Looking for advice - see video

[sballdad]

First off, I want to thank all of you on this site who contribute so much helping out all of us in the fastpitch commuity. I have been lurking on here for some time and using much of what I have been able to understand.

Looking for advice for my daughter. 13 year old, 5'8", good hitter looking to get better. She's been playing tournament ball for 4 years. She is a great pitcher and spends a lot of time working her trade, but recently been struggling more than usual hitting, so I am reaching out to the experts on here for help.

She has struggled with popups and weaker than normal hits that are easy infield outs. I got her a 33" Rocketflex this year since she had a Rocketech 2 years ago and loved it, but I think the end load and overall weight was causing her to drop her hands too much. I went out last week and got her a CF6 that I can tell her swing speed is better and hitting more line drives already. Still see her dropping her hands more than I would like. We have been doing alot of high tee work and partials (swings to contact) with a big nerf ball under her arms and also a homemade connector device. We will also mix in a whiphit to change things up and been doing some SnF drills.

I want to address the dropping of her hands and would of course would like more power. Straightleg, SB, rdbass, Redhotcoach, FFS and any others please chime in if you have a chance.

Thank you all in advance.

 

[rdbass]

FFS suggestion to my DD:
This alone ... the transition from 'stance' to 'launch' ... is something worth practicing nightly for 10-min/night for 2wks. Can't emphasize enough how getting this portion perfected can lead to a healthy repeatable swing.

Extra brownie points if you can arrive at the launch position with the shoulders angled downward.

Do you see how Cabrera turns his lead leg in during the beginning of the transition ... what Ted Williams referred to as a front knee cock ... that is something that I treasure in a swing ... and for me, I treat it as an absolute. That action is semi-present in Laura's swing ... but could be improved. It's almost as if she wants to perform a front knee cock, but doesn't know about it. When you have this lead knee cocking action ... then you will better understand what people mean by "lead side resistance" ... by "falling forward" ... by "leaning into it".

See how Cabrera brings his hands back in a BHUT like motion (Bottom Hand passing Under the Top hand). Your daughter is more BHAT (Bottom Hand Around Top hand). Changing this alone would go a long way towards correcting the excessive ELAE.

My words
Bend at the waist/soften the knees. Stop that. Find a comfortable stance. On both swings at the end your DD falls side ways. Seems she lost her balance.

 

[softballphreak]

sballdad, the knee cock mentioned above is exactly what your DD needs to do. Have her model as closely as possible what Cabrera looks like at toe touch. From that position throw the barrel. Get rid of the hands coming that far out toward the ball. But make sure the hip leads the swing. The hip moves before the barrel is thrown at the ball.

Quick start: put a ball in her throwing hand. Step to throw. Stop there and replace the ball with her bat. That's where she should be just before she throws the barrel at the ball.

Right now it looks like she's trying to look a certain way. Let her fly. She's too mechanical. Forget the bend at the waist soften the knees for the moment. Over swing. Get loose. Set her mechanics free.

Oh yeah, and bring the tee back toward the catcher a little. Too far out front will make her reach—not good.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I don't consider this to be a hand dropping issue.

Perhaps she swings differently with a ball moving towards her. Let's see some front-toss.

 

[MountieSB]

sballdad, welcome to the forum! There are a lot of good things your daughter is doing. She looks strong and athletic, which is really more than half the battle!

In addition to what rdbass posted above (especially the "falling into the attack position and loading the hands BHUT), I would recommend she coils her hip into the load. She moves linearly ("sways" her hips to the backstop) into the load, but she would be much stronger if she coiled into that load, getting the tension around the back-leg hip. After that, when she "falls" into the attack position, she should hold that coil ("show the pitcher your back pocket"), resisting the urge to open it back up as she falls forward.

I also notice she "gate swings", which is how I explain hips and shoulders rotating at the same, or nearly the same, time. She should use her front-side obliques to "unwind" that hip she's going to coil to pull the back side around from the hips up through the shoulders. There are lots of really good clip of this in the Model Swings thread (look at Shroeder and Koria on the linked page). When she can synch the coil and the uncoil, she'll add to the strong foundation she already has.

