No stride?

[whatsup]

Was talking with a coach the other day who was advocating teaching 10U-12U girls to hit without taking a stride. He demonstrated "pre-loading" by lifting the heel of the front foot off the ground and rotating it towards the pitcher such that the bottom of the shoe was essentially facing the shortstop.

That move does seem to promote cocking the hips and getting the weight on the inside of the back thigh. The swing is apparently initiated from that position without taking a stride.

It was a brief conversation and I don't remember the college he cited which apparently teaches something similar. I'm skeptical, given that I haven't seen many (any?) game swings like this in the videos I've reviewed but I'm curious what you guys think?

Thanks!

 

[Cannonball]

whatsup, that is what I did with my child and her teams for several years. We are now working on adding in stride. She's had a lot of success with the no stride approach and so, really didn't want to. Her change now is try to add more power.

 

[SBFAMILY]

Try to throw a ball with no stride? Cannonball Is correct it is about power.

 

[whatsup]

whatsup, that is what I did with my child and her teams for several years....

So, if you had it to do over again, would you still teach no stride initially and then refine the swing by adding a stride as they get older or would you try to incorporate a stride initially?

 

[SBFAMILY]

Screwball. We call it attack mode on 2 strikes, we are just trying to make contact to avoid the K.

 

[Wellphyt]

IMO the advantage of teaching young players how to hit using a stride is it makes it easier for them to grasp the concept of a sequence. As the pitching gets better many players will shorten up their stride to stay more compact, which can help with timing. Most players will trade some power for better timing.

 

[nanotech14]

My dd uses a small stride as cue to walk away from the hands to create more momentum and also as a timing mechanisum.

 

[quincy]

This is the move I have taught my DD. The main reason was because she was picking her front leg up about 2 feet to start her forward stride. I have only had my DD do this, not any of the other girls. Both my DD and me have received grief because of it but she is hitting a lot better. Not sure if at some point I will try to unwind it.

 

[Ken Krause]

Personally, I'm not a fan of the no-stride. I like them to move the front foot forward a few inches to help get more momentum and attack the ball. A lot of no-striders I've seen up close tend to look more like they're defending than attacking.

No doubt there are no-striders who do just fine. I remember seeing some clips of MLB hitters doing it. But I actually think it's more difficult to do that and hit the ball hard. Guess part of it depends on your goals. If you just want to make contact/avoid striking out, a no-stride is probably the easiest way to do it. If you want to hit at a key position in the lineup, you'll need to hit the ball harder than that.

 

[Cannonball]

So, if you had it to do over again, would you still teach no stride initially and then refine the swing by adding a stride as they get older or would you try to incorporate a stride initially?

Last year, at least 10 of the top 15 hitters in our area grew up with me as their coach and in this system. One of them hit 17 home runs last year in high school. My child will have several school records including most of the power categories. So, given past player's success along with my child's success, no, I wouldn't change. However, at some point, most of these girls evolved in to stride. The aforementioned young lady and my child are now both adding stride before this hs season and for college in the fall. I believe both college coaches want this.

I think important to this is that while they did not stride, they did load in a manner like Albert Pujols where they attempted to adduct the knee while showing the pitcher their heel and then set that heel down as they began the unload. In other words they were not dead in the water on that front leg and their hips were active.

whatsup, knowing what to do depends a lot upon what you are comfortable with and can coach. I worked with some highly talented athletes as well and so, their athleticism had a lot to do with their success regardless of system that they learned. You have a lot of people here who have given you their advice and obviously, they don't agree with me. Good luck to you and the young ones you are working with.