T Work

[Nor10]

SBFAMILY touched on many good points. When viewing film location of the pitch is not always easy to determine especially a side view. A case in point is CB's 2004 Gold medal blast of 308.5 feet. It was inside by at least 8 inches and she baited Harding to throw the pitch.

We teach top of the hands to top of the shoulder and no higher than the ear hole in the helmet, tap the back of the helmet as Dan described. We set up off the plate by laying the bat head across the plate and then put our lead foot toe by the knob of the bat. We like a stance width of at least 1.5 times the width of the shoulders plus or minus 2 inches seems to work. We avoid the extremeness during set up and load. No leaning backwards or extreme hip or hand movements. There is a lot of variation in swings and we just do not teach that. I would like to think mechanics first and interject your style once who learn how to swing so you feel what works good, better, best for you the individual.

Most will say the style is in the set up and load and when they get to toe touch most elite hitters will look the same. I tell my girls how they wear their hair is their style however how we cut their hair is the mechanics as we use clippers, scissors or a razor. Try to understand the mechanics first and incorporate your style next.

As to hands, as we load we separate the hands rearward slightly. By looking in a mirror side ways have them do this and see how far the hands moved below the shoulders if it moves at all. We have them at this position take the top ha d off the bat and make a fist and put it near the bottom hand again. Then take the fist and go straight forward. Where you able to hit the bicep on the lead arm? Either yes or no. If it was at the elbow joint it is no, so the top of hands were probably below the shoulder too much. We also do not teach having the back elbow up shoulder height or more as we feel it is too extreme for now. We want the back elbow to go straight back and not turn the corner or cause the front shoulder to turn in or roll in. That is why we use the swimming pool noodle so they can bump it as they separate. You will see some chicken wing up and miss it, drop their hands and miss it or roll the shoulder in and miss it.

Slapping the back will not correct itself especially with the girls in my opinion. If is during contact that most females give up on hitting the ball and continuing through to extension because they do not use the lead arm and this creates an imbalance to the back arm and who knows where the bat will go after they hit the ball! Do the hand over drill and try the grip we suggested and the bat will never touch her again. We test the hitters by having them all swing before we make or teach any correction by doing dry swings. If they hit their shoulder or back we have them do the hand over drill and it stops at once or within 5 attempts. Pretty simple yet very effective. Look also as I deem it a girl thing...ask the hitter to raise her hands a little and observe what she actually did? She raised her elbows and her hands as a unit! Why! Because they do not understand the elbow is a hinge and we can raise the hands without moving the elbow. Now you see why we teach them how to use a hammer and about un hinging the wrist! They are dropping the hands in relationship to the elbows and in many cases with the elbow is too low or to high. When they see it in a mirror they see the relationship better in my opinion.

Thanks Howard

Hand over drill? I don't believe I am familiar with that one. Can you exaplin or point me in the direction of some instructions? We will be using your grip tonight if she is up to practicing. I would like to have a plan tonight of things I want to work on.

Right now my laundry list is a balanced stance, grip, hand position at setup and something to get rid of the back slapping problem which as it seems to me what your describing is a direct result of her lead elbow not working correctly and or wrist roll. (Is wrist roll caused by the lead elbow not working correctly through the swing?) So if this hand over drill and one arm swing drill is what I need to do tonight to work on her lead elbow, I think we can figure out the other stuff fairly easily as it just seems like a different way to set up in the box while doing the drills. That shouldn't be too hard.

Sound about right? (Oh and I will be teaching her and my son to use a hammer. I am extremely curious to see if they make the connection or not)

 

[Hitter]

Hand over drill? I don't believe I am familiar with that one. Can you exaplin or point me in the direction of some instructions? We will be using your grip tonight if she is up to practicing. I would like to have a plan tonight of things I want to work on.

Right now my laundry list is a balanced stance, grip, hand position at setup and something to get rid of the back slapping problem which as it seems to me what your describing is a direct result of her lead elbow not working correctly and or wrist roll. (Is wrist roll caused by the lead elbow not working correctly through the swing?) So if this hand over drill and one arm swing drill is what I need to do tonight to work on her lead elbow, I think we can figure out the other stuff fairly easily as it just seems like a different way to set up in the box while doing the drills. That shouldn't be too hard.

