Hitting and Hitters Discussion Swings for review

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Tim

Very nice looking swing. Great mechanics.
I wish my daughter swung a bat as well as Brit does. Will post Casey's swing for your comment in the near future.

She lifts the rear heal up to start the swing? Thats different.

One question I have in the swing.
Would she hit it harder if she stretched her chain a little bit more, meaning getting the lead arm going back as she goes to toe touch, where the lead elbow ends up around the belly button or a bit farther back as she starts to go to heal plant.



Straightleg

The heel raise was caused by a slow pitch i think ,she got happy feet in the box..... A friend was pitching to her as dad wouldent do it because hes a coward. I realy dont know,we worked on her seperation and went from not enough to to much at one time what you see there is about the mid point ..........

Tim

 

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ps. Where do you get slow motion video to post?

Sorry i diddnt respond to that part,,,,,,,, Akadema1 was kind enough to do the slo mo. he is also the one that was brave enough to pitch lol. Hes a much better computer guy than me.

Tim

 

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The biggest thing I see in the first clip is she is pushing herself back too far to load using the front leg. Her weight is on the outside of the rear leg and not on the inside of it. This is going to cause hip slide. A problem I see often down here at the ball fields.

The reason she cant get forward is because she is too far back at the start of the unload process. So she squishes the bug.

Just my observation.

Dana.

 

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Good post Dana, looks like we have the same view on the first swing. Do you see this in Texas with kids that do not stride?

 

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Actually both striders and no striders. Got to head for the gym. Will review the other swing when I get some time.

Dana.

 

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Boulder has a sweet swing

The player straightleg sent us too has some areas that I think most of us disagree with. The bottom line is, if she is not perfect in the box but she is pounding the ball then that is a success.

Yes, she throws her weight outside her back knee, she does not stride, head comes up and she seems to squish the bug but...she has a hard swing. She probably hits the ball pretty well right now with this swing. Can she get better? Yes, but can't we all?


JMO

 

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OK, I'll put one out here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx1M0-5PB1s

others views are available when you get into youtube under the same name.

Ump

 

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Ump 57

For myself it is hard to look at a swing from the front. A side view would be better for me.

From the front it looks like she went to toe touch nice and had a good weight shift.

During her at bats not slapping it looks like she is dropping her hands.
You could put a tee on a 5 gallon bucket so the balls are at the top of the strike zone and if she is hitting the tee allot, she will see it and fix herself.

Elbow above hands, hands above barrel to the ball.



Good Luck
Straightleg

 

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lets try this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7we2yqhyldg

 

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This young lady is a classic "pusher". Her hands start literally away from her body, she proceeds to drop them down but by the time she is done with her load they are up above the strike zone and closer to her body. She does take a forward step but her hands more often than not stay in front of the bat head at impact and although she starts hip rotation she abruptly stops the rotation at impact, then brings her hips back to apply weight on her rear foot to run. Sometimes she does not rotate her hips at all. Her swing is normally inside-out, making sure she hits to the opposite field. She almost never comes to full extension, and just after contact her arms collapse and the bat head finishes low around her right tricep.

It takes a special athlete to swing like this and be successful. Many who try cannot hit a fair ball and even if they do it is normally a pop up or routine grounder. This young lady has "It"; athleticism, speed, great eyes, and outstanding body control that most of our kids just don't have. Miss Prantl reminds me of a young Ichiro, including the front elbow pad.

Len

 

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Boulders Dad

There is a lot to like about your daughters swing. She is obviously a strong girl. That is always a plus. That being said there are several things I think she could do to help her swing improve.

The first of those would be to correct her posture. She is standing straight up in the batters box. Since she's such a tall girl it wouldn't hurt her to widen her stance a little more in the setup. She also needs to turn her toes inward. This will help support better rotation in a little wider stance. Then have her tilt over in her stance so she is not standing straight up and taking her hands at more of a downward angle towards the ball. This position will create a swing plane that will generate a slight upward angle of the bat as it approaches the ball. Creating a rising line drive.

The other thing I see which I see a lot from both boys and girls swinging is that the front elbow is way too low all the way through the swing. Often when I see this I will see the hands drop and casting start. That does not appear to be the case with your daughters swing at this time. From a connection standpoint she does very well in this particular swing.

That front arm needs to either start up at the beginning of the swing or be up at contact. When you watch high level hitters. They may start with their hands and arms low, but as they go to contact they raise them. I prefer to teach young players to get that front arm up during the setup and put some tension in the arms so they don't drop the arms and hands during the swing. This also supports staying connected better during the swing. The last thing you want to see happen is a change in the hand/swing path at unload of the swing.

If I was to take a guess based upon her set up in the box. I would think she probably hits more ground balls than rising line drives and that she is susceptible to striking out on the pitch that is low and away because she standing so tall. Changing her posture would go a long way in helping her hit the ball much harder.

Hope these suggestions help your daughter become a better hitter.

Dana

 

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Looking at these swings from a pitcher's perspective, what are the weak spots, and where would an experienced battery locate pitches to be effective defensively? Make a goal of using swing mechanics that won't leave "holes" in your swing that good pitchers/catchers can take advantage of.

 

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This is just a guess because I honestly do not know this young lady nor have I ever seen her play........

