Opinions on attacking the lead elbow

[FiveFrameSwing]

And none of them have their back elbows jammed into their rib cage. Every hitter in those pics has a small amount of clearance. This is what Hitter/Bustos promote and some want to claim that the SL example was/is what they promote. The amount of clearance of the back elbow is dependent on pitch location.

Personally I'd like to believe that no one is promoting what SL demonstrated in his demonstration. However I've seen the same thing with Howard's and IFBU's demos, and hence the confusion on what is really being advocated in this regard.

I do like what you are saying here in terms of the elbow NOT being jammed into the rib cage, and hopefully implying that it shouldn't be extended far from the body as those demos from three different people showed, ... and that it is a function of pitch location.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Trust me Chris - I am trying to turn the barrel with my hands. The body supports this action. Look - there are ways to screw this up. I do need to keep my hands near my shoulder as I turn the barrel - I can't let them cast - but that to me is understanding what the hands should be doing.

Give it shot - video yourself throwing a bat.

MTS ... regarding the bold .... absolutely right on the money. The body supports the objective ... in this case the throwing of the barrel.

There should be no objective to "maintain the hinge angle". What people see is an angle maintained during the beginning motion ... but that is not what they are working on ... in fact there is a pressure building during that stage of the swing.

Here ... look at this video of a golf club being thrown. Similar activity. Notice the focus on the legs to "support" the activity.

 

[RayR]

FFS - honestly just trying to "turn the barrel" or "throw the barrel" here. IMO, trying to maintain the hinge is recipe to locking things up.

I admit that I am trying to keep the hands near the shoulder as I know I tend to get sweepy. Keeping the hands near the shoulder means to me - keeping the hands tighter to my body. I am not trying to turn the shoulders and keep the hands on the shoulder.

 

[RayR]

I had my student throw bats last night - could tell she was holding back. IMO, letting go is about the legs. She started to really "throw the bat" could hear the whoosh. Next few front toss pitches hit very hard. Then went back to her way. Stopped the session and started throwing bats again. Back and forth the whole session. She is still not comfortable "throwing bats" but as I told her, she gets it - now she has to tell herself to do it every pitch.

 

[RayR]

I like the bat throwing drill, but can you please throw a Wal Mart bat instead of that nice composite one?

No worries - it is a cage bat I use - worth about 2.00

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

FFS - honestly just trying to "turn the barrel" or "throw the barrel" here. IMO, trying to maintain the hinge is recipe to locking things up.

I admit that I am trying to keep the hands near the shoulder as I know I tend to get sweepy. Keeping the hands near the shoulder means to me - keeping the hands tighter to my body. I am not trying to turn the shoulders and keep the hands on the shoulder.

Thank you. Can you explain why you had a 'static start' in your 'open top hand demo', but here have a better 'lower body running start'. Is it this drill that promoted a better sequence, is it something you've been working on in your swing, did the prior drill inhibit it, or .... .... .... basically I'd like to know why the change from the earlier 'static start'. This is better ... and I'd like to know what you've done to get there.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I had my student throw bats last night - could tell she was holding back. IMO, letting go is about the legs. She started to really "throw the bat" could hear the whoosh. Next few front toss pitches hit very hard. Then went back to her way. Stopped the session and started throwing bats again. Back and forth the whole session. She is still not comfortable "throwing bats" but as I told her, she gets it - now she has to tell herself to do it every pitch.

When I throw bats with the kids my concern is with the knob hurting their hands on release. Have you noticed that ... and if so, how do you deal with it?

Here's another video clip from someone who is big into throwing golf clubs to practice his 'game'.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

FFS - honestly just trying to "turn the barrel" or "throw the barrel" here. IMO, trying to maintain the hinge is recipe to locking things up.

I admit that I am trying to keep the hands near the shoulder as I know I tend to get sweepy. Keeping the hands near the shoulder means to me - keeping the hands tighter to my body. I am not trying to turn the shoulders and keep the hands on the shoulder.

MTS ... don't know if you followed JBooth's posts ... but he advocated doing what you are describing with the cue of "throw from the back shoulder" (or a cue similar to that).

 

[Chris O'Leary]

I admit that I am trying to keep the hands near the shoulder as I know I tend to get sweepy. Keeping the hands near the shoulder means to me - keeping the hands tighter to my body. I am not trying to turn the shoulders and keep the hands on the shoulder.

That works for many people.

 

[SBFAMILY]

The Hanson Principle in the way I understand it and talking to teachers is how to teach what they see and how to get the hitter to feel what they are seeing can be summed up by telling the hitter, just see it and do it or see the ball and hit the ball as you just saw someone else demonstrate it and they are really good at it and you will be also if you watch it enough! After talking to my wife who is a teacher of LD kids this just doesn’t work. I think this might explain why we disagree on many posts. One other point. Epstein up till 2001 had never worked with females and his entire client base was males. That is why many in the softball community have some issues with some of his teachings. Him and Don Slaught got into a heated discussion on one of those topics and Mike had finally admitted he was wrong.