Need help with my daughters swinging

[fanboi22]

View attachment 23656

1. Rear forearm is vertical (green). Should be flat (yellow)

2. Bat head is too flat/low (green). Should be more up (yellow, about 55 deg)

This is causing the bat drag. The back arm/elbow is a giant lever. You are not using it.

Are these truly issues if the hands reacted to the swing launch? I see it more of an issue of 'leaving the hands behind'. George Brett has his rear forearm vertical like you show, but his bat is not up. There were other hitters on this forum that were college players that started with the rear elbow farther down (forearm not flat) and were hitting successfully.

My DD was proof that just putting those two indicators in the position you stated doesn't fix the result (even though i do like the more vertical bat barrel though, helps my DD from dropping before she swings). This hitters elbow out races the hands and 'pulls' thru causing the drag. I would think even in her current starting position she should be able to not drag. Just need to 'activate the hands' as it were. Connect the top hand with the shoulder while trying to punch thru to the ball all the while getting palm up palm down. I am finding alot of old school cues actually help if you know the intent.

imo if the first move is to 'slot' the rear elbow then you promote drag. Slot happens as a result of the proper actions. I have also told my DD to swing thru and think about not allowing the rear elbow to hit or brush the side. A little overbaked but it gives her something to 'feel'. In combination with the one handed top hand and bottom hand swing drills you start to 'feel' and see the results. just my opinion as always.

 

[jdint]

imo if the first move is to 'slot' the rear elbow then you promote drag. Slot happens as a result of the proper actions.

What actions do you feel cause the rear elbow to slot? Been talking about this with DD this week.

 

[fanboi22]

What actions do you feel cause the rear elbow to slot? Been talking about this with DD this week.

Not an action but a kid without body awareness is my first thought. And an adult. I don't think the apple falls too far from the tree, and my softball swing aint doing me any favors in the teaching department.

I think it is where a kid thinks the power comes from. (i still like alot of Ron Sullivans stuff, he would go into more detail on the cause) Collapsing the arms in and allowing them to use the torso power without trying to use the arms own power. Ie the punching muscle as well as others. When i realized the swing wasn't as 'around' as i originally thought it got me focused on the 'short to'. Or using the hands being connected to the torso and maximizing all the muscles on the top half vs ignoring the 'hand/arms'. This then also came with the bat lag and release to whip vs overbaked early barrel speed.

In any case, my focus with DD is eliminating contact between rear elbow and her side. It forces her into better posture and leaves room for the hands to get thru. My thought is 'forward first' not down and pull. Solid grip on the handle because the force you produce with the upper body is alot and the hands can just stay behind if not specifically worked on. At least in my opinion which is why i don't feel sequence fixes everything. sequence with parts in the proper location moving correctly, but not sequence alone.

Hope that answered the question. I just think there is more focus needed on not slotting which requires the hands to go first with space to move. I assume this cue goes away once the hitter forms the correct muscle memory. Still a work in process with DD.

 

[efastball]

George Brett has his rear forearm vertical like you show, but his bat is not up.

Brett, like every other MLB hitter has a near flat rear forearm, and most have the bat head up approx 55 deg.

 

[Work=wins]

OP,


Looks like more of the same.

In order to stop turning. You gotta stop turning. Close off the stance so she can release the barrel. Get her chest over the plate a bit and narrow the stance 4-5 inches. Make sure the head stays fairly still during the load. See if things look different.

 

[fanboi22]

View attachment 23660

Brett, like every other MLB hitter has a near flat rear forearm, and most have the bat head up approx 55 deg.

oops, my bad. typo. i was trying to agree with you on Bretts rear forearm, sorry i said vertical, meant to say flat.

 

[Shawn]

She is getting jammed or the back elbow is stuck.

Needs to turn the barrel with the hands while the arms support the hands. Her hands are dead right now.

 

[Beeg]

As many said, work on one thing at a time.
1) Work on the dropped hands. Your DD is trying to match the incoming ball's plane. My daughter did that at the beginning of her season, so she was either popping up the ball or grounding them. I told her to exaggerate her load. Load her hands higher than her ear, like a upward smiley face. Exaggerate on every pitch, even if she missed the ball and it felt awkward. The goal is to not drop that hands. It helped that we have a Zepp, so when she dropped her hands, the swing angle would be near 0-deg, and that's instant feedback for her.

2) Once she got that down, we added "swing as hard as you can". By not slowing down and trying to match the pitch speed, she can now really hit the ball. Esp. with pitchers being slow, you don't want her to match the pitch speed. So have her keep her hands by her ears, then swing directly at the ball from that angle.

Before every swing, we told DD to repeat "load and smash" in her head. Before every practice, we ask her what are you working on. My dd is 13 and still takes her a full minute to remember what she is working on. Yes, we had her verbalize it. Load and smash. For every 5 pitches, we repeated that. Now it is in her head and we no longer have to repeat it.

Only do 2 things at a time. Any more and you'd confuse them. Do tons of tossing yourself before you move onto a live pitcher, esp. at 9, there aren't that many accurate pitchers, so your DD may be worried about being hit (even if she said she isn't). We bought a pitching net that goes onto our existing hitting net, and we just toss of balls on our own until she gets the timing. Again, the Zepp was great to allow us to see the swing angle and pitching speed after every swing to give her instant feedback. After she fixes the hands-dropping, then you can add other things, such as how to finish her swing, how to add power to her swing, etc.


Good luck. It took us hours and hours on the field ourselves to get our DD to not drop her hands. Your DD is still young, so this is the best time to create good habits.

 

[julray]

View attachment 23660

Brett, like every other MLB hitter has a near flat rear forearm, and most have the bat head up approx 55 deg.

I agree most had/have a near flat rear forearm, but there are exceptions

 

[ArmWhip]

Hitting off a high tee has a way of ameliorating the worst effects of bat drag. With the high point of contact no need to drop the hands/bat head and get down to the 'level' of the ball. If you want something simple to try gradually lower the tee while keeping her launch point the same. But in order to get down to the level of the ball she has to tilt over or she'll just start dropping the hands/bat head again. If you want to discourage her from from dropping the hands/bat head move the tee from behind the ball to inside the ball (between her body and the ball)and have it slightly higher. To get to contact as the ball/tee is lowered without hitting the inside tee she will have to keep her hands up and angle the bat head down.