Where do we start? Still working

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Jan 6, 2009
6,587
113
Chehalis, Wa


Fighting a cold but still wanted to hit. Not her best but maybe best representation of where we were at.


Some of my swings looked just like her when I first started. It has changed over time.

I think she is pulling by opening up the shoulders and pulling through the lead arm. The hands are confused as she waits to pull the bat through the zone and as the body tries to swing the bat.

The hands aren’t active until right before contact.
 

fanboi22

on the journey
Nov 9, 2015
1,138
83
SE Wisconsin


Fighting a cold but still wanted to hit. Not her best but maybe best representation of where we were at.


Not sure the best way to post these as I am on my phone. But I tried to show photos of key positions. She has her hand set a little low to start in my opinion which may help if she starts a bit higher and closer to shoulder.

First problem is she starts to drop the hands before toe touch. I would work on that first. Dry swing keep hands high at shoulder and don’t move until after heel touch on lead foot.

After that she looks to be dumping the barrel and swinging the bat with wrists well before she should be. IMO the hands should stay at shoulder as the lead arm tries to level the barrel to match the plane of the incoming pitch. This is done with posture/tilt after the front foot plants. So keep hands up and at shoulder under heel plant then work to get front elbow lined up with pitch at the same time as the body is tilting to allow that to happen. This is all done with a strong front leg which pushes all the ‘arm tilt planing’ action towards the rear leg side.

For your DD the first thing I would work on is keeping the starting barrel position thru heel plant. Once you do that let’s see where she is at. To worry about too much more is biting off too much. All my opinion obviously.

I would then work on left hand only swing for a while feeling the torso pull the bat thru keeping the arm strong and not flatten the arm against the torso. It requires a good tilt to get down to the ball. Then I also like the drill where you turn the top hand upside down and keep an open grip with that hand and do the same as the left hand only drill but use the right hand to push thru with the open grip right hand. This helps with the feel of the top hand without allowing it to dictate much of the barrel movement. Barrel in this drill is still driven by left lead arm and torso tilt. I think these drills are shown somewhere on this site. If not let me know and I will try to find.



f5a07a523ed564d0e0137431675b8e51.jpg

c9bd6a8d1fb7c46996dfd37ac07d3684.jpg

13b262b0c4453f297d1a9667952732cd.jpg

c9104bb53d2c26959aa198df22eb3af8.jpg

f6fc862cc9c92b0c26c29bc2c3165e54.jpg

cf08597b970fb15d638a76381e47ee3e.jpg
 
Feb 25, 2020
953
93
Not sure the best way to post these as I am on my phone. But I tried to show photos of key positions. She has her hand set a little low to start in my opinion which may help if she starts a bit higher and closer to shoulder.

First problem is she starts to drop the hands before toe touch. I would work on that first. Dry swing keep hands high at shoulder and don’t move until after heel touch on lead foot.

After that she looks to be dumping the barrel and swinging the bat with wrists well before she should be. IMO the hands should stay at shoulder as the lead arm tries to level the barrel to match the plane of the incoming pitch. This is done with posture/tilt after the front foot plants. So keep hands up and at shoulder under heel plant then work to get front elbow lined up with pitch at the same time as the body is tilting to allow that to happen. This is all done with a strong front leg which pushes all the ‘arm tilt planing’ action towards the rear leg side.

For your DD the first thing I would work on is keeping the starting barrel position thru heel plant. Once you do that let’s see where she is at. To worry about too much more is biting off too much. All my opinion obviously.

I would then work on left hand only swing for a while feeling the torso pull the bat thru keeping the arm strong and not flatten the arm against the torso. It requires a good tilt to get down to the ball. Then I also like the drill where you turn the top hand upside down and keep an open grip with that hand and do the same as the left hand only drill but use the right hand to push thru with the open grip right hand. This helps with the feel of the top hand without allowing it to dictate much of the barrel movement. Barrel in this drill is still driven by left lead arm and torso tilt. I think these drills are shown somewhere on this site. If not let me know and I will try to find.



f5a07a523ed564d0e0137431675b8e51.jpg

c9bd6a8d1fb7c46996dfd37ac07d3684.jpg

13b262b0c4453f297d1a9667952732cd.jpg

c9104bb53d2c26959aa198df22eb3af8.jpg

f6fc862cc9c92b0c26c29bc2c3165e54.jpg

cf08597b970fb15d638a76381e47ee3e.jpg

That is a fine post.

Pretty hard to argue with those stills. She appears to be laying it down. The hands are not moving hardly and the barrel is moving down. This gets the bat way behind where it should be. And yes shawn does this also!

The best way to do it(IMO) is to swing the handle/hands forward(and down) really fast/hard from the start. The barrel will flatten but the hands will be like 12" closer to the pitcher and much more in sync with the body!

Hands cant stay still that long.
 

fanboi22

on the journey
Nov 9, 2015
1,138
83
SE Wisconsin
'bout the 2:20 mark on this video is what i see OP's DD doing. I have seen a few other videos by this guy seems ok. I have not looked at these drill specifically but just wanted OP to see a diff explanation of the issue.

 
Apr 30, 2018
188
43
Still making progress. Looks better doing some of the drills than actual swings, but starting to see some changes.






And as a bonus her little brother requested to be filmed as well. This is about as beginner as you can get didn’t play last year due to rec ball canceling to COVID. So just coach pitch in first grade 2 years ago. And whatever he has observed watching me and his sister. Unfortunately he is scared of the ball catching so I’m worried for him playing.

 
Oct 13, 2014
5,471
113
South Cali
Still making progress. Looks better doing some of the drills than actual swings, but starting to see some changes.






And as a bonus her little brother requested to be filmed as well. This is about as beginner as you can get didn’t play last year due to rec ball canceling to COVID. So just coach pitch in first grade 2 years ago. And whatever he has observed watching me and his sister. Unfortunately he is scared of the ball catching so I’m worried for him playing.



do this drill for awhile. Have fun w it. For both kids.

 
Apr 17, 2019
331
63
She's made a ton of progress. There's still a upper/lower body sync issue.
The quality of this video isn't great, but I'd have her do the first 2 pvc drills here. (the beginning series and around 1:50)
 
Last edited:

fanboi22

on the journey
Nov 9, 2015
1,138
83
SE Wisconsin
She's made a ton of progress. There's still a upper/lower body sync issue.
The quality of this video isn't great, but I'd have her do the first 2 pvc drills here. (the beginning series and around 1:50)


I like this and actually have my DD take a bat and hold it to her shoulders with her hands crossed like the video. The knob is set up on her front shoulder and the barrel extends out where she can make contact with the ball. I challenge her to launch fast enough to try and hit the back of the cage off a tee. She says her obliques really get a workout doing this. Sometimes she releases a bit from her shoulders but it still does good for the path and the core feeling.
 
Feb 25, 2020
953
93
IMO you need to pitch to her. Hit a moving ball. Tee work is good as a supplemental. You need to get as close to a live AB as you can get as much as you can.
 

Latest posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,468
Members
21,443
Latest member
sstop28
Top