OK Fellas, the coach needs some help...Bad!

[Huskerdu]

Well, it seems that our organization has adopted a Rotational Hitting approach and every single girl on the 12U and 16u teams step in the box, their toes are pointed slightly in and they shift their weight slightly back and forth waiting for the pitch...and then they hit the snot out of the ball...My approach is different, and my kids are not hitting the snot out of the ball.

I did alot of work with Colorado State University coach who teaches a load-stride-fire approach, and I have added a back knee pinch to get the hips moving. I just can't see how kids can get their timing on a pitch without loading.

I have one kid on my 12U team who has a personal coach who is teaching her rotational hitting, however, she is wrapping like crazy, pulling her left eye looking into the side of her nose.

I have been criticized because the load-stride-fire linear approach changes the eye-plane up-down-up, and if kids do it wrong, I can see it, but creating a wrapping double move situation where you take the kids hands away from the ball and then ask her to cover that distance to hit a pitch coming at her 50mph, seems to be worse.

SO, I have worked on my kids for a year with load-stride-fire and some of them have become ball strikers, but the other approach is getting more results than mine.

Can you guys help me here? I don't want to deconstruct my entire approach and confuse my kids, so how do I change, what do I add, what would you encourage me to think differently about?

Thanks!!!

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I teach exactly what you describe your coaches doing. I changed about 10 years ago. It won't confuse your kids. Why are you hanging on, when the results have been so good with the other method?

 

[rdbass]

Well, it seems that our organization has adopted a Rotational Hitting approach and every single girl on the 12U and 16u teams step in the box, their toes are pointed slightly in and they shift their weight slightly back and forth waiting for the pitch...and then they hit the snot out of the ball...My approach is different, and my kids are not hitting the snot out of the ball.
I agree with Amy. I don't understand what you teach and what your question is?

 

[RichK]

The dirty little secret of fastpitch is that a simple approach that has an athletic and/or strong girl taking a composite bat directly to a ball in an aggressive manner and in a way that has them successfully squaring it up CAN be very successful, and with relatively short fences can result in home runs.

For a hitter to max out their ability against the highest level of pitching, however, an active load stretch/fire approach is necessary, I do believe -- and as you are advocating as well.

Such an approach is ABSOLUTELY necessary for boys to succeed in baseball with huge fields, wood/bbcor bats, facing killer sliders/off-speed, etc. If they don't find it they become punch and judy hitters and drop out of the game.

Such an approach is NOT absolutely necessary for success in the fastpitch batter's box, as you have described very well in your scenario. I have felt what you described playing out with my own team and in my own experiences as well.

What's the answer? I guess it depends on your goals, your window for "success" and honestly how well you can teach the advanced swing. Keep reading and learning and working with your girls to make them the best they can be. In particular, pay attention to discussions about how to maximize coil/stretch and swinging with the back vs. pushing with the chest, ie, find the real power source in the swing...if you simplify things down to focus on that portion of the stretch/fire swing (rather than -- at least for now -- focusing on big loading actions that sometimes CAN be hard for younger hitters to pull off) you may able to beat the power-rotational hitters at their own game, while ALSO leaving a lot MORE room for your hitters to grow as they add in bigger loading actions.

Good luck.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Have to agree with rdbass ... there isn't enough detail to comment. The sequence of "load-stride-fire" could be perfectly fine, or it could be problematic, ... comes down to how it is taught/learned. If the "load" is taught as an initiation of "coil", and the "stride" is taught as "stretch", and the "fire" is taught as "separate" ... then I don't see much of an issue. On the other hand, a focus directly on a 'stride' can often be where issues creep up. To me anyway, the 'stride' is a 'result' of how one 'loads' their backside ... and frequently enough, directing someone to 'stride' can impact a healthy loading pattern. Would need more detail ... and video of course would be hugely helpful.

 

[guero_gordo]

If I read OP correctly, he has already accepted the need to adapt his teaching, but is asking for help in understanding the sequence and how to teach it.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Guero ... why did he bother to go through the trouble of describing his approach? Almost seemed like he wanted to know what he might be doing wrong ... or perhaps what he could transfer over to the newer approach. His organization has adopted an approach that he compliments ..... if that is what he is after, why not learn it from them directly instead of asking people that don't have insight into what is being taught there?

Sounds like he's interested in migrating towards a different approach while saving face about what he's already taught.

 

[rdbass]

SO, I have worked on my kids for a year with load-stride-fire and some of them have become ball strikers, but the other approach is getting more results than mine.
Huskerdu,
What is the Load that you teach?
What is the stride that you teach?
What is the fire that you teach?
Do you teach Shift and Swing? (Good) Or Shift then Swing?

 

[Huskerdu]

The rotational hitting approach is very popular and I assumed that those who would comment on it would be knowledgeable about and would be able to speak to its effectiveness and the pitfalls of having younger girls wrap instead of load. I believe Candrea sp? used to embrace this approach years ago but changed...(to what and why?)

The differences I see is that the rotational hitting approach loads the hands and not the lower body, my observation is that the teams I see using this approach and who hit well, almost never incorporate their back foot and even a weight distribution into the ball at contact.

In my load-stride-fire approach, it is almost all lower body in that the load (a slight weight shift to the back leg) keeps the hands absolutely still and turning the hip and back foot get the hands started through the zone. Arm hitters in my experience are the ones who cannot catch up to an overpower pitcher nor can they adjust well on the fly to hit a change up.

Using the rotational hitting approach I am not sure what to do with the lower body in terms of timing once you "load" with your hands and how in the heck do you keep kids from wrapping?

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

There are various teaching approaches ... there are approaches that are purely rotational (spin), there are approaches that are mostly linear (momentum based), and there are approaches that are a mixture of linear and rotational movements ... some advocating linear-to-rotational and some advocating rotational-to-linear. Rather than speak in terms of 'rotational' and 'linear', I prefer to speak in terms of the specifics movements relative to the portion of the swing being discussed.