My DD is consistantly swinging late. Her swing is okay, well maybe sometimes she dips, but for the most part is late. Her coach has worked on it, and so have I, but I cannot get her to start that swing any sooner, she wants to hit it on top of the plate, and waits til the ball gets there. Any suggestions?
Something that I have noticed and it is related to a particular hitting instructors method of teaching...they do not teach the girls how to stride because they over stride...so they lean backwards and kind of pick up the lead foot and swing.
So I have started demonstrating to the hitters and the parents where the body must be in space and time as to balance when they stride in order to be able to pick up the lead foot. I have them show me how they load in front of a big mirror with their belly button facing the mirror. What I usually see is they are leaning backwards a little on the load and then have to lean back even more as they attempt to stride and pick up their lead foot and their stride is very little if any.
To demonstrate this to them to get a feel for the balance I put their lead shoulder and hip up against the wall and their feet are close together. I ask them to simply raise their right foot and they can not do it and they feel it. You must be able to shift your weight to the other leg or off center to pick the leg up other wise you loose your balance. You see this a lot especially when they are throwing, many lean or tilt backwards when trying to throw.
Now I bring them back to the mirror and spread their legs about 1.5 the width of the shoulders width, then bend at the waist and soften the knees. I ask them to pick up their lead foot leg and as they lean backwards they begin to move their foot a little
HOWEVER to pick it up all the way they
MUST lean back even further so their head is way off center and past their back leg and then they can pick up their foot completely off the ground. I ask them if that felt awkward and you get that look as any parent could verify boy was that a stupid question to ask!
Now I get behind them while they are facing the mirror with their belly button facing the mirror...I tell them to think their legs are in the shape of a pyramid and that the back side of the pyramid does not move only the front side and we do a simple knee cock move by tilting the foot to the inside edge of the foot and the knee going under our body a little. The weight is them shifted to the inside of the back leg and as we pick up our lead foot our weight shifts forward and we stride. We point out our head never moved backwards and we were under control of our movement. I will keep my hand on their back hip and ask them to do it a few more times to see if they are feeling it move versus seeing it move. Then I will put two fingers on the outside of the back leg by the knee cap and ask them to load again and then to go to toe touch...I do not move my fingers as I am using them as a point of reference as to where their leg was and after they stride to toe touch they see where my fingers are and that their weight went linear or forward to the pitchers position.
Then we work on increasing the distance they stride away from my finger position on the side of their knee by increasing the load by how much they turn the knee inward or how far they turn on the inside edge of the lead foot. When they think slow to load and soft to step on a bent or flexed knee and think they are kind of sitting on that front knee the distance from my finger increases more and they can feel it in their hips.
I see this as a big reason for being late to the ball because of the variation of time it takes when they are leaning backwards in an attempt to pick up the lead foot and get it back down again.
As we progress I have them stand with their lead shoulder pointing towards the mirror and I stand out to the side of them and behind them and simulate the movements of the pitchers motion so they can see me in the mirror. As my ball hand starts up I encourage them to start their load and then I pause when the ball is in the K position or directly over my head and they MUST be at toe touch and then we start over and I do not stop and they swing with they see the ball at my hip or the pitchers window of release.
Make sure you are behind the hitter far enough so they can not hit you with the bat especially if they are top hand release hitters!