Jayleen - 15yo

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Nov 20, 2020
995
93
SW Missouri
Continued from this thread.... https://www.discussfastpitch.com/threads/jayleen-14yo.43649/

After a full year last year (Jr High in Spring, TB in Summer, & HS in Fall), DD wanted a break. So we let her take as long as she needed. She was ready to get rolling again early December and her TB team started indoor hitting in January. I picked up a coaching gig with DS and his hockey team. So between hockey and work travel, I actually saw little of DD's hitting or practice work. Now that hockey season for DS has wrapped up, it's back in the cage with DD and seeing where everything is at.

These are some clips from the latest cage session. We saw her hitting coach about a month ago to get an evaluation and see where things needed help. All in all she was happy with Jayleen, but saw a couple things needing adjustment. Load/timing (we always fight this with DD) and her top hand (which was pulling ring and pinky finger off the handle at the beginning of the swing).







 
Last edited:
Aug 20, 2017
1,474
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Couple things I would work on:
1.) Upper Body Load - hands, rear elbow need to continue to load during the stride. Continuously load the upper until launch.
2.) Limit the Rearward Movement when she picks her front foot up - if she moves that far back prior to picking her front foot up she’s gonna be consistently late. She will not have time to shift forward.

Front foot up and load upper at the same time. Float forward. Keep loading upper until moment of go.
 
Nov 20, 2020
995
93
SW Missouri
We have fought with her load for what feels like forever. She’s a smart kid, but absolutely hard headed when it comes to making adjustments that are deemed “uncomfortable”. Even if it’s adjusting from a bad habit.
 
Aug 20, 2017
1,474
113
We have fought with her load for what feels like forever. She’s a smart kid, but absolutely hard headed when it comes to making adjustments that are deemed “uncomfortable”. Even if it’s adjusting from a bad habit.
You have to rep it until it becomes muscle memory. Do this drill
Starting position - bat in neck slot, knob forward, knee up at least as high as waste (takes some time to get them balanced here but take the time to do it)
Move Out - move out AS SLOWLY AS POSSIBLE, exaggerate the slowness. Will help her feel control. As she begins to move forward, load the upper. Very important! Many want to go ahead and start loading upper before moving out. Don’t allow that.
TELL HER TO KEEP LOADING as she moves out.
Tees, Side Toss, Front Toss same drill.
 
Nov 20, 2020
995
93
SW Missouri
You have to rep it until it becomes muscle memory. Do this drill
Starting position - bat in neck slot, knob forward, knee up at least as high as waste (takes some time to get them balanced here but take the time to do it)
Move Out - move out AS SLOWLY AS POSSIBLE, exaggerate the slowness. Will help her feel control. As she begins to move forward, load the upper. Very important! Many want to go ahead and start loading upper before moving out. Don’t allow that.
TELL HER TO KEEP LOADING as she moves out.
Tees, Side Toss, Front Toss same drill.


I like this. Makes sense.
 
Aug 20, 2017
1,474
113
Same Drill
On side toss - tosser angled in front (about 45 degrees), get her in her starting position, tosser shows them the ball holding it out front, the tosser moves slowly, pulls ball down and flips at back hip. As soon as tosser starts to move, hitter starts to move out and load upper. Tosser tosses at hitters back hip. Takes a few reps to get it the timing of everything down but take the time to do it.

On Front Toss - same as above. Tosser shows hitter the ball holding it out front. As soon as tosser moves the ball, hitter starts move out and loads upper. This will take more time to get comfortable with. Take the time to get it right.

Next progression is to start in a narrow stance (no more than shoulder width). Pick knee straight up and move out AS SLOW AS POSSIBLE and load upper: tees, side toss, front toss. Tell her NOT to move backwards when she knee lifts. The upper load will prevent her from lunging.
 
Oct 13, 2014
5,471
113
South Cali
Agree w CB. I call it sequence though. Getting the upper half to sequence earlier so it can come later w better stability/connection is key imo. This really lets the upper(hands) load and hinders early opening.

AJ above takes the hands back against a solid back leg which counter rotates his lower forward while his upper is still loading backwards. The energy never leaking outside the back knee. Your dd leaks through her back knee and then opens up before foot down. It could be function but most likely it’s sequence. It’s hard to feel where the weight is when you get off balance.

There are many ways to load the body; back or down or both. I’ve never seen a good hitter that doesn’t have some kind of hand centric load. She needs some of that imo.

I use a belly button/hands connected drill w tee and toss to get a feel for sequence. I ask the player to take the hands and bb back together against a back leg as their ‘load’ and time the pitch. Let the athlete come out from there.

Or you could just start closed w a good hand load and get some good results that way.

Edit: if I remember correctly your dd had some hand waggle/load before.. who took it away? Shame on them. lol.
 

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