stride stopper

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May 22, 2008
351
0
NW Pennsylvania
My DD is struggling with a waaaaaay to big stride while batting. I have seen a high school coach using a tool that resembles a pair of leg shackles. does anyone know what they are called or where to find them?? Thanks
 
May 13, 2008
831
16
JC, all you need is a 5 gallon plastic bucket filled 1/3 full of concrete. You'll want your DD to stride to the bucket and slide down landing with most of the weight on the big toe.
 
Jun 2, 2008
62
0
My daughter did the same thing (12U). A hitting coach widened her stance to the point she couldn't stride, had her hit a ton of soft toss, then slowly worked the stance in to a logical position. She repeated this drill for about 2 weeks, and now doesn't even lift the foot other than maybe the heal, but then replants in same spot.
 
Jan 14, 2009
1,591
0
Atlanta, Georgia
I had my DD get in her stance. I placed two pieces of duct tape under each foot. Then I placed another piece of duct tape four inches in front of her front foot (stride tape). Then she did several hundred dry swings, making sure she strided onto the stride tape.

The drill madskilz mentions will also work. Almost any drill will work if you do enough repetitions.

Also, you may want to double check that her backside hip is coming around properly and not stalling out. If the rear hip doesn't come around and drive through towards the pitch then it can sometimes look like a hitter is taking too big of a stride. This is what my DD was doing. Her feet were very far apart when she finished her swing. I thought it was because she was taking too long of a stride. I finally figured out that it was not her stride, but her rear hip was not driving forward.
 
May 31, 2009
138
0
If you prefer to teach your dd the rotational swing with no stride, then I reccomend this hitting aid for her to practice on. Beebe Sports Inc. : Home
Kids really enjoy using this machine.

Batter steps on the foot pad to pop ball up. Their foot stays on pad and they will have time to load up and ready to swing by the time ball comes back down into strike zone. Teach them the rotational swing and if their foot is still on the foot pad at follow through, then you will know that they aren't overstriding or bailing out.
 
Mar 2, 2009
311
16
Suffolk, VA
For me - its placing a board or bucket/batting helmet a few inches away from her stride foor start position, and for WEEKS when she is working her tee work / batting cage / front toss, she has to use something as a tool for this method.

Bottom line is any tool you use done enough times should help re-teach her muscle memory.
*** KEY is REPS, LOTS of them DAILY for a few weeks. Takes 3-4 minutes per session, 2-3 sessions a day!

ONE way I've asked my girls to work their strides is with their HANDS on their HIPS to concentrate on LOWER BODY ONLY!
If she can do 30-40 reps in the morning (4-5 minutes), again later that afternoon and before going to bed, every day for next 3-4 weeks and she can break her habit of over-striding.
* GAME TIME issue until she can develop a new habit - tell her to start w/ her stride foot out and from that point ONLY TURN on the ball... less power, but moore coordination and probably MORE CONTACT! (Remember Mike Candrea used to have his girls NOT stride years ago, before changing his teaching morfe to Don Slaught's "Rightview Pro" method of "Negative to Positive". Worked for him for years!
 
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