Hitting and Hitters Discussion Connection Topic / Hitting

[default]

Connection
I think the hardest part of the swing to teach.
Sometimes hard to see unless you video it and slow it down.

You start the swing - go to toe touch. Next comes connection.

Some believe, as the heel plants / Others, right after the heel plants.

What do you believe in?
1. After heel plants do you just hold on and turn?
2. After heel plants you pull with just lead shoulder /arm / fingers?
3. After heel plants you pull - push with both shoulders /arms and hands, all together?

Go early with top half and you disconnect.
Dont seperatate enough with arms and you disconnect - your top half gets ahead of rotation.
Cast out lead arm and you disconnect.



Like to hear you opinion on this part of the swing. What happens
And what you do to improve it.


The swing above is my daughter. This was after impact and she is disconnecting to go through extention. Arms past rotation.




Straightleg

 

[default]

I posted this question on another forum. This hitting intructor from California, that answered, I thought did an excellent job on explaining it.

Straightleg






Quote

"Connection" is not something that is maintained throughout the entire swing. It will usually start somewhere around the time the front foot touches down (not exactly the same from hitter to hitter) and is then maintained for approx the first 3frames (30fps) of the swing to about what most people call the lag position, depending on pitch location (where the ball is over the plate, in or out, how high or low, and how deep or out front). generally, around that point the wrists will start to uncock and "connection" is pretty much all done.

I wouldn't get to hung up on defining exactly the moment of connection 'beginning' and connection 'ending' but be more aware/concerned that the hitter is at some time early in the actual swing process, efficiently connecting the bat to the body's rotation by not allowing the arms to fall behind or power ahead.

As far as what a hitter must feel to accomplish this goal, that could be a thousand different things to a thousand different people, but I would suggest if teaching the hitter about connection specifically, to start by having them try to maintain connection as long as possible up to contact, and usually/hopefully things will start to look better. It all comes down to what will make the hitter move correctly as far as actually teaching the swing is concerned.
__________________

 

[default]

Vary nice explanation. Much better than I could do. I would also say in game situations the swing may not always be perfect but did we do what the team needed from us in that situation.
Maybe we had to have the run and we had to make contact sometime during our at bat to score the winning run and our practice allowed us to drive the ball with power eventhough we became a little disconnected in the process.

 

[default]

Straightleg- From what I understand about connection is what you guys call getting to the slot position. I beleive connection needs to happen after heel plant while staying linear. You need to pull the bat through the big zone with the front side. Your back hand/arm are just guides to help you stay on the plain of the pitch all the way to ball. I may be wrong, if I am I'm sure someone will correct me. Still learning...lol!

Mike

 

[default]

Mike

That is how I think of it. You push to much with the back arm/hand and things go wrong.


We pull with the lead fingers.

Pretty much what you just said.
Ever want to get together and hit some, let me know




Straightleg

 

[default]

That's pretty much what I've gotten from all my research. I did not know if I was putting it in the right words or not.

Mike

 

[default]

I posted this question on another forum. This hitting intructor that answered I thought did an excellent job on explaining it.

Straightleg



Quote

"Connection" is not something that is maintained throughout the entire swing. It will usually start somewhere around the time the front foot touches down (not exactly the same from hitter to hitter) and is then maintained for approx the first 3frames (30fps) of the swing to about what most people call the lag position, depending on pitch location (where the ball is over the plate, in or out, how high or low, and how deep or out front). generally, around that point the wrists will start to uncock and "connection" is pretty much all done.

I wouldn't get to hung up on defining exactly the moment of connection 'beginning' and connection 'ending' but be more aware/concerned that the hitter is at some time early in the actual swing process, efficiently connecting the bat to the body's rotation by not allowing the arms to fall behind or power ahead.

