Thanks for the input! Did you teach Maddie to toe tap or did she do so naturally? My DD has always had a little toe tap. I’ve been hesitant to work with her toe tap or to change to a more traditional knee lift. I don’t want her thinking too much about it
Keeping the Front Shoulder Down during Stride
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Thanks for the input! Did you teach Maddie to toe tap or did she do so naturally? My DD has always had a little toe tap. I’ve been hesitant to work with her toe tap or to change to a more traditional knee lift. I don’t want her thinking too much about it
She has varied her front leg action over the years. She's had a couple of phases where she was using a pretty big leg kick, but seems to have settled into a simple toe tap. It's not something I have ever taught her, or suggested she change. It's all about what she's comfortable with.
- Oct 2, 2017
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Fantastic!
I am not a master hitting coach at all, but I do look for weight transfer and rear foot rotation or not. It almost looks like she's dumping weight towards the pitcher and the rear foot is almost moving forward like a step, with little to no rear foot rotation off the swing, as she's transfering a high percentage of her weight forward. I know legs getting tall and pushing or dumping weight transfer towards the pitcher, can increase issues your are also speaking to.
Video from last week. Pitcher was topping out at 61. @Work=wins mentioned in another thread about her swinging the front foot down in the past and that recently she isn’t doing that. Looking through her past videos I agree with him. I have always drilled timing (being early) into her growing up. That probably resulted in her starting the swing prior to becoming leveraged. Recently she has been getting to her spot with more leverage. Nothing we have have worked on lol. This pitcher was really good. Based on this video she didn’t have to cheat to get to her spot.
Well said. That is the exact thing that causes swinging the front foot down. Being too early and waiting/leaking. I find if you try to time front foot down to when you have to swing, things clean up quicker rather than later. It’s hard. Takes practice. A lot of foul backs. But they eventually learn.
I can see the weight shift into the front side, indicated by her front knee bend, and the shifting rearwards or more centered as the front side braces for contact. We did a bunch of the old Epstein drills when she was younger which exaggerate weighting the front foot and pushing that weight rearwards when the core/hips/legs begin to rotate. That Josh Donaldson Clip of him exaggerating the forward move into the front side comes to mind. Lots of dry stride freeze and check stuff.
A few other things we worked on was limiting rearward movement during the load. She has a very small negative move. Always wanted her forward at release with the thought of staying behind the ball. Crazy how those things seem to be evident in her swing. Not saying any of this is correct. Simply what we have done. The swing can work at high levels in many different ways.
Still a long way to go but we tinker very little now. I think @rdbass said don’t take a .400 hitter and make them a .200 by chasing that perfect swing. Just wanted to share some of the things that we have done during our journey. Some of you out there with young dd’s are in for a wild ride!
From today. Pitcher was around 50 mph. Way slower than she is used to. I see the adjustment she made with sinking into front side longer to allow the ball to travel. Our mental approach on pitchers throwing slower is like a two-strike approach: hit the ball down the right field line. Hard to teach get to your spot later than normal. We try to focus on when to get the front foot up and it will get down on time. Didn’t tell her to get front foot up at release but that was my thought. Thoughts?
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