Megan 1-Tee

[cshilt]

Looking good. Great progress! Real quick because it's late and I'm tired, but two things...

1) Grip. Looks like she is a little deep in the hands. Review the grip threads, but in a nutshell; hold the bat down before you get in your stance and grab the handle like you were gripping a gold club.

2) Hands are starting too low.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Definite progress from where she was not long ago …. However, this shouldn’t represent the finished product by any means.

The lower body isn’t nearly as strong as it could be. That is, “the move” could be strengthened and re-enforced. The swing could be much stronger … and primarily from re-focusing on the lower body.

Where is the “hip coil” in these recent swings? There isn’t any.

Is there a coil being initiated with the muscles of the rear upper leg, or are the hands first moving back to load the upper body instead? The sequence is not being initiated with a hip cock, but instead with movement of the arms back towards the catcher. The sequence is off IMO.

Is this a Coil-Stretch-Swing sequence … or is it Stretch-Swing? It is more Stretch-Swing ... with an attempt to uncoil without first coiling ... as in unloading without first loading. It is a result far short of what 'could be'.

Time to go back and re-emphasize the move IMO.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Points to remember about “the move”.

The rear leg is in charge.

The basic sequence is ‘coil’ and ‘uncoil’.

The lower body must coil & uncoil regardless of what the upper body is doing. Contrary to what some may think, the lower body coil-uncoil sequence is not programmed by the upper body. The lower body starts the sequence. It is during the stretch that the upper body synchronizes to the lower body.

You should feel a pressure building into the ground. The coil is a ‘load’. The pressure buildup represents a resistance … we are loading. We should have a feel of a slow & fluid gathering of energy in preparation to explode.

The reason to coil is to load the rear leg & hip. We coil to build a load … and then we unload it. Coil – uncoil. Load-Unload. Coil-Uncoil. It’s a lower body function … not an upper body function.

The coil is initiated with a hip cock … using the muscles in the rear upper leg. There will be an immediate feeling of pressure between the ground and rear foot as the rear hip is cocked. The pressure will first be felt as reactionary E/R like pressure to maintain a stable rear leg, and then we will actively add to that E/R pressure. You are building up this pressure by coiling. The uncoil is in opposition to the coil, … the uncoil is fighting the coil, … the coil will buildup the pressure to uncoil. As we coil the E/R pressure builds in preparation to uncoil.

The ‘fire’ in the rear hip will be supported by this uncoil. We will uncoil with a purpose of firing the rear hip. The coil & uncoil gets the hips moving.

The ‘coil’ starts the process … and currently there is no coil.

 

[Immortal1]

cshilt - I did notice her grip last time out and we did discuss / work on it today while batting. The hair tie trick works out nicely.

FFS - funny you should mention the hip cock issue. As I was watching her today (before I read your comments) i said to her that I did not notice any hip cock. She says she is doing it but I think you and I know better. Will have to go back to some of the basics and get this working again. Agreed on this NOT being a finished product! That is why I keep taping / posting / asking. With any luck she will get to the point of being a "Model Swing" but I am pretty sure that will not happen overnite. Or even within the next year or so but....

Again, thank you all for you valued input and guidance. You would probably be amazed at the stack of paper I now have from printing out the various comments in this thread and many others (The Move, Weight Transfer, recent Grip thread, and the other "help with my DD" threads).

I have been working on doing some frame by frame analysis in which I have 20 or so .JPG images. How can I stitch them together into a flip book or sequential .GIF?

 

[softballphreak]

cshilt - I did notice her grip last time out and we did discuss / work on it today while batting. The hair tie trick works out nicely.

FFS - funny you should mention the hip cock issue. As I was watching her today (before I read your comments) i said to her that I did not notice any hip cock. She says she is doing it but I think you and I know better. Will have to go back to some of the basics and get this working again. Agreed on this NOT being a finished product! That is why I keep taping / posting / asking. With any luck she will get to the point of being a "Model Swing" but I am pretty sure that will not happen overnite. Or even within the next year or so but....

Again, thank you all for you valued input and guidance. You would probably be amazed at the stack of paper I now have from printing out the various comments in this thread and many others (The Move, Weight Transfer, recent Grip thread, and the other "help with my DD" threads).

I have been working on doing some frame by frame analysis in which I have 20 or so .JPG images. How can I stitch them together into a flip book or sequential .GIF?

