What drills to do to improve my daughters succes at the plate

[bigbomber]

I am new here and would like to have everyones thoughts here in hopes that I can help my daughter to have more succesfull at bats next season at the plate.She is a pitcher so we work throwing everyday ,but after pitching don't have much time to work on her batting (we only get so much free gym time up here in the winter).
Last season many of her at bats were ground balls or pop ups to the infield,which was frustrating to her and puzzling to my wife and I.She is a big girl (5' 11",12 years old) and did show promising power when she hit the ball square.Her coach said that she was taking her eye off of the ball,but she did manage to fix it halfway through the season.
At batting practice she was a lot more succesfull at the plate with her coaches throwing to her,which leads me to believe it could be nerves.Any suggestions on what we need to fix would be greatly appreciated.Thank you.

 

[CoogansBluff]

At batting practice she was a lot more succesfull at the plate with her coaches throwing to her,which leads me to believe it could be nerves.

Everybody has more success in batting practice. My daughter can put on a show when I'm pitching.

I'll let the hitting coaches do the swing assessment, but I'll quickly point out that the placement of the tee in the video is too deep, toward the catcher, IMO. Ideal contact is around the front foot for a pitch down the middle.

It's OK to have the tee as deep as you have it if you're working on getting her bat on the plane of the pitch for longer, strictly as a drill. But I assume that she's showing us her best swing in this video. I'd want her t to make contact just a little more out front, IMO. Tee should be around the same white line as the front foot when it lands.

 

[straightleg]

The bat is level to the ground, standing straight up when hitting. Adjustment...

I like the cue of what I heard LClifton said is, keep loading the hands until you feel the back hip go.
That cue has really worked with some of the girls I work with.

Stick your butt out some and barely soften knees, and try to maintain that through out the swing. That will give you some tilt at the waist and engauge your core in the swing.


Then use the load the hands slow until you feel the hip go, which the elvis move starts that in motion
http://youtu.be/-7295jQaoAw


Straightleg

 

[knightsb]

Last season many of her at bats were ground balls or pop ups to the infield

Welcome bigbomber. If you can, post a swing off of live pitching or front toss. My DD had similar issues, after analyzing swings off of live pitching, we found her problem was she was hitting too far out in front of the plate, and not letting the ball get deep enough. I believe she was anxious and was afraid of being late on the ball.

Her coach said that she was taking her eye off of the ball

DD and I work on Soft Focus / Hard Focus off of front toss. Soft Focus she sees me preparing to toss, as I toss, she switches to Hard Focus, trying to track just the ball all the way to contact.

At batting practice she was a lot more succesfull at the plate with her coaches throwing to her,which leads me to believe it could be nerves.Any suggestions on what we need to fix would be greatly appreciated.Thank you.

Lots of front toss.
We do a lot of front toss with baseball size TCB Hole balls. When she goes back to hitting a softball it looks like lot bigger target.
During front toss, I mix up speed so that he has to adjust her timing and get comfortable doing so.

So much of hitting is mental and getting in the right mental state. Make sure she goes to the plate with positive self talk. Practice it. The last thing you want is self talk like, "don't strke out", "don't hit a grounder", replace it with "hit the ball hard", "drive the ball to the gap".

Mizzou's Coach Earlywine has every batter ask these two questions:

1. Did you get a good pitch to hit? If you don't get a good pitch to hit, mechanics will not matter.
2. Did you have good timing with the pitch? If you don't have good timing, mechanics will not matter.

Also Earylwine has as one of his batting stance absolutes the front elbow should start lower or even (at the least) to the rear elbow. I notice your DD starts with her front elbow higher (edit) than her rear and then kind of corrects during the course of your walkup drill.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

BB ... the video clip you provided is of a 'drill'. It would help you obtain more meaningful feedback if you put up a swing clip of a regular swing instead.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

DD and I work on Soft Focus / Hard Focus off of front toss. Soft Focus she sees me preparing to toss, as I toss, she switches to Hard Focus, trying to track just the ball all the way to contact.

This here is common advice that is incorrect. Better to keep the focus 'soft' throughout.

 

[straightleg]

Thank you for the tips guys.Do you believe that practicing the Matrix drill in the link then gradually have her swing faster would be a good idea to help her get the idea of using her core at full swing speed ?

It helps with showing the hitter the order in what happens in slow motion.
Howard Carrier (One of Busto's coach's) came up with the idea years ago, and we have been using it to teach the girls ever since.
I just bought Busto's new hitting video's and have not had a chance to watch them. will see if she still does it on her hitting tapes


SL

 

[straightleg]

Thanks straitleg!

Where can I purchase the hitting videos?

Here is a regular swing video

[video=youtube_share;bPTS_arxNco]http://youtu.be/bPTS_arxNco[/video]

Just type her name in a search engine, I am sure her web site will come up.
Another tape I have is RVP right view pro instructional tape. It is like $65.00 when I bought it years ago. It has some good stuff on it.

SL

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Collapsed lead arm ....

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Level shoulders at contact .....