least not to the extent shown … but the notion does touch upon an important occurrence during the coil (read on).

In the baseball/softball swing the rear leg has a role of trying to remain stable. That is what those that advocate forming a rock-solid rear-leg mean. They are advocating a means for the torso to extract, or make use of, ground reaction forces via the rear leg.

There will be a ‘feel’, or ‘sense’, of the rear leg twisting/coiling during the ‘coil’. That is ‘good’ … you want that ‘feel’. That ‘feel’ is confirmation that the power source of the swing is being built properly.

The lower body load should not be a ‘sway’ back to the catcher, nor should it be a “scrunching” or “folding” of the rear leg, nor should it be a pure linear momentum based type move rearward … it should be a ‘coil’, with a purpose to ‘uncoil’.

The bottom of the upper torso (just above the hips … think at the level of the belly button area) will in a sense have a ‘feel’ of being wound ‘around’ the rear hip/leg. That is, the load should not be “into” the rear hip, but more a ‘coil’ “around” the rear hip. That is important … and from here the uncoil is performed via the lower body … NOT with the upper body or arms.

This is important for those looking for consistency, while maximizing their ability to make solid contact. We do not want ‘slack’ in this linkage at the initiation of the ‘uncoil’ of the ‘lower body’ … we want the feel of coiling ‘around’ the rear hip, and the ‘tight’ feel, which is reproducible, is the ‘feel’ of slack being removed just prior to the forceful uncoiling of the lower body.

This is the essence of “wringing the rag”. If done correctly there will be a feeling of the rear lower back area being “wrung” or ‘twisted’ … i.e., “wringing the rag”.

This is what leads to “overlap”. The notion of bringing the hands back, to bring them forward, will be lost … the feel of the arms/shoulders being used to power the swing will be lost … it will in a sense be ‘bypassed’, as a more powerful source of force generation is tapped into.

Get this … and you’ll have eliminated the arms as a power source, while adding consistency and a sense of effortless power to your swing.

Lose the arms. Wring the rag!