- Oct 25, 2009
- 3,334
- 48
Worked unsuccessfully with my older daughter on some HI drills yesterday. She couldn't get the drills right, took video and scrapped it as a failed attempt, better luck tomorrow type thing. Kept talking about the importance of getting behind the corner, weight back, coiling etc. While she couldn't get the drills just right, she was able to get the feel for a little more coil and it changed the timing of her swing to where her arms were not starting the swing so much but her rear hip was starting the drive while she was still coiling back. Enough for me to notice with my naked eye and like what I saw on at least some of the swings.
She went to practice right after and I told her to just attack oppo during her tee work to try to ingrain the feel of early power and keeping the weight back, then she went to front toss and hit one that landed 4 feet in front of the 200 foot fence. Longest shot of her life. Related? dunno. But she has hit about a thousand balls on this field and this one was 20 feet further than her previous best hit ball.
So if you have drills that you think can help a kid, by all means post them so the defenders have something to try but barring that I will keep on going down the rabbit hole as long as I see incremental results in power and better contact.
All the technical mumbo jumbo is interesting (at times), very valuable, and vital. But performing drills will teach the player more than anything.
You mentioned attacking oppo. Many ways to perform that but I recommend front toss of 3 buckets (approx. 75 balls) of nothing but outside pitches with ALL hits to right field. 2-3 times a week is great. It works—period.
Doing the same thing with a tee is good also but nowhere near as effective.
The result you saw with the near 200' shot is typical after doing the drill.