Opinions on DD Swing

[lhowser]

How about a look at a little progress

 

[CycloneSoftball22]

How about a look at a little progress

Yep. I try an let her know that she improving. The lower body is just something that she is struggling with right now , but we will keep at it and attack it. We dont have to be in a hurry. We have time.

 

[RayR]

The lower body is not an isolated issue....it never is....it is essentially one motor program that needs to be rewired....

Striding out (lower body unwinding) while the upper half is still winding or holding the windup is one motor program....

Just like throwing is one fluid movement....

Keep at it!

Yep. I try an let her know that she improving. The lower body is just something that she is struggling with right now , but we will keep at it and attack it. We dont have to be in a hurry. We have time.

 

[CycloneSoftball22]

The lower body is not an isolated issue....it never is....it is essentially one motor program that needs to be rewired....

Striding out (lower body unwinding) while the upper half is still winding or holding the windup is one motor program....

Just like throwing is one fluid movement....

Keep at it!

Understood. We have some things to work on. We have really only been at it for a few days. Going to take some time and patience

 

[RayR]

I understand completely....just wanted to be sure you didn't try and isolate the lower half and then work on the upper half when you can save so much time and aggravation by working the whole system at once (as it should)....you will be happily surprised when she figures out how to move better....even a little better...

 

[ArmWhip]

My eye tells me that the tee is too deep or maybe she is too close to it, both will cause the same problem. The contact point or tee placement in a situation like this is critical. She is attempting to hit the ball back up the middle so she has to square up the bat, if the designated contact point or tee placement is too deep one of the ways of compensating is to move the weight back or stay back so that you can get the bat into the back of the ball. If she was hitting on an open field she wouldn't have too adjust she could just hit the ball to the right side. This gives this round of swings that 'squish the bug' look.


The before and after pictures are interesting. Definitely some improvement. I know that the consensus is that she has lower body issues and while it is not optimal that is not what jumps out at me. Maybe it's my golf background but I see issues with her swing plane. The 'after' picture shows more tilt and the left arm is more on plane at contact but a long way from where it needs to be. I think that she has her door knocker nuckles aligned and this is causing a problem. Having the door knocker nuckles aligned is a golf grip and facilitates wrist roll, the 'before' picture shows that she is rolling her wrists into contact, a lot!!! In the 'after' picture notice the sharp angle between the right wrist and the forearm, this is not optimal. If you asked for opinions on the grip I don't think that many people here would favor door knock nuckles aligned.

I am also curious about what your daughter thinks about the swing. Most students that I work with have little or no idea about what they are trying to do other than making contact. I try to give them an idea or mental picture of what we are attempting to do. I start by asking them to imagine the path of the ball and tell them that we want the sweet spot of the bat to get into the path of the ball and cause a head on collision, driving the ball on a line back up the middle. We don't want to chop down or cut across the path of the ball, we want the bat traveling along and into the path of ball for a long contact zone. I bring this up because your daughter swings from high to low and across the path of the ball. Visualizing the path of ball and getting the barrel of the bat into and along the path might get her more on plane.

Here is a link to video that I got from another thread, it explains what I am talking about as far as swing plane goes and has an excellent drill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSgEMeaoUcU&feature=endscreen&NR=1

 

[CycloneSoftball22]

My eye tells me that the tee is too deep or maybe she is too close to it, both will cause the same problem. The contact point or tee placement in a situation like this is critical. She is attempting to hit the ball back up the middle so she has to square up the bat, if the designated contact point or tee placement is too deep one of the ways of compensating is to move the weight back or stay back so that you can get the bat into the back of the ball. If she was hitting on an open field she wouldn't have too adjust she could just hit the ball to the right side. This gives this round of swings that 'squish the bug' look.
The before and after pictures are interesting. Definitely some improvement. I know that the consensus is that she has lower body issues and while it is not optimal that is not what jumps out at me. Maybe it's my golf background but I see issues with her swing plane. The 'after' picture shows more tilt and the left arm is more on plane at contact but a long way from where it needs to be. I think that she has her door knocker nuckles aligned and this is causing a problem. Having the door knocker nuckles aligned is a golf grip and facilitates wrist roll, the 'before' picture shows that she is rolling her wrists into contact, a lot!!! In the 'after' picture notice the sharp angle between the right wrist and the forearm, this is not optimal. If you asked for opinions on the grip I don't think that many people here would favor door knock nuckles aligned.

I am also curious about what your daughter thinks about the swing. Most students that I work with have little or no idea about what they are trying to do other than making contact. I try to give them an idea or mental picture of what we are attempting to do. I start by asking them to imagine the path of the ball and tell them that we want the sweet spot of the bat to get into the path of the ball and cause a head on collision, driving the ball on a line back up the middle. We don't want to chop down or cut across the path of the ball, we want the bat traveling along and into the path of ball for a long contact zone. I bring this up because your daughter swings from high to low and across the path of the ball. Visualizing the path of ball and getting the barrel of the bat into and along the path might get her more on plane.

As far as the knuckles go , she doesnt line up the door knocking knuckles at setup (but that doesnt mean she doesnt go into that position at some point). Also , the picture we have been trying to work on is get the barrel to the ball and hitting everything up the middle. I think the high to low path crops up because we have been trying to break the "knob to the ball" habit that came about from her old BC when she was younger and I think she comes across a bit due to being too close to the tee.

 

[bobbyb]

Don't want to screw up the path your on...so take it for what its worth or others can say don't do it now or whatever.

We have 2-3 new players every year..and we work with different HS girls and Rec girls every year and most of them have this problem coming it.

When our girls that aren't getting the rear hip leading and uncoils on stride…like your dd...we put them in a launch position. Like below..get her in the position Caitlin is in at the beginning of the clip. Even if you have to gently guide the parts in the correct position.

Notice the head, shoulders, elbows, rear knee and front knee/foot. She will FEEL more what she is suppose to feel… when she strides into launch/heel drop. She will get an END feeling of where she is suppose to be. Knowing what it feels like when you get to heel drop can help the stride…. to get to it…if that makes sense.

Then have her concentrate from this position....on having the rear hip thrust foward and belly button turning to pitcher fast as she can. AND keep the rear elbow out of the belly. Then she can feel the sensation of the rear hip leading the upper body into the swing phase. In fact i would take the ball out of play as crankermo said…and come back do this with the ball…after she feels this. She will notice the power increase when the rear hip leads…and will not feel like she has to arm the swing to spank the ball. It'll be an ahha moment when she feels it.

When she goes back to a full swing…she will have two references for feeling if she is off or not. I also think it will help her understand what the others are saying about toe touch etc.

As others said...it takes some time...but we find this helps and I believe that is what lhowser was suggesting earlier in this thread. JMO

She's improving...keep it up!

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

How about a look at a little progress

True ... the objective of a bent rear arm at contact helps ... now she needs to get the sequence correct. Sequence trumps all.

 

[CycloneSoftball22]

Hopefully , progress with the sequence will start to show soon. I think the key is for me to find a way to communicate things a bit more clearly and with more patience.