Last thing, and this is my personal pet peeve, have her get that tee deeper! She's hitting the ball too far out in front of her. Get that tee closer to the plate and she'll be able to take advantage of all her strength when she incorporates her new mechanics. Keep at it and good luck!

Mike

 

[softballphreak]

When you post the front toss FFS mentioned, show some swings where she is swinging like she wants to as opposed to how she's suppose to.

In particular, I'd like to see some swings where she is swinging from a throwing-type stance. Over swing, also.

 

[jbooth]

First off, I want to thank all of you on this site who contribute so much helping out all of us in the fastpitch commuity. I have been lurking on here for some time and using much of what I have been able to understand.

Looking for advice for my daughter. 13 year old, 5'8", good hitter looking to get better. She's been playing tournament ball for 4 years. She is a great pitcher and spends a lot of time working her trade, but recently been struggling more than usual hitting, so I am reaching out to the experts on here for help.

She has struggled with popups and weaker than normal hits that are easy infield outs. I got her a 33" Rocketflex this year since she had a Rocketech 2 years ago and loved it, but I think the end load and overall weight was causing her to drop her hands too much. I went out last week and got her a CF6 that I can tell her swing speed is better and hitting more line drives already. Still see her dropping her hands more than I would like. We have been doing alot of high tee work and partials (swings to contact) with a big nerf ball under her arms and also a homemade connector device. We will also mix in a whiphit to change things up and been doing some SnF drills.

I want to address the dropping of her hands and would of course would like more power. Straightleg, SB, rdbass, Redhotcoach, FFS and any others please chime in if you have a chance.

Thank you all in advance.

I don't see any dropping of the hands.

I see her shifting her hip too far rearward over, or even outside the rear foot, then she pushes her front hip out too soon. She needs coil in and then push the front foot down and let it open the hips.

She straightens her left arm as she swings, which pushes the hands away from her body. The barrel can go out, but the hands must stay in. She seems to be standing too far from the ball. She needs to do that because she pushes the hands out.

The straightening of the lead arm makes the hands also go down in the middle of the swing arc, if that's what you mean by dropping the hands. The hands will stay up and level the path if she keeps the front arm bent more and longer.

 

[redhotcoach]

I don't consider this to be a hand dropping issue.

Perhaps she swings differently with a ball moving towards her. Let's see some front-toss.

Agree...and then some! I would say that almost every kid swings quite a bit different from tee to front toss, and again different from front toss to game swing. If you really want to help her be great, video every at bat every game. If you use your iphone, ipad, or android, for just a few dollars you can get the RVP app and watch her swings next to the best mlb or softball hitters.

 

[David Carter]

Definitely want to see front toss or live swing, she seems to be really leaning over the ball and staring down but I am guessing that is just because the ball is on the tee she could not see the pitch coming in that position so she has to look a little different live.

I noticed the arm straightening thing as well but somehow she seems to unlocked it as she comes around but it is a bad habit that needs fixing. Her negative motion is more of a rock back or hip sway/turn and not true load but I see her biggest problem as hands first. If you slow it way down you can see that the frame before she puts pressure on her front toe she has started to initiate her swing. Look at the gif of Carberra at toe touch you see him coiling and reaching back not leaking forward he is creating separation and resistance so he unleash that power but he won't do that until heel plant and his bottom half starts, first he will keep the upper half still or maybe even reach back a little more just prior to letting his upper half go.

In your DDs case she has already started everything going forward so by the time her foot is planted all her power is not there. Fear not this is actually very common. The biggest thing to get her to understand is as her leg comes back and she starts her negative motion her upper half should be going back as well (which she is doing OK) but then as her front foot goes forward she needs either keep the upper half still or ideally reach back even more (I'm with rdb a little tilt would be bonus).

 

[rdbass]