My DD is playing for a new team this year - her choice, not mine, and I have backed away from coaching in order to let her have some space and play for a team without her dad being involved (this is a whole other post!).
Anyway, they started indoors yesterday with hitting once a week. The coaches (all dads with little coaching experience) seem to have the approach of looking for drills, and having the girls perform them without much thought or emphasis on proper technique. One odd drill I saw was they had the girls doing one-handed swings with their regular bats. What I saw was the girls (and the coaches who were demonstrating) drop their hands to waist-level just to initiate a swing. Almost every kid on this team has a problem with dropping their hands when they initiate a swing, and the coaches know this is a flaw that needs to be corrected. However, I see them using this drill that seems to ingrain dropping their hands and not emphasize a proper hand path. They "love" this drill, even though none of them can tell me exactly what it it supposed to emphasize and what the proper technique should be.
Can someone please school me on the purpose of this drill and what you are looking for when the girls are doing the drill? Shouldn't the coaches be using a smaller, lighter "one-handed" bat to do this drill? Does someone have video that shows proper and improper technique or common flaws?
Anyway, they started indoors yesterday with hitting once a week. The coaches (all dads with little coaching experience) seem to have the approach of looking for drills, and having the girls perform them without much thought or emphasis on proper technique. One odd drill I saw was they had the girls doing one-handed swings with their regular bats. What I saw was the girls (and the coaches who were demonstrating) drop their hands to waist-level just to initiate a swing. Almost every kid on this team has a problem with dropping their hands when they initiate a swing, and the coaches know this is a flaw that needs to be corrected. However, I see them using this drill that seems to ingrain dropping their hands and not emphasize a proper hand path. They "love" this drill, even though none of them can tell me exactly what it it supposed to emphasize and what the proper technique should be.
Can someone please school me on the purpose of this drill and what you are looking for when the girls are doing the drill? Shouldn't the coaches be using a smaller, lighter "one-handed" bat to do this drill? Does someone have video that shows proper and improper technique or common flaws?