As far as what a hitter must feel to accomplish this goal, that could be a thousand different things to a thousand different people, but I would suggest if teaching the hitter about connection specifically, to start by having them try to maintain connection as long as possible up to contact, and usually/hopefully things will start to look better. It all comes down to what will make the hitter move correctly as far as actually teaching the swing is concerned.
__________________

Compliments Straightleg! That has to be one of the best worded descriptions I've heard to date. I especially like the last paragraph in regards to "feel".

This is why ex-players who now teach hitting vary so radically in their teaching. They all "feel" they are doing something differently, when in fact video shows them being nearly identical in their own swing.

 

[default]

I teach that the beginnings of the rotation is what leads to the locking of the front knee and the heel plant.

Basically the slotting of the elbow and firing of the hips happen at the same time. The front knee locks and heel plants. The hands disconnect depending on the pitch location. Along the way the body tilt and swing plane are working together.

That's the "If I get to swing the way I want to swing"... swing. As the kids get better they get to use that swing more and more and react to getting fooled less and less.

 

[default]

This is why ex-players who now teach hitting vary so radically in their teaching. They all "feel" they are doing something differently, when in fact video shows them being nearly identical in their own swing.

I could not agree more. HS coaches and even big names with instructional videos teach a crappy swing, but if you watch what THEY DO it is totally different.

 

[default]

The term connection itself has made me rethink how and what we teach about what happens to start connection and when it ends and is it really the best term to describe it.

I am thinking now more about using the term link as to linking the bottom half to the top half and trying to break it down even further. This transitioning of the bat from behind the head to the ball has more to the process than meets the eye in my opinion and needs to be described better and broken down even further so the hand path can be as repeatable as possible. The more we have focused on hand path the better the data is getting as to team batting averages, runs per game, on base percentage etc.

I have worked with Crystl since 2002 and have seen her swing change and evolve over the years and yes she squished the bug at one point. Our instruction at our clinics has also changed and as we learn something else we try to incorporate the good points and change how we teach it.

I think the word connected as to the elbows working as a unit is valid and we try to say the elbows must work together as a team. Pulling on a rope has been a good example over the years so the hitter can feel what it is like to pull the bat into bat lag or the hands leading the bat head first. What we see is when we do this the hands especially the knob of the bat is angling too much towards the ball and they are pulling/ pushing their hands over or towards the plate too much and releasing the bat head too soon. I think it is too rotational for many hitters and it should be more semi circular. When standing in front of a mirror you can see the light bulb click as the hitters sees them self doing it properly and the hands are more linear and inside the ball before unhinging or releasing the bat head to the ball.

However it is more than just the elbows working together as team and staying connected that is taking place. If the lead arm elbow is not moving forward and up at the same time or making a good first move then connection breaks down. If the back elbow does not pivot down ward connection is breaking down. If bat lag is not linear enough the wrists start to unhinge too soon and the connection process starts to break down. If at separation the hands did not move far enough rearward we tend to push more with the top hand verses closing the slot or lowering the elbow.

Again I am having to re think how to state it verses how we teach it as I know the kids are getting it however we teach it differently than it is stated in a lot of books and videos and that is important.

For now I am leaning towards linking the bottom half to the top half and breaking down mentally what is actually happening as what the elbows MUST do to stay connected to contact and the next phase is to put the verbiage with it....at contact again what exactly happens verses to finish and how does that link happen verses what you see.

 

[default]

To investigate further on what you believe about connection you should peek over into the baseball world. There are a few leading "camps of thought" surrounding what exactly happens when and how, even when viewing the same exact clips of high level hitters. The mechanics of getting the body to generate as much swing speed/power/etc. is the same for baseball and softball.

The discussion surrounding who is right gets vicious. What I have done is read all that I can on the topic and apply a bit of this and a bit of that as needed with my kids and players.

Epstein, Nyman, Englishbey, all have contributed greatly. Englishbey is who I personally look to when trying to understand bio-mechanics but I always listen to what the others have to say as well.

http://www.englishbeyhitting.com/
http://www.batspeed.com/ <-Nyman
http://www.mikeepsteinhitting.com/ <- Son of original Epstein hitting pioneer.