I believe this swing was built to suit her attributes: great hand-eye coordination and speed. This young lady is not your average travel ball player. Miss Prantl knows exactly what she is doing in the box. She is keeping the defense honest, knows exactly what she is going to do, how she's going to do it, and where it is going to go. She exudes confidence, and knows she's a better pusher/slapper than a masher. When the defense is defending the slap, she will shoot the ball into the left-center field gap or down the left field line. If the outfield shifts to the left side she will wrist one into right field and end up on second base, and if she wants to rattle the pitcher she will shoot one up the middle. If her team is up big she might even try to pull a ball. This girl plays with the defense and I don't think anyone is going to talk her into changing her batting style or approach one bit. If I was the coach of her team I would not change her offensive approach at all. I would personally leave this girl alone. She seems to be very, very good at what she does with the bat.

Len

 

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This is just a guess because I honestly do not know this young lady nor have I ever seen her play........

I believe this swing was built to suit her attributes: great hand-eye coordination and speed. This young lady is not your average travel ball player. Miss Prantl knows exactly what she is doing in the box. She is keeping the defense honest, knows exactly what she is going to do, how she's going to do it, and where it is going to go. She exudes confidence, and knows she's a better pusher/slapper than a masher. When the defense is defending the slap, she will shoot the ball into the left-center field gap or down the left field line. If the outfield shifts to the left side she will wrist one into right field and end up on second base, and if she wants to rattle the pitcher she will shoot one up the middle. If her team is up big she might even try to pull a ball. This girl plays with the defense and I don't think anyone is going to talk her into changing her batting style or approach one bit. If I was the coach of her team I would not change her offensive approach at all. I would personally leave this girl alone. She seems to be very, very good at what she does with the bat.

Len

I would have to agree Len. She puts the ball all over the field.
She slapped one for a triple.
Looks to have good timing in a game.
I would not mess with her to much.

Might try elbows out like ifubuildit said , see if it gets the shoulders into it ,for more power, but would let her choose ,if it feels better that way


Straightleg

 

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Guys,

I was commenting about Boulders daughter. Not Miss Prantl. Slapping is a whole other discussion.

 

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The 7 min video of Ms Prantl hitting at various tournies is a great piece of video , great hitter (that rise ball she hit on the ground up the middle was amazing) talk about hands above the ball ! and a great tech person to compile that. MD

 

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Guys,

I was commenting about Boulders daughter. Not Miss Prantl. Slapping is a whole other discussion.

Sorry.....my bad! I see now that your subject line is directed at BD.

Len

 

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I will be brave and post mine.She dosent read OFC anyhow so dad cant be browbeaten........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oe6C_G5AfA

I wanted to throw my two cents in on Bouldersdad's DD swing if for no other reason than to get more knowledgeable posters response to my observations. I agree with all that Ifubuildit has said and wanted to add my thoughts on a couple of observations. Her stance looks like it could be a bit wider and certainly her posture in this clip at least looks too upright and not in a core loaded position(More of Hitter's bend at the waist and soften the knees). I am not sure if she "squishes the bug" so much but she doesn't get a lot of drive off the back side either. Her back heel goes pretty much straight up rather than following the back hip, thigh and knee to the ball.(I don't think that was very clear) The other thing that jumped out at me was at the 51 to 54 sec mark, watch her back elbow just drops without the front elbow making that first good move that Hitter talks about. Without that front elbow move it looks like she gets a bit of early bat drag but she is athletic enough to recover but it looks awkward in slo mo. I'd like to see her "maintain the box" better than she does and maintain connected from the start of her swing. Any thoughts on this?

 

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come on dads, dont be shy, throw your kids vid on here

Tim

 

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I wanted to throw my two cents in on Bouldersdad's DD swing if for no other reason than to get more knowledgeable posters response to my observations. I agree with all that Ifubuildit has said and wanted to add my thoughts on a couple of observations. Her stance looks like it could be a bit wider and certainly her posture in this clip at least looks too upright and not in a core loaded position(More of Hitter's bend at the waist and soften the knees). I am not sure if she "squishes the bug" so much but she doesn't get a lot of drive off the back side either. Her back heel goes pretty much straight up rather than following the back hip, thigh and knee to the ball.(I don't think that was very clear) The other thing that jumped out at me was at the 51 to 54 sec mark, watch her back elbow just drops without the front elbow making that first good move that Hitter talks about. Without that front elbow move it looks like she gets a bit of early bat drag but she is athletic enough to recover but it looks awkward in slo mo. I'd like to see her "maintain the box" better than she does and maintain connected from the start of her swing. Any thoughts on this?

When Crystl and I did the last coaches clinic she shared that she had been working with Coach Sue Enquist while working on the set for a new movie she will be in with Reese Witherspoon and she was not allowed to talk about the movie however I got this on line http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/11/0...-on-her-untitled-project-with-james-l-brooks/

Coach Enquist and her were talking about what she termed the Elvis move...as you plant the heel you lift the back foot heel slightly and focus more on driving off the back foot toe as the weight transfers inside the back leg and rotate as needed depending on the location of the pitch and the belly button is used as the indicator of how far to rotate so you are thinking the hips are leading the way. If you put a concrete block against the outside edge of the back foot and hit you will get a better idea of how it works and it is used in conjunction with the hitter landing on the inside edge of the leadfoot knee and the leg being flexed and then at or during contact with the ball it will firm up. How soon it firms up will be dependent on an outside, up the middle or inside pitch. She also talked about being tested at a lab and that this position provides more power as the calf muscle, ham strings and glures are all working together verses when the back leg is bent or looks like an L. There will be more coming out on this in the future as this person is doing a study that will be released and she is not sure when of different MLB stances using pressure pads to record the forces generated. National Geographic did a similar study on martial arts and recorded strikes and blows and hip movements very similar if not identical to what I think she is talking about...check their web site for the next showing.

go4fpsb good observations...in my opinion.