paralysis by analysis, or something like that...

[erniekru]

DD is having an awesome time with HS softball, they're playing LOTS and DD is getting reps that she's been missing for a couple years being on a larger (maybe huge) roster.. Anyway, with lots of games comes lots of video and an new and interesting to me perspective on hitting. I remember going through this game and watching this particular at bat for DD.. Total "meh, unremarkable" not going to save the clip.

Recently, one of the parents starting taking DSLR pics of the games and I found this sequence by browsing and thought, "hey, this is pretty awesome" After going back through the stream, I discovered that the "meh" video was actually the "hey, pretty awesome" pictures. At this point, I had an epiphany... I ride MTB and motocross, have raced road bikes, street motorcycles on tracks, race cars, pretty much you name it. The video ALWAYS makes things look small, slow and pretty unremarkable, so why do I expect video of DD's softball to be any different?! A lot of us analyze video and sometimes it's easy to forget how dynamic, powerful, and just plain awesome this sport is... even when it might not look it in video. This photo sequence shows just how hard she's trying to make something happen (granted, not the best swing), when it would've been easy for me to say otherwise from looking at the video.

Here is the video


and here are the stills (ball right after contact)

 

[_MIA_]

Well a still picture is going to be hard to show how "dynamic" something is but I do agree that it is easier to pick out a still that makes the swing look good (not that the swing you showed was bad...more talking about my kid )

 

[Strike2]

Looks like she's trying to stay squared up on a low pitch, and hits it how she should.

I see similar things with my kid. I've got a fair amount of recent video of some very strong hits. When I look at the video in real time, there are elements to DD's swing that aren't quite what I want. However, when I slow the frames down or stop them at the moment of contact, there's a whole lot of good when it matters most.

You reach a point where you can tinker at the edges, but revamping a swing that's mostly effective often brings more problems than it solves. I find there's lower-hanging fruit with shaping her mental approach.