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OK jdaddy..lets get caught up!
Remember..everything upstream is about gathering momentum to transfer into swing…firing the hips…throwing barrel thru the ball. Lets go into the swing phase now. PIc 1 & 2 have been discussed prior.
Whats good whats bad about Ideal Impact positions pic 3, compared to Caitlin?
I see at least five moves to get her to feel a more correct position to feel here…..head down, front elbow up & bent, front leg straight and hips forward. Overall it isn't all bad because its smaller degrees of movement…however….that is alot of moves. The best thing she is that she does end with her hips turned completely causing the rear foot pulled up.
Launch: Most important position is what you are focusing on now.
What about the movement from launch towards ideal impact?
We could describe this a lot of ways…but in keeping it simple
we basically see a….late...slow firing of the lower body (engine 1)
and a weak firing of the upper body. (engine 2)
The motion between the beginning of the clip above and end of the clip…well...we don't want her feeling that.
So…her body hasn't felt a good lower body firing or upper body firing or a good ideal impact position.
Since the swing phase will feel different for her…. I would consider you focus on having her feel a couple different things…till her body feels it…to set her up for having a better feel when you start working on the swing with cues.
What you want her to feel is
Lower body: As soon as she goes into heel drop…fire the hips immediately…while straightening the front leg as it accepts the weight shift.
Upper body: As the hips fire…a stronger front side…with the front elbow leading AS she throws the barrel of the bat thru the ball.
My goal is to get them to the point …that when we are swinging the bat…i cue them with
1. Fire the hip……2. Fire the lead elbow
I do this till…till the front elbow is not an issue…
Then its
1. Fire the hip….2. Throw the barrel thru the ball.
Understand the REAR FOOT feeling first: as many have described on the forum….If you stand… turning your hips to the left…. as if you are going to walk in that direction…you will feel pressure on the front inside of the rear foot as it pushes off. You are hoping… that you do not have to…bring her focus to the rear foot ever.
We don't care at this point whether they fall off the rear foot…going from load to launch…or whether they push off strongly as if they are going to run to pitcher…or if they bring the front leg up for coil…..long as long as they don't spin the rear heel around the foot. We will let them fill that in for now. If you bring her focus to the rear foot…it slows things down.
FEELING THE LOWER BODY
HIP WARM UP: Our girls do dynamic stretches for warm up and we have them do a hip warm up during that. It is basically the lower body…doing "the move" that you can read about on the forum. We can watch what they do and know what they are doing with hips and weight. Its not complicated…most girls do it naturally when playing around.
1. Have her get into her body in a launch stance…let her shoulders relax, arms relaxed down to sides….pull in belly button slightly to give low back/pelvic stability.
2. Lift front heel…letting front knee turn in slightly.
3. Have her drop the heel as she rotates their hip (belly button to pitcher) to that side…straightening the front leg…. as it accepts the weight.
4. Then she rotates back to neutral… to the other direction smoothly and repeats. Not too slow & not too fast…just rhythmically one way then the other. Don't worry about turning right all the way…if her stance is a launch position stance…rearward will be a little different than forward rotation. You do want to watch that their front foot on heel drop goes back into the original front foot position she has at the launch position.
IF she is doing it correctly…you will see the arms/hands swing in a more circular pattern…and they can keep their head relatively centered. There hip will turn left fully and their weight will be on a straight front leg…and the rear heel will have pull up. The whole key is turn the hip first.
This lower body warm up move is something we want them to learn… to a stage 4. They should be able to carry on a conversation and their body still do this correctly. If you have a group of them doing it during their warm up…its pretty easy to see who is doing it wrong. With our young girls coming in…if they aren't doing this correctly …we pull the girl off and teach her this till she owns it.
What It Is Not…hips turn….weight stays back…rear foot turns with weight on it (squashes the bug). If arms are relaxed…the swinging motion of the arms…. will still be close to a circle but will be more elliptical. They have a tendency to do this when they do not use the stomach to stabilize the lower spine. They will relax the stomach..arch the back and thrust pelvis forward. You do not want this arching of the back during this move.
