Stride or no Stride?

[hummingbird]

I'm considering changing my DD's load. Normally, she would pick up her stride foot off the ground, move it toward her back foot and then stride forward before planting. The issue with this, is in the games she would panic and deviate from that load, probably because she sees the pitch coming and thinks she needs to speed up the load. I have tried telling her to simply start her load earlier, but she's not listening to me.

So for that reason I'm considering changing her load to where her stride foot is slightly on her toes prior to the load, and raise the stride foot heel up a bit before uncoiling.

My question is, is this going to reduce the amount of power that can be generated on the swing vs being able to lift that foot up and then down?

Most MLB hitters are putting their foot up off the ground, and some even quite dramatically. So I don't want my DD to lose power on her already weak swing, but just thinking of other ways to get her to keep her swing consistent during games and BP. Any thoughts?

 

[efastball]

This is where Dads go wrong. I see this over and over. They try to fix one bad thing with another, making two bad things.

Dads try to fix stride or timing issues by eliminating the stride. The stride should begin at the same time, every time. Many kids wait until they think it's a strike to start moving. Then it's too late.

Work on the bat drag and the stride timing. Don't break more things.

 

[hummingbird]

This is where Dads go wrong. I see this over and over. They try to fix one bad thing with another, making two bad things.

Dads try to fix stride or timing issues by eliminating the stride. The stride should begin at the same time, every time. Many kids wait until they think it's a strike to start moving. Then it's too late.

Work on the bat drag and the stride timing. Don't break more things.

So not having a stride is a bad thing? Is that what you're trying to say?

 

[hummingbird]

I guess I should have just asked this in a more simpler way.
Is there a disadvantage of having a full stride where the foot comes off the ground and back down, vs just lifting up your front foot heel a bit and then performing a quicker "stride" to finish your swing?

Since I originally posted this, I have actually seen MLB hitters doing this too with success.

 

[Cornbread]

Put her on a tee and get behind a hitting screen. Go through a wind mill motion making sure she is getting some negative movement (load) on the pitchers movement and is into her stride as soon as your hand hits your hip. She will be late in the beginning. You watch her timing and tell her to get into stride sooner. She will probably try to stride quicker which you must correct and reinforce a slow, balanced stride riding the back leg forward.

 

[_MIA_]

The type of stride (e.g. small, large, leg kick, no stride,etc) is a style thing...work with whatever style she is using now and improve the other aspects of her swing which were already mentioned, which may actually include the stride in whatever style she is using.

Slow and early is good thing to enforce with hitters. Get yourself going early with good slow, under control moves.

 

[Cornbread]

I think it is beneficial for players to do tee work on a no stride swing. Make sure she anchors to the ground throughout the swing. Turn front knee back toward back knee and make sure hips go before hands. No strides are good for teaching balance and rotation at foot down

 

[Gags]

I'm considering changing my DD's load. Normally, she would pick up her stride foot off the ground, move it toward her back foot and then stride forward before planting. The issue with this, is in the games she would panic and deviate from that load, probably because she sees the pitch coming and thinks she needs to speed up the load. I have tried telling her to simply start her load earlier, but she's not listening to me.

Bolded the above for clarification - make sure you're not equating the stride with the load. A stride can be part of the load, you can load with no stride at all, or you can stride and still end up not loading. But just b/c she strides does not mean she's also loading.

That being said, she may already be loading during her stride (I haven't checked previous threads for a video), but it wasn't clear from your post if you saw the two things as separate actions. (I'm not even sure "separate" is the word I'm looking for - entwined? related?)

 

[RichK]

Another way of saying what efastball is saying is that a no-stride takes as much 'time' and 'timing' as a stride .. it has a stop and start and a duration if done properly (if no-stride is done improperly, for instance to speed up the launch, then it becomes just another thing that ultimately will need to be fixeD).

Changing from stride to no stride won't fix timing issues. Working on timing issues -- starting early and slow and having mechanics to adjust to movement and changeups -- is what fixes timing issues.

(PS--no-strides can be very difficult to do well for younger hitters IMO, it takes some momentum away that can be used to create stretch and puts all the stretch creation into the body itself, with a young hitter who isn't very body-aware to begin with).

Good luck!

 

[clemenslee1]

I'm considering changing my DD's load. Normally, she would pick up her stride foot off the ground, move it toward her back foot and then stride forward before planting. The issue with this, is in the games she would panic and deviate from that load, probably because she sees the pitch coming and thinks she needs to speed up the load. I have tried telling her to simply start her load earlier, but she's not listening to me.

So for that reason I'm considering changing her load to where her stride foot is slightly on her toes prior to the load, and raise the stride foot heel up a bit before uncoiling.

My question is, is this going to reduce the amount of power that can be generated on the swing vs being able to lift that foot up and then down?

Most MLB hitters are putting their foot up off the ground, and some even quite dramatically. So I don't want my DD to lose power on her already weak swing, but just thinking of other ways to get her to keep her swing consistent during games and BP. Any thoughts?

Kid pitch?