Thoughts on what Gwynn is suggesting.

[clemenslee1]

I know we can watch a lot of hitters (including Tony) pro or college and we see the hips "turning" before the hands. Hence the cue hips before hands (Ted W), but I wonder if that leads to more issues at younger ages (10-12). Could Tony Gwynn be on to something, when he says start the hands first and then follow with the hips at least as a feel? Again for younger players, who have less body awareness at least until they get to a older age and they can feel what their body is doing.

 

[cnardone]

I might not be answering your question, but I am going to comment anyway. I think we should all be very careful extrapolating a specific instruction to a specific hitter with an issue, and applying that as a general rule for how that instructor believes something should be.

 

[clemenslee1]

I might not be answering your question, but I am going to comment anyway. I think we should all be very careful extrapolating a specific instruction to a specific hitter with an issue, and applying that as a general rule for how that instructor believes something should be.

I agree with that, each hitter is specific. I'm simply stating as an approach mindset (We all have our general ideas of how the swing works) when helping younger players. Until those players are old enough with more body awareness to start performing other directions that are more difficult. Granted, that could be totally off base.

 

[Rolling Hard]

Some people like the hands start first and the body fires in reaction to the hands. Some like the body fires and the hands/barrel get thrown in reaction to the body firing. Dog wags the tail vs. the tail wags the dog.
If you instruct younger kids (beginners) to start with the hands first the arms will follow but the body will do very little. You will not get a very good swing.

 

[clemenslee1]

Some people like the hands start first and the body fires in reaction to the hands. Some like the body fires and the hands/barrel get thrown in reaction to the body firing. Dog wags the tail vs. the tail wags the dog.
If you instruct younger kids (beginners) to start with the hands first the arms will follow but the body will do very little. You will not get a very good swing.

What do you mean by very little?

 

[Rolling Hard]

What do you mean by very little?

If you a 7 or 8 year old to throw their hands to start the swing they will generally have a very armsy swing without much torso helping.

 

[clemenslee1]

If you a 7 or 8 year old to throw their hands to start the swing they will generally have a very armsy swing without much torso helping.

I'm not sure about that. Don't get me wrong, some definitely won't, ,but for most young players IMO is not lack of "Torso" no helping. It's usually the result of all Torso and nothing else. I know stills are generally not very useful, but I feel it would be hard pressed to say that they did nothing with their torso to get to these positions. granted this could be partially the result of not getting to proper Launch position with proper sequence. One thing they all have in common is the hands have done nothing, they are still stuck behind the rear hip.

 

[julray]

TTB with the hands and the body will react is something I heard before. Not a fan.

@ the other end of the spectrum..

If the hands initiate the swing(launch) in the way that Gwynn is instructing, the body is out of the equation. Armsy like RH mentioned, not a fan.

 

[efastball]

I don't think either cue is helpful.

Neither would help any kid in post #7 above

 

[Fluid Fastpitch]

I'm not sure about that. Don't get me wrong, some definitely won't, ,but for most young players IMO is not lack of "Torso" no helping. It's usually the result of all Torso and nothing else. I know stills are generally not very useful, but I feel it would be hard pressed to say that they did nothing with their torso to get to these positions. granted this could be partially the result of not getting to proper Launch position with proper sequence. One thing they all have in common is the hands have done nothing, they are still stuck behind the rear hip.

View attachment 23666

Here we see a whole lot of drag.
We also see some good hip action.
I'll take the hips and fix the drag. (Also the posture issues.)