What It Is Not…weight shift to front leg…hips turn…rear foot comes off ground. The swing of the arms will be forward and backwards more with a little circular motion at the end…and head will come forward.
FEELING UPPER BODY
You also want her to feel the upper body… of the front elbow leading... the throwing of the barrel thru the ball.
LEAD ELBOW
1. Guide her into a good launch position…with right elbow by her side…not tucked into ribs or front of stomach. Have her grab her left thumb again as if it was a bat. Then have her stick her right hand thumb up and turn it to point behind her…palm will be up.
2. Guide her front elbow up 3 to 4 inches or so. Her front arm will be in front of her chest a few inches…..parallel to the ground.
3. Belly button slightly pulled in (not sinking into spine, arching back or slumping)….Rotate the hips…straightening the front leg as it accepts the weight with the lead elbow up.
Do this a few times…so she feels leading with the front elbow up and rear elbow at her side….while she rotates her hips. The shoulders will follow leading with the front/up elbow.
This too is simple…
If she can carry on a conversation…doing both of these correctly…her body knows it.
FEELING A STRONG FRONT SIDE
When we start focusing on the swing phase for the upper body…i want them to feel the strength difference of having the rear elbow slotted on the side rather than the belly or into the ribs…then progress to feeling a strong front side upper body while straightening the front leg.
1. From the launch position the #2 position above. Put the elbow into the front of the gut into sides of ribs…you will probably notice…she will turn her rear upper arm out…where the hands go back…causing an arm bar.
2. Put your right hand on her front elbow. Have her apply the pressure to your hand as if she moving the bat from her previous bad position.
3. Return to the proper position. (feeling upper body #2) ….do the same thing. She will feel the difference. You can do the same thing when they have the bat in their hands later to reinforce that if needed.
4. Now your goal is to have feel a strong front side upper body…. on her front elbow (FIRE THE FRONT ELBOW). From the same position in #2 of Feeling the upper body. Place pressure on the front (pitcher side) of her elbow/arm. As she begins to rotates her hips first…straightening the front leg…have her push with her front elbow into your slight resistance. Only apply enough pressure for her to feel it as and still be able to rotate her upper body. Dowels are good for this..because they give unless you got one too stout.
I do this a few times….making sure belly button is pulled in enough to stabilize the lower back/pelvis…and head is down seeing ball…as they perform the move. Reinforce the cue… fire with the front elbow.
Then do it again…with cues fire hips….fire the lead elbows. Just make sure hips are first.
If she is feeling this correctly…move on to swinging with those two cues…Then re-evaluate video.
I would think your dd is going to have a tendency to want to over extend (arch) her low back during the swing…head coming up etc. Because of this…you should consider doing fewer reps and doing them correctly above…and with actual swings here too…then build up in the number of reps. Its more important to do 10 times correctly than 20 times incorrectly…so she will adapt correctly. Same with the lower body hip warm up.
Our girls have to learn the HIP WARM UP and LEADING WITH THE ELBOW…before they can join the other girls doing dry drills.
We do dynamic stretching that incorporates the hip warm up….do throwing….then do dry drills for them to focus on technique before batting practice.
Highly recommend you spend some time…. learning some simple dynamic stretching routines for the whole body….to do at the beginning of a work out, adding the hip warm up and lead elbow (till elbow its not an issue)..and a few age appropriate core exercises to do after the hitting session followed by static stretching. It will benefit her…without it taking a lot of time.
Hope this makes sense!
Good luck.
Remember..everything upstream is about gathering momentum to transfer into swing…firing the hips…throwing barrel thru the ball. Lets go into the swing phase now. PIc 1 & 2 have been discussed prior.
Whats good whats bad about Ideal Impact positions pic 3, compared to Caitlin?
I see at least five moves to get her to feel a more correct position to feel here…..head down, front elbow up & bent, front leg straight and hips forward. Overall it isn't all bad because its smaller degrees of movement…however….that is alot of moves. The best thing she is that she does end with her hips turned completely causing the rear foot pulled up.
Launch: Most important position is what you are focusing on now.
What about the movement from launch towards ideal impact?
