Swing Video Eval

[bamajeff]

Almost looks like the instruction this girl has received was from someone advocating a reverse pivot.

Not sure...don't know anyone who advocates a reverse pivot. Is that common in softball hitting instruction? I mostly work with baseball players. I know some Epstein hitters especially a few years back would exhibit a reverse weight shift, but Epstein never advocated jumping out on the front leg like this drill. I don't even really understand what the purpose is.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

No, not common at all.

 

[bamajeff]

Is has finish a little better?

Mags 2, 3/5/14 - YouTube

Not much...watch her front elbow ride down and around her ribcage. She never gets close to a power v because of the front arm collapse. If you play the gif FiveFrame posted above in Quick Time, watch the bathead leave plane from one frame before contact until 1-2 frames after. This is a result of the front arm not working correctly.

Does she square it up consistently and hit hard line drives? Just guessing on what I see here, I would say no. Do you have any game swings?

It's not all bad...she looks to have pretty good bat speed despite some mechanical deficiencies. Also, her lower half use looks pretty good. She would get even more out of her lower half if she didn't jump out on that front foot so early.

Front arm is where I would start tinkering first. I'd start with front arm only swings and give her the queue of throw the frisbee over the CF fence. Once she felt comfortable and could do it consistently, I'd move to reverse top hand swing with the same goal with the front arm. she still should have that slightly upward finish. Move from there to regular and split grip swings with the queue of throwing the bathead over the pitcher's head. Tell her to turn the barrel with her hands(no arms) from go.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Her HI does promote ground gain and we do practice one drill that gets the knee over the ankle. It's an exaggerated drill to help her achieve the ground gain. I think the pause she has between the stride and launch is allowing her to get the knee fully over the ankle. I think she is pausing as we are focusing on keeping the hands back and leading with the hip. Her game swing stride isn't supposed to be as exaggerated. We are working on only one or two things at a time. Right now it's keeping the hands from leading the swing and turning the barrel.

Is has finish a little better?

Mags 2, 3/5/14 - YouTube

This is an extreme case of "Shift THEN Swing".

She needs to learn a basic sequence of hitting ...... as what she is doing now isn't going to scale.

I'm not surprised that she is being instructed .... because what we see doesn't appear normal, nor is it seen that often. Go through the model swings clips .... I don't believe you'll see a single swing like this.

If your daughter is properly following the HC's instruction, then consider a new HC.

 

[pantherdad]

No game swings yet, we have been working on getting away from her old swing (squish the bug, hands to the ball) this winter. So I don't have any real game swing yet. Here is another vid where she doesn't have that pause and her stride is more like what you are showing me with Hanley.

She is playing 10u TB and only for one year. We are pretty new to learning her swing.

Http://youtu.be/NlxXJKUU15o

 

[bamajeff]

No game swings yet, we have been working on getting away from her old swing (squish the bug, hands to the ball) this winter. So I don't have any real game swing yet. Here is another vid where she doesn't have that pause and her stride is more like what you are showing me with Hanley.

She is playing 10u TB and only for one year. We are pretty new to learning her swing.

Http://youtu.be/NlxXJKUU15o

Oh yeah, I like this swing MUCH better than those previously posted. Agree with FiveFrame on considering new instruction/coaching. I had actually typed that in one of my previous posts, but didn't want to offend you. Have her do some of the things I suggested above. On the bottom hand swings, have her choke to the top of the grip if using a regular bat. Makes control much easier.

 

[pantherdad]

No worries, we don't offend easily. I should have watched the first video a little closer. I was focusing on the hands and barrel turn (she previously suffered from serious bat drag). I really think that long pause was the reason she was so far forward over the ankle. The last video is more representative of her normal stride. Thanks for the suggestions, we will start working on some front arm stuff next.

 

[bamajeff]

No worries, we don't offend easily. I should have watched the first video a little closer. I was focusing on the hands and barrel turn (she previously suffered from serious bat drag). I really think that long pause was the reason she was so far forward over the ankle. The last video is more representative of her normal stride. Thanks for the suggestions, we will start working on some front arm stuff next.

Yeah, she's still got a very slight drag, but not bad. Work on the front arm and have her keep turning the barrel with "hands only" at rear shoulder in all full swings. Drag issue will resolve itself, IMO. Not enough to worry about right now.

 

[CoogansBluff]

I think he mistimed the pitch a little(was early) as evidenced by the amount of sit after his front foot plants.

Yes, I think you're right, that he was early. Do you feel that Ramirez would have more 'sit' on an off speed pitch than most MLB players? And does he gain more ground than most? Is there something about his style that would make him look a little different when he's early than most?

 

[Eric F]

There's a lot of her swing I like quite a lot - no bug squish, no arm-powered DBSF pattern, some significant early bat speed, and she seems to be using the rear hip pretty well.

Get her front leg working correctly with the knee staying inside the ankle, and her hands moving out-from rear shoulder (not a tight left-turn around the torso), and I think she's not far away from a really good swing.

One of the tee-work drills I use with young girls who do the quick-left-turn with the hands is to have them extend their arms forward and point the bat at the pitcher. In this drill, I make sure they are getting a proper turn with their lower body and torso (belly button to the pitcher, too) so their arm action stays connected to their torso rotation.