Megan 1-Tee

[Immortal1]

In terms of the release of the top hand, I'm fine either way as long as the hitter hits "behind the ball". Consider going with what feels best from Meg's viewpoint here.

Thanks for the input. Will talk to her tonite at practice and see which see tends to prefer. She seems to get more extension in the first video and doing a frame by frame look, the ball is definitely gone way before she lets go. In looking at the Model Swings thread, many of those that release the top hand tend to do it later in the swing. But then again, she has only been doing this for maybe a month? I suppose what I should do is just keep tabs on the release point (if she prefers that style), and hope as she gets more live pitching this spring that she tends to hold on longer instead of releasing too soon.

 

[cshilt]

In swing #2 (video0029) she is lowering the back elbow slightly to start her swing. Her hands are slightly behind her rear elbow at the connection point and this is causing her to swing down slightly on the ball. The result was she topped it and made the tee wobble.

I like swing #1 (video0026) better because her elbows are working more as a unit. Notice how she hit the ball cleanly off of the tee? This was the result of an improved hand path.

Below are snapshots of the two swings at the connection point. Swing #1 is first; notice the "V" is tighter and the bat is more stacked over the hands. In #2 she has dropped the bat head and lead a little more with the rear elbow. The "V" is wider.



Here is the clip of Manny again that SL posted. Notice how the knob of the bat stays ahead of the rear elbow. If you can get her to do this she'll have a more connected swing and she'll really notice a difference.

 

[Wellphyt]

Immortal1 - IMO the Manny clip is not the best clip for your daughter to figure out how the hands/elbows work. Or, as I like to say, "how the hands get flat". Any time you see a player with their front forearm close to being across from the letters, indicates that the player's hands are at least halfway to being flat while in their stance. They have what I call a "flat handset". Hitters like Arron, Williams, Bonds, and Yee have handsets that are more vertical, meaning the hand flattening action will be more visable. Manny's hand flattening action is mostly under-the-hood. What I fear is that your daughter will try and copy Manny's "look" and miss the important action that is taking place.

Just a suggestion.

 

[Immortal1]

Ok, was doing a little detailed analysis (frame by frame) of the original version of swing #1 (video0026) above (not the YouTube version), and a video I shot back in early January of this year. The above video was shot at 19fps. the January video was shot at 24fps. In the above video it took basically 2 frames or .105 seconds for her to rotate her hips from fully coiled to facing the pitcher. The January video took 5 frames or .210 seconds to accomplish the same rotation.

Now the question, is it possible that the changes made over the last 45 days actually got her to rotate her hips around twice as fast? Seams unlikely but the videos are convincing me otherwise.

p.s. She said she prefers swinging like in the first video (letting go) instead of like the second video (hanging on). She said it feels more natural for her. Guess we are gonna go with the flow on that one

 

[Immortal1]

When you are hitting off of a tee or batting cage draw a straightline on the ground with chaulk. She can stand even or alittle bit open at set up.

The chaulk line is for when she steps out. Step out straight or alittle inside the chaulk line. Howard calls this the line of force.

Step open hips open early - loose power.
Have open stance at set up and then step more open - loose that much more power and likley to kill the third base coach.



Straightleg

Will have to see if she is doing this now. Have noticed in earlier videos that her hips opened more than what they are now. I would seem that at point of contact her hips are square with the pitcher, then rotate a little further after contact.

Have another girl on the team (lefty) that starts VERY open. When she strides typically her front foot will land approximately straight or slightly closed compaired to her rear foot. Interesting style, not sure if its productive or not.

 

[Immortal1]

IM1 ... nice improvement with the hands going into 'contact'. Well done.

One more thing ... and we may have ourselves a hitter on our hands.

When removing the 'bug squish' it's common for a hitter to do as your daughter did in the "behind view" ... that is shut down the energy production somewhat. Not what we want. We still want a forceful main engine ... just without the bug squish.

Your daughter has come a long way ... and she did it in a short amount of time. A tribute to you being very selective on what to work on, and a tribute to Megan. It's about the combination of "hard work" performed "smartly". In life, that combination, ... "hard work" + "smart work" is often a winner.