We could describe this a lot of ways…but in keeping it simple
we basically see a….late...slow firing of the lower body (engine 1)
and a weak firing of the upper body. (engine 2)
The motion between the beginning of the clip above and end of the clip…well...we don't want her feeling that.
So…her body hasn't felt a good lower body firing or upper body firing or a good ideal impact position.
Since the swing phase will feel different for her…. I would consider you focus on having her feel a couple different things…till her body feels it…to set her up for having a better feel when you start working on the swing with cues.
What you want her to feel is
Lower body: As soon as she goes into heel drop…fire the hips immediately…while straightening the front leg as it accepts the weight shift.
Upper body: As the hips fire…a stronger front side…with the front elbow leading AS she throws the barrel of the bat thru the ball.
My goal is to get them to the point …that when we are swinging the bat…i cue them with
1. Fire the hip……2. Fire the lead elbow
I do this till…till the front elbow is not an issue…
Then its
1. Fire the hip….2. Throw the barrel thru the ball.
Understand the REAR FOOT feeling first: as many have described on the forum….If you stand… turning your hips to the left…. as if you are going to walk in that direction…you will feel pressure on the front inside of the rear foot as it pushes off. You are hoping… that you do not have to…bring her focus to the rear foot ever.
We don't care at this point whether they fall off the rear foot…going from load to launch…or whether they push off strongly as if they are going to run to pitcher…or if they bring the front leg up for coil…..long as long as they don't spin the rear heel around the foot. We will let them fill that in for now. If you bring her focus to the rear foot…it slows things down.
FEELING THE LOWER BODY
HIP WARM UP: Our girls do dynamic stretches for warm up and we have them do a hip warm up during that. It is basically the lower body…doing "the move" that you can read about on the forum. We can watch what they do and know what they are doing with hips and weight. Its not complicated…most girls do it naturally when playing around.
1. Have her get into her body in a launch stance…let her shoulders relax, arms relaxed down to sides….pull in belly button slightly to give low back/pelvic stability.
2. Lift front heel…letting front knee turn in slightly.
3. Have her drop the heel as she rotates their hip (belly button to pitcher) to that side…straightening the front leg…. as it accepts the weight.
4. Then she rotates back to neutral… to the other direction smoothly and repeats. Not too slow & not too fast…just rhythmically one way then the other. Don't worry about turning right all the way…if her stance is a launch position stance…rearward will be a little different than forward rotation. You do want to watch that their front foot on heel drop goes back into the original front foot position she has at the launch position.
IF she is doing it correctly…you will see the arms/hands swing in a more circular pattern…and they can keep their head relatively centered. There hip will turn left fully and their weight will be on a straight front leg…and the rear heel will have pull up. The whole key is turn the hip first.
This lower body warm up move is something we want them to learn… to a stage 4. They should be able to carry on a conversation and their body still do this correctly. If you have a group of them doing it during their warm up…its pretty easy to see who is doing it wrong. With our young girls coming in…if they aren't doing this correctly …we pull the girl off and teach her this till she owns it.
What It Is Not…hips turn….weight stays back…rear foot turns with weight on it (squashes the bug). If arms are relaxed…the swinging motion of the arms…. will still be close to a circle but will be more elliptical. They have a tendency to do this when they do not use the stomach to stabilize the lower spine. They will relax the stomach..arch the back and thrust pelvis forward. You do not want this arching of the back during this move.
What It Is Not…weight shift to front leg…hips turn…rear foot comes off ground. The swing of the arms will be forward and backwards more with a little circular motion at the end…and head will come forward.
FEELING UPPER BODY
You also want her to feel the upper body… of the front elbow leading... the throwing of the barrel thru the ball.
LEAD ELBOW
1. Guide her into a good launch position…with right elbow by her side…not tucked into ribs or front of stomach. Have her grab her left thumb again as if it was a bat. Then have her stick her right hand thumb up and turn it to point behind her…palm will be up.
2. Guide her front elbow up 3 to 4 inches or so. Her front arm will be in front of her chest a few inches…..parallel to the ground.
