Sqishing the Bug

[coach dennis]

I do not have video you can surf you tube to find some.
If you travel much for turnaments you will find players still using it.

Hitter (a poster on the ofc) responded to a post on the OFC of camps till teaching this and a Cincy Reds youth camp where a modified squish the bug was being taught.

Also if you catch many High School games you will see this is an easy way out for many coaches who get rec. players (or weaker) to field teams to make contact. (Go to I-High.com and watch a few games)

You will see wide stances, hands to ear and rotate to contact with several ladies. Not so much in our conference (at the varsity level) but, in most of the other area programs and JV you see it.

"By no means do I think this is a way to go for my players" but, again I do not get a lot of inexperianced players trying out.
I merely acknowledged it has been around for years and is still out there and it works for some ladies.

 

[SBFAMILY]

I was at that same camp and yes the Epstein certified hitting instructor ( X MLB player) was teaching this and actually telling them this.

 

[PEPPERS]

It’s been sometime since I read the report, but DD’s pitching coach and some orthopedic doctors did this report on bug squashing (BS) mechanics. The report advised of possible medical problems in the joints by young players using BS mechanics repeatedly, the problems may show up as unrelated injuries, but the original cause could go back to BS mechanics which is repeated by young athletes and may not even occur until later in life.

DD pitching coach also teaches hitting he was friends with one local college coach who taught BS and the coach now is a coach for one of the SEC top SB teams. They had a huge falling out because one taught BS at that time and the other was against it, they were friends but have not spoken to each other since.

The college coach no longer teaches BS so this coach finally figured it out.

 

[ArkFastpitch]

WOW...Lots of "PLUGS" for the power drive recently.... Sales down?

It's helpful to understand what causes the squish the bug, rather than just fix it. I think squish the bug is the end result of an issue with the hitter getting the weight back over the rear leg and not getting to a weight balanced position. The cue of "Stay Back" can teach kids to literally keep the entire top side back over the rear leg. The result is the center of axis being over the rear foot, causing the squish the bug spin of the back foot. If the center of axis is between the feet, the natural rear foot action will be the desired toe down, heel lifting as the rear leg and rear hip fire to start the swing. This is my understanding of what causes the STB motion. A drill? Not sure...I used a dry stance and stride to get her to feel getting to a solid hitting position. A good reference we got in a video series is keep the knees inside the ankles at setup, through stride. Helps you see that they are keeping an even weight distribution, with the tension on the inside of the back leg..not over the top of the back foot. Once she's over her back foot at any point in the swing...she's likely to have problems downstream, one being the power loss of the back foot spinning instead of driving her back hip through. Conversely, you don't want her taking her whole body out over the front leg either. Gotta keep it in the middle... Hope that helps.

I sent my DD to a hitting camp where they did slow motion analysis of her swing. She was doing exactly what FrozenRope is describing. She would actually move backwards in her swing and collapse her back knee. It has taken forever to get her out of this habit. She has been working really hard on getting the feel of driving through her hips.

 

[redhotcoach]

The whole bug squishing is a result of instructors focusing on effects and believing the effect is the cause.

Yes a lot (not all) high level swings end up on the toe and hips through. That is a result of release of the stretch in the rear hip socket. The hitter's foot gets snapped up on the toe, sometimes off the ground, sometimes neither, but you will see a short snapping of the weight off the rear side through the contact of the ball.

The focus should not be on what the rear foot is doing...the spinning up in the toe. It shouldn't on getting the hips through...forward.

Spinning the hips forward leaks the stretch. Everyone knows "lower half first"...even the least involved parents have said that. "Lower half first" is to get the advantage of stretch, or stretch release...fire. The stretch has to be between the rear leg and hips.

Look at all the mlb gifs on here, the rear leg starts turning before the upper body starts turning. The upper body has to resist that turning. If it doesn't resist turning then the lower is not going first. The hips have to be part of the upper body resisting. You have to get stretch between the hips and rear leg. If you "fire" the hips, that would be like pulling back a bow string a little way and pushing it and the arrow forward. If you resist the hips firing when the rear leg is turning, that is like pulling the bow string back all the way and releasing it. Forward pushing, turning of the hips, firing the hips, etc, leaks the power. Turning of the rear foot without resisting the hips, creates no stretch advantage.

Make the "cause" stretch, and the release of the stretch will get the "effect", rear side unweighted and hip turned. Replace the cause goal(stretch and fire) with the effect (rear side unweighted, hip turned, on rear toe) as the goal, you lose mechanical advantages.

Forget about spinning the rear foot. If properly coiled/stretched in the rear hip socket, the foot should feel like turning the opposite direction of bug squishing...dig in and don't leg it turn.

 

[redhotcoach]

Next time you here someone say "they get their hips turned" or "they get their rear foot turned". Think "UH...NO...their hip/foot GETS turned." ......it is the effect, not the cause.

 

[FrozenRope]

The upper body has to resist that turning. If it doesn't resist turning then the lower is not going first. The hips have to be part of the upper body resisting. You have to get stretch between the hips and rear leg. If you "fire" the hips, that would be like pulling back a bow string a little way and pushing it and the arrow forward. If you resist the hips firing when the rear leg is turning, that is like pulling the bow string back all the way and releasing it. Forward pushing, turning of the hips, firing the hips, etc, leaks the power. Turning of the rear foot without resisting the hips, creates no stretch advantage.

I know it appears to happen silmultaneously... are you saying that the feel should be the back leg starting the hips? A lot of the swings I "See" appear to give the impression that the hips fire against the tension that should already have been created in the rear leg as a result of the coil around the back hip. As I stand here and do it myself...I feel a TON of tension in my back leg hamstring when I thinnk...leg first....but I feel like that tension is going to slow my hips. With the feel of driving my hip first...the tension stays on the inside of my back leg until my foot naturally gets lifted off the ground as I continue the rotation into my front leg.

 

[NoonTime]

I know it appears to happen silmultaneously... are you saying that the feel should be the back leg starting the hips? A lot of the swings I "See" appear to give the impression that the hips fire against the tension that should already have been created in the rear leg as a result of the coil around the back hip. As I stand here and do it myself...I feel a TON of tension in my back leg hamstring when I thinnk...leg first....but I feel like that tension is going to slow my hips. With the feel of driving my hip first...the tension stays on the inside of my back leg until my foot naturally gets lifted off the ground as I continue the rotation into my front leg.

What is the downside of slowing your hips?

Or why do you want your hips faster?

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I know it appears to happen silmultaneously... are you saying that the feel should be the back leg starting the hips? A lot of the swings I "See" appear to give the impression that the hips fire against the tension that should already have been created in the rear leg as a result of the coil around the back hip. As I stand here and do it myself...I feel a TON of tension in my back leg hamstring when I thinnk...leg first....but I feel like that tension is going to slow my hips. With the feel of driving my hip first...the tension stays on the inside of my back leg until my foot naturally gets lifted off the ground as I continue the rotation into my front leg.

Bold above ... is that what you see here (below)? It isn't what I see. I see a retention of the tension on inside upper rear leg area as the rear hip is brought forward.

 

[FrozenRope]

Bold above ... is that what you see here (below)? It isn't what I see. I see a retention of the tension on inside upper rear leg area as the rear hip is brought forward.

Ummmm...confused...didn't we say the same thing?