One could glean enough information from FFS's posts to compose an e-book on hitting. But I'm just going to keep reading here until he comes out with the official version.

 

[Immortal1]

Well, I was talking to Megan about getting back into working the Move and I was informed that she know HOW to do it. She says she may have just forgot in a couple of the videos. Ok, show me... Well one thing led to another about how I try to teach and how "she" has to interpret what I say into what she understands. Anyway, whats below is the outcome of that conversation. To be honest, I just set things up and let her go Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did and trust me, we will be back to work on the basics tomorrow.

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[FiveFrameSwing]

I love the video. Megan has a bright future in front of her. Very nice! She is simply awesome!

And Megan is 100% correct about her needing to translate things. That how this works. That’s why such communications are important. That’s why face-to-face time works so well with hitting instruction. It is the feedback in terms of understanding their interpretation that allows us to advance their swings.

We do need to make a slight correction to her description. Twice she described the hips coiling with the foot pressure in the improper direction … but I think she meant her rear leg and not her rear foot. But what “stung” my ears is when she spoke of striding as far as she could. NOOOOOO … that will kill “the move”. It is “the move” that will dictate the stride … and a purposeful large stride kills what we would like her to learn. Fortunately when she performed her final demo she did move "forward by coiling" … that is, her coiling of the rear hip did ‘result’ in her striding forward ... and that is what we want. So she did it correctly ... but it wasn't what I "interpreted".

Still missing in her demo is the initial hip cock. Instead she starts her motion by bringing her hands back to the catcher. In other words, she starts her motion with her upper body … by stretching … or by putting her hands on the shelf.

Let’s not start the sequence with the upper body. Let’s instead start the sequence with the muscles in the rear upper leg. Let’s have the muscles in the rear upper leg “cock the rear hip”.

1: Cock the rear hip. Use the muscles in the rear upper leg to start this. Not the upper body. Do not begin the motion by placing the hands on the shelf. Begin the motion with a hip cock. Basically the idea is to ‘start’ the twisting/coiling of the rear leg with the rear butt cheek.

2: Continue to coil and allow the coil to move her forward … as it does in her demo.

3: As she continues to coil and “move forward by coiling”, place the hands on the shelf with RELAXED arms. This is when we establish “stretch”. We do not establish “stretch” as the first portion of the move.

4: Continue to uncoil the rear leg, reverse the rear hip, and thrust … as she does in her demo.

Let’s clean up the sequence. Let’s add a “hip cock” to start the sequence … and let’s not put the hands on the shelf until we are “moving forward by coiling”.

The sequence will be:

Cock the Rear Hip … Coil & Place the hands on the shelf … Swing.

 

[Immortal1]

Well, finally got a chance to do some practice swings. Had Megan read thru you last post FFS and see what we can do with regards to the Move. Oddly enough after looking at your clip above I can see Megan doing a small hip cock but it is after her hands are on the shelf, just as she starts her stride. We did work on the sequencing today and hopefully are headed in the correct direction. At first glance things don't seem much different but I think her sequence is better in the video below.

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I also did some soft toss. Not saying I did the best job at getting the ball where it needed to be but it was something different to do. Also, two added notes from Megan - new Hello Kitty hitting hat and she was bummed that nobody noticed her Converse High Top socks last time. She is a character for sure.

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[FiveFrameSwing]

Oddly enough after looking at your clip above I can see Megan doing a small hip cock but it is after her hands are on the shelf, just as she starts her stride. We did work on the sequencing today and hopefully are headed in the correct direction. At first glance things don't seem much different but I think her sequence is better in the video below.

Yes, you are correct. It was a sequence issue.

In the latest video ... I see what looks like a "pre-set" "hip cock". No, that's not the idea. We don't pre-set the hip cock. The hip cock is the start of the coil of the rear hip. We start the hip coil with a hip cock. She looked to use the correct muscles ... just she didn't allow the coil to flow naturally ... was more of a pre-set hip cock, followed by a pause in the coiling process, and then a lower body load. Instead, the coil is the lower body load, and it is initiated with a hip cock ... there is no pause between the hip cock and coiling the rear hip. Think of it this way ... from the rear leg perspective, the rear leg is either 'coiling' or 'uncoiling' ... and the hip cock starts the coiling of the rear leg.

 

[Immortal1]

Thanks FFS! It's starting to sink in or at least I am getting a better idea of what I am looking for (tough teaching an old dog new tricks). Had Megan read your response and she understands what her next step is. Again, thank you.