3. Belly button slightly pulled in (not sinking into spine, arching back or slumping)….Rotate the hips…straightening the front leg as it accepts the weight with the lead elbow up.
Do this a few times…so she feels leading with the front elbow up and rear elbow at her side….while she rotates her hips. The shoulders will follow leading with the front/up elbow.
This too is simple…
If she can carry on a conversation…doing both of these correctly…her body knows it.
FEELING A STRONG FRONT SIDE
When we start focusing on the swing phase for the upper body…i want them to feel the strength difference of having the rear elbow slotted on the side rather than the belly or into the ribs…then progress to feeling a strong front side upper body while straightening the front leg.
1. From the launch position the #2 position above. Put the elbow into the front of the gut into sides of ribs…you will probably notice…she will turn her rear upper arm out…where the hands go back…causing an arm bar.
2. Put your right hand on her front elbow. Have her apply the pressure to your hand as if she moving the bat from her previous bad position.
3. Return to the proper position. (feeling upper body #2) ….do the same thing. She will feel the difference. You can do the same thing when they have the bat in their hands later to reinforce that if needed.
4. Now your goal is to have feel a strong front side upper body…. on her front elbow (FIRE THE FRONT ELBOW). From the same position in #2 of Feeling the upper body. Place pressure on the front (pitcher side) of her elbow/arm. As she begins to rotates her hips first…straightening the front leg…have her push with her front elbow into your slight resistance. Only apply enough pressure for her to feel it as and still be able to rotate her upper body. Dowels are good for this..because they give unless you got one too stout.
I do this a few times….making sure belly button is pulled in enough to stabilize the lower back/pelvis…and head is down seeing ball…as they perform the move. Reinforce the cue… fire with the front elbow.
Then do it again…with cues fire hips….fire the lead elbows. Just make sure hips are first.
If she is feeling this correctly…move on to swinging with those two cues…Then re-evaluate video.
I would think your dd is going to have a tendency to want to over extend (arch) her low back during the swing…head coming up etc. Because of this…you should consider doing fewer reps and doing them correctly above…and with actual swings here too…then build up in the number of reps. Its more important to do 10 times correctly than 20 times incorrectly…so she will adapt correctly. Same with the lower body hip warm up.
Our girls have to learn the HIP WARM UP and LEADING WITH THE ELBOW…before they can join the other girls doing dry drills.
We do dynamic stretching that incorporates the hip warm up….do throwing….then do dry drills for them to focus on technique before batting practice.
Highly recommend you spend some time…. learning some simple dynamic stretching routines for the whole body….to do at the beginning of a work out, adding the hip warm up and lead elbow (till elbow its not an issue)..and a few age appropriate core exercises to do after the hitting session followed by static stretching. It will benefit her…without it taking a lot of time.
Hope this makes sense!
Good luck.
Thanks bobby, we will work on these drills tomorrow and post some video to make sure we are doing the drills correctly.
Some swings from earlier this evening. DD is having a little trouble swinging without a target. However, I think it is allowing her to feel body positions. Would using a tee with no ball be harmful, or slow progress? Her swing speed is slower due to cut on hand, bat is still a little uncomfortable.[video=youtube_share;6gm8A_VFXyc]http://youtu.be/6gm8A_VFXyc[/video]
FiveFrameSwing
Banned
The "all back, all forward" swing sequence is an issue.
Why the cue of "hands high"?
Why the cue of "hands high"?
The hands high cue is to remind DD not to drop her hands during the swing. I try not to use the word "don't " when working with DD because I am not telling her what to "do", which is what i should be doing. When DD drops her hands, it keeps her from firing the elbow (what we've been working on), because dropping her hands immediately straightens her front arm.
FiveFrameSwing
Banned
Her sequence isn't going to work well when in the box facing good pitching.
She loads back with her upper body and rear hip/leg at the same time ... i.e., she goes "back together" ... and this is the start of her issue .... well, IMO, the start of the issue was in the initial "hands high" cue ... but I think you get the gist.
This leads to "forward together" ... and if you slow the clip down you'll see that it results in her body rotation aborting early and a reliance on the arms.
