Stride vs No stride

[Mike]

I recently started helping a high school senior, she is very athletic, quick, lots of power. She will be playing basketball in college so she only has 2 months left in her playing career, not looking for a major overhaul. She had 2 major problems. 1) she was overstriding causing her to lunge,

2) she wasn't rotating her hips and back foot

We fixed #1 by having her start with a wider stance and not stride, just to use heel plant to initiate the swing, and keep her upper body balanced between her feet. Big improvement.

We are working on #2 with some tee drills to get the hips rotating.

The question is, she is creating good power and connecting well, and she is comfortable not striding. Should she stay with the no stride?

And, at heel plant should the hips and hands move together?

As a cue, I tell her to pretend you are hitting the ball with your right hip (right handed batter) in hopes of getting her to get more lower body into the swing, is this a helpful cue or the making of a bad habit.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[cshilt]

I see a lot of elite hitters taking a stride when they swing. Having said that, however, given the circumstance I might be hesitant to introduce too many variables at this point in her career.

A cue that I use is belly button to the pitcher.

 

[Mark H]

Some ML hitters don't stride. This hitter is a hs senior in her last season. If she's having success, let her enjoy it. Her career has weeks left. It's not development time, it's use what's working time. Good call on simplifying things for this kid.

 

[blizzardpitcher18]

A helpful drill to help with problem two is set up a tee, with a ball.. Have the girl stand in the batter position in the box, but with the bat behind her back. The barrel should be facing the backstop, and the girl should rotate her hips, to hit the ball.. If done properly, this will help with hip rotation.

 

[StacieM]

I just read an article by a coach that looked at back knee position at the end of the swing as feedback for both the coach and player - that way the player has a visual cue on whether or not she rotated her hips - sometimes that's all they need because they don't really know that the swing they just did looked like - but if they have something to give them feedback and correlate that with what they just felt, it's a step in the direction for them to make an adjustment

As far as if she should continue the "no stride" - you said she's comfortable with it and it hitting better, so I would probably choose to stick with it.