Sound about right? (Oh and I will be teaching her and my son to use a hammer. I am extremely curious to see if they make the connection or not)

For me the wrist roll is holding the bat in the back of the top hand. Then finger knuckle alignment while holding the bat so firmly the centripetal force allows the bat to move away from you because the top hand was not loose enough to move allowing us to direct the knob of the bat inside the path of the ball or bat lag.

The over hand drill....have her stand behind you as you give directions on grip as she needs to see it the way she sees the world, from her viewpoint. This has helped me especially with my LD kids to learn faster. Now show her the grips we suggested and then take the top hand off the bat and turn it upside down with the thumb pointed at the ground and she will see the back of her hand. Set up to hit, think slow to load and soft to step landing on a flexed front knee and the hands will separate slightly. Then as she swings think pulling the bat out of the top hand just about at contact and release the top hand and lead with the lead arm elbow to the ball and through the ball and extension and follow over the shoulder keeping her head on the tee where the ball was. We glue a white rag inside the tee to help drive the point home. I have seen kids pull out on the front side so badly that the heads moves away from the tee. Then I will take a tissue or a dollar bill and put it inside the tee and their head stays there...amazing isn't it? Try it tonight and tell me how it went please.

Have her hit about ten balls this way and usually about the 5 one you will hear her hitting harder with on the lead arm verses when she was using two hands. Girls do not understand driving to the ball and through the ball with the lead elbow leading and slightly bent. They want to straighten the arms out which is why we get them to feel this using the rope. Then have hit with two hands again and I doubt she ever hits herself again in my opinion.

Thanks Howard

 

[Nor10]

For me the wrist roll is holding the bat in the back of the top hand. Then finger knuckle alignment while holding the bat so firmly the centripetal force allows the bat to move away from you because the top hand was not loose enough to move allowing us to direct the knob of the bat inside the path of the ball or bat lag.

The over hand drill....have her stand behind you as you give directions on grip as she needs to see it the way she sees the world, from her viewpoint. This has helped me especially with my LD kids to learn faster. Now show her the grips we suggested and then take the top hand off the bat and turn it upside down with the thumb pointed at the ground and she will see the back of her hand. Set up to hit, think slow to load and soft to step landing on a flexed front knee and the hands will separate slightly. Then as she swings think pulling the bat out of the top hand just about at contact and release the top hand and lead with the lead arm elbow to the ball and through the ball and extension and follow over the shoulder keeping her head on the tee where the ball was. We glue a white rag inside the tee to help drive the point home. I have seen kids pull out on the front side so badly that the heads moves away from the tee. Then I will take a tissue or a dollar bill and put it inside the tee and their head stays there...amazing isn't it? Try it tonight and tell me how it went please.

Have her hit about ten balls this way and usually about the 5 one you will hear her hitting harder with on the lead arm verses when she was using two hands. Girls do not understand driving to the ball and through the ball with the lead elbow leading and slightly bent. They want to straighten the arms out which is why we get them to feel this using the rope. Then have hit with two hands again and I doubt she ever hits herself again in my opinion.

Thanks Howard

Excellent. Thank you so much for the description. I will surely report back tomorrow with results of new grip and hand over drill results. If I am lucky, I will have a video for you at the end of our session. Don't hold your breath though...

 

[Nor10]

She likes the new grip. She said she was told by one of her travel coaches about it but had never given it much thought. I am nt sure if it was the grip or complete coinincidence bit she broke two wiffle balls with the rope bat. It definitely sounded different. We have lots to do though. The video I posted separately shows a number of problems. 1 she is dropping her hands when she loads. 2 she is pointing her front toe straight out when she strides allowing her to use her legs to dip to the plane of the pitch. This in my opinion is probably a lot of the blame for her hitting down on the ball. Would you agree? 3 I still don, think she is getting into a good enough stance . It's a process though.

Would love to hear yor thoughts either here or in the video thread I posted o her. Thanks.