This "all back" and "all forward" is what makes it difficult to avoid dropping the hands. Don't be surprised if she can't resist dropping her hands when in the batter's box facing a live pitcher ... because she hasn't learned the mechanics that one uses to avoid that issue.
Consider instead having the "hands load rearward" via an "up and in" type action (which for many is easier to accomplish with the hands lower near the back armpit during the stance), AND have "the hips coil forward" during this time. Create a 'stretch' ... a stretch that can be then enhanced and turned into "Stretch-and-Fire" mechanics as the rear hip/leg reverse. SnF is a far superior approach to launching a barrel ... and it removes the hand dropping issue ... and once SnF mechanics are embedded, then she won't be dropping her hands in game swings.
She loads back with her upper body and rear hip/leg at the same time ... i.e., she goes "back together" ... and this is the start of her issue .... well, IMO, the start of the issue was in the initial "hands high" cue ... but I think you get the gist.
This leads to "forward together" ... and if you slow the clip down you'll see that it results in her body rotation aborting early and a reliance on the arms.
This "all back" and "all forward" is what makes it difficult to avoid dropping the hands. Don't be surprised if she can't resist dropping her hands when in the batter's box facing a live pitcher ... because she hasn't learned the mechanics that one uses to avoid that issue.
Consider instead having the "hands load rearward" via an "up and in" type action (which for many is easier to accomplish with the hands lower near the back armpit during the stance), AND have "the hips coil forward" during this time. Create a 'stretch' ... a stretch that can be then enhanced and turned into "Stretch-and-Fire" mechanics as the rear hip/leg reverse. SnF is a far superior approach to launching a barrel ... and it removes the hand dropping issue ... and once SnF mechanics are embedded, then she won't be dropping her hands in game swings.
She is doing great jdaddy
Having a ball… puts their focus on the ball imo…and slows things down. I would want her focusing on feeling the positions and movements still…especially hips firing and strong front side…till she gets it. She isn't far from going to dry drills and tee work. I will mention adding a hip rotation drill below. It does not hurt to have a tee there. The inconsistency in the swing phase from one swing to another in her video….is because of her lack of strength in different parts of the body to control the bat…at this point. New feelings, new sequence, new muscles…need to adapt. And she is doing that.
Look at where she was and where she has gotten too.
As you can see…in pic 2 (middle group) she still has strong front shoulder/elbow at launch which we would like more relaxed…stronger on rear hand.
With her hips..this pic is now… right before her rear heel lifts by being pulled by the hip rotation…which is really good compared to before.
In pic 3…she is doing good with a strong front elbow and she starts hip rotation earlier….removing a lot of unnecessary movements mentioned before. She fired the hips better after heel drop…however it is a little slow and not fully rotated on to a straight leg.
So…what does she need to feel now? Still needs to feel that ideal impact…1. The front leg straightening and hips coming forward as it accepts the weight from the hip rotation. Since she didn't fill that in for us…we have to build on that... with the simplest way we can find for her to feel it. She has felt that…but she is feeling it much later …past extension.
That feeling is…. Your pushing down into the ground with the front leg…straightening leg…AND contracting the butt muscles as your rotating.
You can feel this by simply standing…bending your knees and squat down a little…with forward body tilt forward…place hands on buttocks and straighten up. Feel the buttocks contract? Thats what she needs to feel when her weight shifts and as front leg straightens….(not locking) just straightening.
So...
1. To reinforce hip turning…we have the HIP WARM UP….that should become part of her overall warm up…now till softball is done. Now add contracting the buttocks as the hip rotates…during hip warm up.
2. To reinforce that…when we do DRILLS…we start with a HIP WARM UP with the BAT. Hold a bat/stick behind your hips and rotate just like in the hip warm up or just like the swing. Focus is hip turning first…straightening the front leg (strong front leg) as it accepts the weight…by contracting the buttocks. Go ahead and add this.
3. Also…you can now…. guide her into the ideal impact position for her to feel where she should be at that point in time (pic 3)…because you only have 2 things to guide…hip forward from contracting buttocks…head down. Assuming she can maintain the elbow up. Do not forget…a pulled in stomach…with buttocks tightened…in this position.
