Looking for opinions, Agian

[Gunner10]

Thanks for the advise about not being pigeon holed in the role of "just a slapper". Now I'm asking about how the coach wants the girls to swing.

It goes like this..Heel,Hips, Hands. Thats the saying. I'll try to explain.
Girls set up in the stance. Front leg is on toe. Hands are at the rear shoulder. First move is to drop the Front Heel to the ground. Second action is to fire the Hip. Third is to let the hands go.

No girls can take a stride and no girl can load. I hope I gave everyone a pretty good picture of what is happening.

My DD told him she likes to stride and load her hands(not sure if thats the right wording) to feel a nice stretch before she fires her hips. He says that there is no way she will be able to catch up to faster pitching. Now I spent about 30mins the other night looking at the Model Swings and almost all if not all of them stride and push their hands back before they start forward with their swing. I was going to start her to try and work on the "Move" with her but I don't think that has a chance of flying with the coach.

I know I am just learning about good hitting mechanics but the way he wants the girls to swing just doesn't seem correct to me. Alot of talk on here about the Hanson Principle and from what I saw on the video, not many/none of the college girls swing like this.

Am i not understanding the swing correctly? Or is this a way to start a girl swinging and then move on to a stride and stretch/coil swing?

 

[southwestsoftball]

IMo your better off trying to start the CORRECT way first and work towards an ideal swing. Thats hard enough as it is. If you teahc her one way, then change.............its hard to break once the habits are engrained IMO.

I think you should teach her the proper sequence. It could be the difference between her being an ok hitter and good hitter. Knowing when to start the sequence and adjust according to each pitcher will take LOTS of reps but it will result in a much better swing. My dd is 9, we have worked on her sequence and hitting fundamentals and right now she is STRONG in the box. How old is your dd. If my dd can do it then Im sure your dd can too. I mean she isnt 5 is she?

 

[Greenmonsters]

I think you get it. Sounds like a cookie cutter approach and not a horrible one at that if all the hitters are handsy/strictly linear. The coach probably believes that this approach simplifies things and would be an improvement over what most of his players are currently doing. But for those that are more advanced, it will retard their development. The coil/load/stretch provides power and the stride is a timing mechanism that IS adjustable. This is what better hitters do, and if they can do it v. 60-70 mph there's no reason it can't be done v. 14U pitchers. Hopefully he understands that.

 

[nanotech14]

sounds like all this coach wants is to make contact with the ball. These girls will most likely never get the ball out of the infield.

 

[redhotcoach]

A lot of talk around here is "the swing motion is the same as the throwing motion." Try throwing without a stride.

 

[rdbass]

Gunner10,
My DD in her first year of 12u pretty much hit from the Torque Drill position. DD couldn't hit a pitched beachball so we were in panic mode. This was a short cut to the proper sequence, so we thought. It was not. The sooner your DD learns the proper hitting sequence the better for her in future success. I would try and talk to the coach. I would even show him in batting practice that my DD can and will hit fine with the proper sequence. If the coach doen't listen or if you don't want to "rock the boat" try this type of swing.
The Albert Pujols Drill - YouTube
This will have you doing what the coach is asking and will give your DD a load,coil. By doing this "drill" your DD will be atleast learning some of the sequence. Then later on you can add a stride.Mean while work on the proper hitting sequence with your DD.
I like this drill. I am using this drill to teach DD to coil better and to trust turning away from the ball, she will have time to turn back to the ball.

 

[InsidePitch]

DD was taught something similar. Her stance is about 32", she loads the back leg and pushes the bat back to where you would on a stride motion and she waits on the pitch. Hands and hips appear to be in motion about the same time. At 110lbs she can one hop to the fence with line drives so there is power in the swing. She is not bothered by the fastest 14U/16U pitching. She also hits a lot of change ups for bombs, in part because she is not out over her front foot early with a stride. This has also helped her let the ball get a little deeper to hit to RF.

As far as strides go, it seems they have been shortened to not much more than a toe touch.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

I think hitters fall into two camps. Those that have had instruction and those that haven't. While in a perfect world everyone would have proper instruction it just doesn't happen. I always tell my girls that if you have a hitting coach or a hitting style that you are working on (with Dad, HC, whomever) than you don't' have to do it my way. If you aren't receiving instruction you need to do it my way.

 

[rdbass]

If you want to look at the stride in a different way go to Baseball debate.com click on the hitting thread. Click on "When to stride" see if you think about the stride differently. See if you don't think about when and how also. Sorry didn't want to highjack thread but, I think it ties in. I also like to share soething I think can and will help DD have more success.

 

[rdbass]

Not argreeing or disagreeing but, one way gives the hitter future success and other way may only give a hitter success for that at bat. I tried the one way,short cut way. My DD wanted to have a longer successfull softball career. So we are learning the proper hitting sequence. I understand some players need it simple because they just want to hit the ball. Believe me my DD was there.