Keep your head down/eye on the ball/see the bat hit the ball

[JOHNN]

Im not sure how its typically been taught over the past 20 years but I was first taught chin on front shoulder and ending with chin on back shoulder. When stressing this to my 8yo, she was basically taught the same and her instructor did a drill with them where she named the front shoulder Mike and the back shoulder Ike. Then she had them slowly swing Mike to Ike over and over.

Obviously thats over-stressing keeping the head down but if older girls are falling into the habit of looking out instead of down, Im always of the belief that a player is never too old to go back to the basics.

 

[Work=wins]

Learn set up. Learn the engine. Learn how to separate. Learn what hip/torso/shoulder separation is.stretch reflex and SSC. Learn how to close the gaps of separation with decelerating the hips. It isn’t a one cue fix.

 

[Gags]

From what I see, it's really more about what are the shoulders doing? If the shoulders are mostly just rotating (with the front shoulder pulling towards 3B for a RH batter) then the head will naturally move somewhat that way as well. Someone else can probably give a more technical explanation of shoulder tilt vs rotation.

Aha moment #507 for me was hearing Antonelli describe it as the rear shoulder works UNDER the front shoulder.


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[mmeece]

Aha moment #507 for me was hearing Antonelli describe it as the rear shoulder works UNDER the front shoulder.


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Exactly! That and "tilt not turn" opened my eyes. I did it as a hitter but couldn't explain it well.

 

[Cornbread]

Make the hitter put their shirt in their mouth and hit doing that

 

[lhowser]

A hitter has about .4 of a sec to see the ball and hit it. No one watches a ball all the way in when they are hitting. Those that see the ball into the mitt had decided early in ball flight that they were not swinging. It happens that fast. The reality is that a person sees the ball at release, about half way there and then somewhere around swing launch. The brain fills in the rest of the information.

If you see hitters pulling out on the swing, it is a mechanical problem/timing problem. I'd bet that if you have video, you'd see their hips also rotating early. I'd also guess that you would see the hands beginning to extend early as the hitter disconnects early. Try searching this site or some others for "forward by coil" to get an idea of what should be happening.

This is good. The point is pulling the head is not the problem nor is it why they are missing the ball. It is a sign of mechanical issues upstream.

With two strikes you might try backward chaining. Setting up at the perfect point of contact and working back on a nice path to launch position. It gives players a sense of the path the bat needs to take back to the ball. Works for my kid. Turn those K's into H's.

 

[Work=wins]

Make the hitter put their shirt in their mouth and hit doing that

I prefer the cue keeping the chest back or on the plate towards the catcher.

 

[james27503]

Pulling your head out has to do with not maintaining posture. Your head can only move a little when your neck is trying to move it. Your head moves a lot when your spinal angle changes. I would video the player and draw a line above their head before the swing and one after and I bet you will see a big difference.

I like the queue "get short, stay short", don't know if that is Meyers or MA but I like that.

 

[Fluid Fastpitch]

Your head is heavy and it's connected to your spine. When your head moves, your spine moves. You 'watch the ball hit your bat' to limit that variable - not for visibility.

Yes, I teach it. For my younger kids, I'll draw a smiley face in the dirt, give him a name like Ralph. Tell the kids to look at Ralph after they hit the ball.

 

[knuckleballer]

I'm going way, way back to my Little League days here (think The Sandlot)... I had a problem watching the ball to the bat. I got lucky and hit the ball hard somewhat regularly but I was always envious of my teammates who were the .400 and .500 hitters. Then, when I was invited to my teammate's house for an afternoon, (he was the .500 hitter) I learned he and the other top hitters regularly played Wiffle ball for hours on end: The pitcher threw the fastest and nastiest movement pitches possible while the batter tried to hit the ball back over the head of the pitcher. When it was my turn to bat I learned you can't hit a Wiffle ball that breaks 1-2 feet in, out, up or down if you don't watch it all the way to contact. I didn't need any tricks to make it happen. I just needed to be sufficiently embarrassed to get over my fear of watching it to contact. It took a lot of swing and misses before that happened but, when it clicked, it clicked. My newfound skill of squaring up every strike followed me into the batters box in games and I suddenly became one of the .400 hitters. I don't know why it worked but that's what worked for me.