Since there are fewer things to feel the ideal impact position as a static position…i would have her get into that position now…guide her till she feels it. Have her go from launch to ideal impact till she can do it her self while focusing on it.
Hopefully you see a process here…look for whats good and bad….let them fill in some motions….evaluate…find the one thing that they need to focus on now. For her…as she rotates hip….she can focus contracting the buttocks as the leg straightens…maintaining the strong front elbow.
If she gets that down this week…you should celebrate with her…be happy for her…she has done good. Even teach her something else…like decision making…example: She gets to choose where we go eat out to celebrate. You might want to give her limited choice/decisions…so you don't end up at McDonalds. haha
I want to mention a few things for you to get ready to move to…so you can see a process of moving forward. The only thing slowing her down is me, you, internet and he bodies' time it needs to adapt. As soon as she incorporates that position/movement… in or thru ideal impact…your well on your way my friend. You will be to the point of fine tuning, smaller adjustements, reinforcing till she owns it in stage 4….and moving forward. I will post some things on progressing forward later.
I don't disagree with what FFS is saying at all. Once she gets this hip firing correctly…then it is the time to fine tune some of these things imo. Same in reference to hip coil at the first part of the thread…if you concentrate on hands/rear foot/knee up coiling now…for weeks your reinforcing bad down stream problems that are larger movement/position issues than her current hand height and loading. We like to get a good overall swing with what you have to work with... and then come back to some of these issues as they will be smaller issues as she gets comfortable with the overall swing. jmo
Most of that can occur from reverse loading which is what I will mention next.
Having a ball… puts their focus on the ball imo…and slows things down. I would want her focusing on feeling the positions and movements still…especially hips firing and strong front side…till she gets it. She isn't far from going to dry drills and tee work. I will mention adding a hip rotation drill below. It does not hurt to have a tee there. The inconsistency in the swing phase from one swing to another in her video….is because of her lack of strength in different parts of the body to control the bat…at this point. New feelings, new sequence, new muscles…need to adapt. And she is doing that.
Look at where she was and where she has gotten too.
As you can see…in pic 2 (middle group) she still has strong front shoulder/elbow at launch which we would like more relaxed…stronger on rear hand.
With her hips..this pic is now… right before her rear heel lifts by being pulled by the hip rotation…which is really good compared to before.
In pic 3…she is doing good with a strong front elbow and she starts hip rotation earlier….removing a lot of unnecessary movements mentioned before. She fired the hips better after heel drop…however it is a little slow and not fully rotated on to a straight leg.
So…what does she need to feel now? Still needs to feel that ideal impact…1. The front leg straightening and hips coming forward as it accepts the weight from the hip rotation. Since she didn't fill that in for us…we have to build on that... with the simplest way we can find for her to feel it. She has felt that…but she is feeling it much later …past extension.
That feeling is…. Your pushing down into the ground with the front leg…straightening leg…AND contracting the butt muscles as your rotating.
You can feel this by simply standing…bending your knees and squat down a little…with forward body tilt forward…place hands on buttocks and straighten up. Feel the buttocks contract? Thats what she needs to feel when her weight shifts and as front leg straightens….(not locking) just straightening.
So...
1. To reinforce hip turning…we have the HIP WARM UP….that should become part of her overall warm up…now till softball is done. Now add contracting the buttocks as the hip rotates…during hip warm up.
2. To reinforce that…when we do DRILLS…we start with a HIP WARM UP with the BAT. Hold a bat/stick behind your hips and rotate just like in the hip warm up or just like the swing. Focus is hip turning first…straightening the front leg (strong front leg) as it accepts the weight…by contracting the buttocks. Go ahead and add this.
3. Also…you can now…. guide her into the ideal impact position for her to feel where she should be at that point in time (pic 3)…because you only have 2 things to guide…hip forward from contracting buttocks…head down. Assuming she can maintain the elbow up. Do not forget…a pulled in stomach…with buttocks tightened…in this position.
