uppercut swing...

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Dec 5, 2012
4,143
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Mid West
One of my players has a bad habit of dipping her back shoulder excessively during the rotational phase.
Looking for drills or advice to correct this.
 
Dec 11, 2010
4,723
113
How about these:
1) one knee drill. Hitter gets down on front knee and hits off a low tee. Tee placed at about front knee.
2) high tee drill, tee set up just below hands.
3) split hand grip drill, hitter splits hands out on bat hit off high to medium high tee. This seems to make many commons swing faults impossible to perform.
4) work on hitting inside seam of ball placed with railroad tracks up and down / vertical on tee facing catcher.
5) I hesitate to say it because I am nervous about the message of swinging down on the ball but what about having her hit the ball off a tee in a line drive that would hit the ground around the pitcher.

Also may be related to tee placement, tee too far out front?

I am curious what the experts say, I am testing myself here. These are the ideas that come to mind and I'm curious if the experts agree.
 
Last edited:

redhotcoach

Out on good behavior
May 8, 2009
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Is she dipping her shoulder or dipping/tilting and dropping her hands?

Dropping hands would be a much more common problem. A hitters rear shoulder should be lower then their front shoulder. Tilted across the shoulders at the same angle (lateral tilt) as the bat and eyes. Lower pitch = more tilt.

Westwind suggested great drills for any hitter. I would need to see video to be anymore specific.

2012NLCS_XMO_Posey.gif

2012WS_XMO_Miggy_brokenbat.gif


lateral tilt of shoulders.
 
Last edited:

HYP

Nov 17, 2012
427
0
You want to keep the hands from dropping. The back shoulder will come down. I try to get my hitters to understand that the hands do not drop below the rear shoulder. It appears that the hands are lower then the rear shoulder but if you can stop them at contact and then maintain that hand position. Stand straight up. The top hand would be even with the rear shoulder line.

Obviously there are situations that this will not happen but for the most part I have found it to be pretty close.
 
Dec 5, 2012
4,143
63
Mid West
I agree with a lateral tilt...but she is a bit extreme.
I have a right view pro (rvp) video of her but I cant figure out to to attach it to this thread????
Her hands stay back during the lineal phase and are pretty still to contact, good lag time, and stays inside the ball. But at contact, with hips open, her whole upper body arches towards the plate.
During our fall season her BA was .255 ... over half of her at bats were fly outs to shallow center. I believe she's under the ball too much. Need drill tips to get her contact through the ball and not under.
 

redhotcoach

Out on good behavior
May 8, 2009
4,704
38
To post RVP you have to open a youtube account (free), send the video to the youtube account, click the "two frame film" icon above where you reply (on discuss fast pitch), and copy and paste the youtube url address into the box that opens.

I am picturing one girl I have worked with...this girl always bat wrapped (barrel of bat came behind her head loading). Her body would then spin/rotate far ahead of her hands and bat. She would drop her rear shoulder and hands spin her hips and shoulders, her sternum would be pushed way out near contact (my dd, her friend, would always say 'quit showing us your boobs'), and she would pull the bat low to high through the ball.

This girl had a dozen or so lessons with a retired Chicago Cub who only preached "rotate your hips ahead of your hands" without much else. She has had to put in a ton of work to establish a better swing.
 
Jul 28, 2008
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I like setting up two Tees. One in front of the other and about a foot apart. I have the front Tee set up for them to hit off of. The rear T is set so that the top of the ball is even with the bottom of the front ball.

The object is to hit the front ball and not hit the rear ball. If they hit the rear ball, they are dropping their hands and uppercutting.
 

HYP

Nov 17, 2012
427
0
I agree with a lateral tilt...but she is a bit extreme.
I have a right view pro (rvp) video of her but I cant figure out to to attach it to this thread????
Her hands stay back during the lineal phase and are pretty still to contact, good lag time, and stays inside the ball. But at contact, with hips open, her whole upper body arches towards the plate.
During our fall season her BA was .255 ... over half of her at bats were fly outs to shallow center. I believe she's under the ball too much. Need drill tips to get her contact through the ball and not under.

What has she been taught as far as hitting? For instance, I teach use of the hands and some teach rotate to swing. I have seen this happen and what I have discovered is a couple of things.

One is, some hitters who rotate to hit, the weight of the bat and the hard turn of the shoulders. Pulls the head over the plate causing the arching towards the plate that you see.

Also, the head tilts first and exasperates the problem.

High "T" drill is good for this and working hard on keeping the eyes level. Stabilizing the head is very important. If you can figure out how to post a video. That would be very helpful.
 

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