Week One Lesson Plan?

[madkenna1469]

I have been enjoying some of the threads on hitting recently and it got me thinking about my 8yrd DD going into her second season of machine pitch. With her having other sports going on and me coaching my other DD 12u team I haven't had the chance to work with her much. I plan to start next Monday a couple times a week as long as she is having fun. She is small 4' 62lbs and absolutely the sweetest thing you would ever meet unless you are her parents and no one else is there! LOL. With her being so young I would like to start building her swing for the future by introducing new concepts weekly as in a progression type of system that can work with a 8yrd. She does not swing the bat hard mainly arms with the body following type of swing and has a decent stance to start from. For you hitting Gurus without seeing video what would your week one lesson plan be to get her going on the right path to the High Level Swing?

 

[madkenna1469]

Every one can critique a swing how many can build the foundation?

 

[FP26]

To me a lot of this is hitter specific, however, if I were to start over with my DD knowing what I know now I would first teach her how to use her hands. More specifically, loading (rock the u - tip n rip) and turn the barrel. Then once I am comfortable with the hands I would move on to legs/hips, etc. There are several posters on here that are far more knowledgeable than I am, and they may feel comfortable teaching the entire swing/sequence at once. But with my more limited experience, I prefer to go with parts. I have found that making changes in one part of the sequence can affect other parts of the sequence and I need to do it step by step. I don't know enough to predict what those other changes may be.... Maybe someday.

 

[madkenna1469]

That is not a bad idea to have her start the tip n rip drill.

 

[T.J.]

If I was to do it again....For me...for my DD's....I would have to take the opposite approach as fp26....I would make sure my DD's have a nice full flowing smooth swing sequence, with proper momentum all the way through follow-thru. I would also talk a lot about the mental side of hitting; in other words stress the importance of having the anticipation of swinging at every pitch (see sue enquist), being aggressive. I feel once a player feels the "sequence" all the way through, you can then easily pick and fine tune certain parts.

 

[madkenna1469]

The one good thing about machine pitch is that every pitch is I'm swinging and I hope it turns her into an aggressive hitter in the future. I would also like her to have smooth flowing swing but I think the hands are a big part of that. Maybe having her do the HG drill to help her with momentum and the tip it and rip it drill to help with her hands.

 

[madkenna1469]

I agree with having them swinging at good pitches but I do want her to be aggressive. In her 8u they use a machine that lay's the pitch in almost the same spot every time and they get 5 or 6 pitches no matter if they miss all of them. That is my reasoning for this year to have her swinging at every pitch during the game not during our workout. The main reason I started this thread is to try and come up with a good progression system to start young kids on. We have all made mistakes with our kids when it comes to their swings Ideas we once had that now we know better. There are a lot of people that come to this board to try and figure out where do I start. So if you were to start with a kid what would be the first thing you would have them do?

 

[Doug Romrell]

Every one can critique a swing how many can build the foundation?

Everyone WILL critique your DD's swing, but only a very small fraction of those critics will know what the $?@% they are talking about.

 

[madkenna1469]

Doug-I really liked your post about the tip it and rip it. I took it to the cages last week with my older DD and a few of her team mates and gave it a go I am going to continue to try and work it to see if I can't get my DD to get it right. I agree with your post above that there is a lot of people that do not know what they are looking at not to say that I do. I think we get a lot of good info on this forum but not a bunch on building the swing from the start and that is what I am hoping for.

 

[FP26]

Doug-I really liked your post about the tip it and rip it. I took it to the cages last week with my older DD and a few of her team mates and gave it a go I am going to continue to try and work it to see if I can't get my DD to get it right. I agree with your post above that there is a lot of people that do not know what they are looking at not to say that I do. I think we get a lot of good info on this forum but not a bunch on building the swing from the start and that is what I am hoping for.

I agree with you. I would love to see a thread in the hitting forum that would rival I/R in the classroom or drive mechanics. There is a lot of great info here but you need to dig sometimes. In the pitching forum it is easier to find. Just my opinion.