Since there are fewer things to feel the ideal impact position as a static position…i would have her get into that position now…guide her till she feels it. Have her go from launch to ideal impact till she can do it her self while focusing on it.
Hopefully you see a process here…look for whats good and bad….let them fill in some motions….evaluate…find the one thing that they need to focus on now. For her…as she rotates hip….she can focus contracting the buttocks as the leg straightens…maintaining the strong front elbow.
If she gets that down this week…you should celebrate with her…be happy for her…she has done good. Even teach her something else…like decision making…example: She gets to choose where we go eat out to celebrate. You might want to give her limited choice/decisions…so you don't end up at McDonalds. haha
I want to mention a few things for you to get ready to move to…so you can see a process of moving forward. The only thing slowing her down is me, you, internet and he bodies' time it needs to adapt. As soon as she incorporates that position/movement… in or thru ideal impact…your well on your way my friend. You will be to the point of fine tuning, smaller adjustements, reinforcing till she owns it in stage 4….and moving forward. I will post some things on progressing forward later.
I don't disagree with what FFS is saying at all. Once she gets this hip firing correctly…then it is the time to fine tune some of these things imo. Same in reference to hip coil at the first part of the thread…if you concentrate on hands/rear foot/knee up coiling now…for weeks your reinforcing bad down stream problems that are larger movement/position issues than her current hand height and loading. We like to get a good overall swing with what you have to work with... and then come back to some of these issues as they will be smaller issues as she gets comfortable with the overall swing. jmo
Most of that can occur from reverse loading which is what I will mention next.
Telling her to keep her hands up will make it extremely difficult for her to develop a good sequence. It's equivalent to telling a player to throw a ball while starting with the ball out of their glove in the "L" position. The hand cock in hitting is the hand break in throwing. The hand cock is what keeps the hands in proper sequence with the lower half during the hip cock. If you remove the hand cock by telling a player to keep their hands up or by telling them to not drop their hands, you need to figure out another way to sync up their hands during the hip cock.
Watch Jennie Finch's hands drop in this clip. Her hands actually arc down and then back up to shoulder height, which puts her hands in a strong position to throw the barrel. The down/up arc of her hands is the hand break in the overhand throw. This is why I keep stressing the importance of teaching the kids how to throw overhand and then relating that sequence to hitting.
[video]http://i55.tinypic.com/z30nl.gif[/video]
A good exercise is to have your daughter replace the bat with a ball and duplicate exactly what she does when she hits; right down to her stance. Is she able to throw the ball correctly doing what she she currently does to hit?
Kids that use a proper sequence typically don't drop their hands. The kids that typically drop their hands are the ones that have been told over and over again to "keep their hands up". I see it all the time.
Thank you both. Bobby, we will work on those additions to the drills this week and I will guide her into impact positon. Should she be able to balance and hold this position or will she feel as if she is leaning / falling towards the plate due to proper tilt?
FFS, probably bad wording on my part. It was not intended to mean start with hands high, it had to do with keeping hands above her waist during the swing as opposed to how she has them in her first clip above. DD and I have discussed this and she understood what I meant. I understand how that came across just watching the video. Thanks for the Finch clip Wellphyt.
DD's practices started today with her new team. They are doing alot of conditioning, and some front toss with golf balls and a skilz stick. Coach expects them to work on hitting during the week recommending tee work and front toss. We will keep doing our drills during the week. Do you believe this limited front toss during team practices will slow her progress? I will get some video during practice next Saturday to see if she is applying what she is learning. Thank you.
FFS, probably bad wording on my part. It was not intended to mean start with hands high, it had to do with keeping hands above her waist during the swing as opposed to how she has them in her first clip above. DD and I have discussed this and she understood what I meant. I understand how that came across just watching the video. Thanks for the Finch clip Wellphyt.
DD's practices started today with her new team. They are doing alot of conditioning, and some front toss with golf balls and a skilz stick. Coach expects them to work on hitting during the week recommending tee work and front toss. We will keep doing our drills during the week. Do you believe this limited front toss during team practices will slow her progress? I will get some video during practice next Saturday to see if she is applying what she is learning. Thank you.
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