I am working with my daughters swing and one thing we are battling his her tendency to open her front shoulder (Lefty hitter). We have been working on cross hand drill to try to get her to feel the pull through that her front arm needs, but she still has a tendency to rotate her torso and open her shoulder. The result is her lifting the bat head slightly at impact cause less than square impact and more ground balls than good quality line drives.
Does anyone out there in 'OFC land' have any other good drills that would help teach her to keep the shoulder in as she drives through the impact zone?
She by your description is not making a good first move...the lead elbow should move about 2 to 4 inches forward and then angle up slightly with the knob of the bat inside the path of the ball. Stand in front of her and face her and take your right hand palm open and have her touch the palm of your hand with her lead arm elbow and stop....this is making a good first move. Do this several times and then add in to take the knob of the bat and touch the palm of the left hand and have it separated about 6 to 8 inches and slightly lower then the right hand which will be about even with the shoulder. As she begins to direct the knob of the bat towards the left hand she should start her shoulder rotation and be turning her shoulders slightly....important to point out that the release of her wrist will be dependent as to the location of the pitch up the middle, outside or inside.
Once she gets the idea take a rope or rubber stretch cord and knot one end of it and hold it like a bat with the knot being the knob. Have her load and go to toe touch and separate the hands rearward slightly then you put tension on the cord or rope and she begins to slowly start her swing by lowering the back elbow down and she also makes her good first move so the elbows are working together as a unit. As the back elbow is lowering make sure it clears her body and does not touch her. While doing this have intentionally get the elbow too close and you will feel she can not pull with much force verses when it is a little further away. Her lead elbow will be up slightly and we say elbow above the hands and the hands above the plane of the pitch.
If she is making a bad first move the lead arm elbow opens or turns outward causing the shoulder to open and the head pulls out....caution this could also be from the front side opening.
We put a white rag inside the tee and have the hitter focus on seeing the white rag after they hit the ball. If they can see it they probably made a good first move.
Another drill we use is the hand over drill, Straightleg came up with this...take your top hand and turn it upside down (the back of your hand will be facing you and the thumb is down. Take a swing and pull the bat out of your top hand with the lead arm elbow pulling the bat out of your top hand and releasing it and finishing high and over your shoulder and not bending your lead arm elbow and rolling out after extension. We hit up the middle first and then progress to outside and then inside in that order.
Try this and let me know how it works....
Howard