Last thing I'd recommend is work on developing a 'thrust'. That is, you "coil" and "uncoil" ... but on top of the "uncoil" comes a "thrust" ... and if that was in Meg's swing, then we'd see the rear heel in the "behind view" behaving much differently. The way I approach this is by having hitters perform the "stretch and fire" drill to capture the 'feel' of the action between the rear hip & rear femur. You then attempt to add this 'action' in the swing just after the 'uncoil' begins ... "coil", "uncoil", "thrust".

Overall ... very well done. The two of you came far in a short amount of time. No way are you as "green" as you let on to be. You waded through a mind-field of information, and yet you somehow avoided the wrong information and made several steps in a positive direction.

p.s.
Tell me about all the trophies in your basement. Are those softball trophies?

I see what you mean in that particular video. Interestingly in the last video I posted of Megan (video26) the action of her rear foot seems to be more of what we want as it pertains to the move. She is rolling up on the tip of her toe (right foot) at the point of contact. To me, that would indicated a significant weight transfer onto the front leg - which I think is what we are after.

I talked to her about having the greatest amount of thrust around the 2nd or 3rd frame of a 5 frame swing. She indicated that she understood what was meant, but if she is actually doing it, I don't know.

 

[Immortal1]

I like swing #1 (video0026) better because her elbows are working more as a unit. Notice how she hit the ball cleanly off of the tee? This was the result of an improved hand path.

Below are snapshots of the two swings at the connection point. Swing #1 is first; notice the "V" is tighter and the bat is more stacked over the hands. In #2 she has dropped the bat head and lead a little more with the rear elbow. The "V" is wider.

LOL, when I was looking frame by frame at this video I noticed in the frame where the bat almost made contact, the ball was clearly on the T. In the very next frame the ball was not to be found anywhere in the picture. A clean hit for sure!

I did notice that in some of the other videos I have from last nite. I think she is starting to figure that part of her swing out

 

[Immortal1]

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Ok, got a couple more videos of progress. Used a little better camera so hopefully there is a little more information available to review.

In the 1st video I can see her rear knee rotate clockwise a little just as she initiates her uncoil (assume that she is doing the Move correctly), then her rear foot rotates up onto her toe as the weight transfers to the front leg (again, assuming she is doing the Move correctly). Her Coil, Stretch, uncoil seems to be much improved over where we started a few months ago. We have reviewed and discussed the Thrust issue - not sure if she is doing it correctly (or at all) but things are looking better / more consistent. In looking at the frame by frame analysis it does seem that she is slotting her rear elbow maybe a little too soon - little bit of bag lag. this might be one of those items to add to the "to work on list". I did walk behind her just to give a better idea of bat path to the ball and show her stride alignment. It seemed that she should probably be closer to the tee (closer to the plate) as several of the hits seemed to be off the outer part of the bat, not the sweet spot.

I really liked the second video as she made several clean hits in a row (I only got 2 of them in the video). I am really starting to like how and when she lets go with the top hand. Earlier in the month it seemed like she just let go after contact, now it appears she is letting go later in the swing instead of earlier which I feared might happen. Also in this video I noticed she is starting to show the pitcher a little of the bottom of her lead foot just prior to toe touch. I am assuming this helps with hip cock / coil.

Anyway, would like to get some comments on progress to date, items I missed or incorrectly assumed were correct. I do have to admit, compaired to the video I have from March 2010 her current mechanics are MUCH improved. Thankyou all for your input and guidance.

 

[Immortal1]

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Forgot I wanted to add this one as well. The 2 video's above were taken just after we arrived and the one above was take after about an hour of swinging the bat (stiff muscles from weight lifting starting to loosen up a bit). Anyway, what I really liked was the amount of stretch she got prior to toe touch and the impact of the ball on the plastic sheeting. Looking forward to the snow melting and getting outside to get a better feel for how far she is really hitting the ball compared to last year.

 

[crankermo]

Immortal,

She's looking alot better, congrats. She looks to be dumping the barrel to me. Watch all of her swings and look @ the swing plane, the barrel drops below the ball and swings back up to get on plane. See what others think but IMO you really need to watch and fix this before it goes any further.