I've been lurking for several months now, absorbing all of the great information and advice in these forums. I'm at a point where I need some additional sets of eyes to help me get my daughter's swing to the next level.
A little background first. Maybe it isn't relevant, short version of questions and video clips are down below if not . This is 15yo DD's first season of TB, on a 14U B-level team (she just turned 15 in May, so will age out of 14U after this season). Last year, she was on a C-level league-play team, and prior to that played rec softball and tee-ball, going back to when she was four years old. She has always been an excellent contact hitter. Last year, season average was .625, highest average and OBP on the team, leadoff hitter, etc. She had trouble during the batting portion of tryouts with several teams because everyone used pitching machines. She was able to hit live pitchers with no problems, but couldn't hit a machine to save her life. Finally, she made a team on her speed and fielding abilities.
New coach immediately spends the winter working on her batting. Altered her swing and batting footwork noticeably. She can now hit the heck out of a pitching machine. However, it became apparent during the first live scrimmages and tournament games that she could no longer hit against a live pitcher. She just couldn't make contact, she was always just above or just below the ball, and had no power in the rare instances when she did make contact. Coach basically moved on to all-fielding practices once the weather warmed up, and left her to fend for herself. I went online, found this site, and have been working with her to try and improve her swing the rest of the way.
We've made progress; she is consistently making contact now, lots of foul balls and a fair amount of weak grounders and slow/low line drives that are easily fielded. Average is ugly, hovering around .190 after 30+ games. Coach always wants her to bunt because he doesn't trust her batting, and although her bunts are beautiful when she can lay them down, it is still a 1-in-4 probability against the improved pitching she sees, and she often finds herself with two failed bunt attempts for strikes, having only one strike left to actually swing away on. She has typically been an adjusting hitter, and will give up a couple of strikes while zoning in on the pitches, then hits the next one. Now, she can rarely do that because coach nearly always wants her to try a couple of bunt attempts first.
So, at this point I have two questions:
1. Any advice for improving her ability to make quality contact when she only has one strike left to work with?
2. Are there any other elements of her swing that need to be addressed, hopefully with an eye towards getting the additional power she needs to get the ball past the infielders?
I've taped a tee hit in full and slow motion, and a front toss hit in full and slow motion. Since I made these last Friday, I've been doing additional work on getting her to fire her hips ahead of her shoulders to a greater degree, but she hasn't made quality contact in the two games she has played since then, so I am unable to judge the results just yet. Any advice will be greatly appreciated! It looks like I can do one video per post, so I'll add the others in additional replies.
A little background first. Maybe it isn't relevant, short version of questions and video clips are down below if not . This is 15yo DD's first season of TB, on a 14U B-level team (she just turned 15 in May, so will age out of 14U after this season). Last year, she was on a C-level league-play team, and prior to that played rec softball and tee-ball, going back to when she was four years old. She has always been an excellent contact hitter. Last year, season average was .625, highest average and OBP on the team, leadoff hitter, etc. She had trouble during the batting portion of tryouts with several teams because everyone used pitching machines. She was able to hit live pitchers with no problems, but couldn't hit a machine to save her life. Finally, she made a team on her speed and fielding abilities.
New coach immediately spends the winter working on her batting. Altered her swing and batting footwork noticeably. She can now hit the heck out of a pitching machine. However, it became apparent during the first live scrimmages and tournament games that she could no longer hit against a live pitcher. She just couldn't make contact, she was always just above or just below the ball, and had no power in the rare instances when she did make contact. Coach basically moved on to all-fielding practices once the weather warmed up, and left her to fend for herself. I went online, found this site, and have been working with her to try and improve her swing the rest of the way.
We've made progress; she is consistently making contact now, lots of foul balls and a fair amount of weak grounders and slow/low line drives that are easily fielded. Average is ugly, hovering around .190 after 30+ games. Coach always wants her to bunt because he doesn't trust her batting, and although her bunts are beautiful when she can lay them down, it is still a 1-in-4 probability against the improved pitching she sees, and she often finds herself with two failed bunt attempts for strikes, having only one strike left to actually swing away on. She has typically been an adjusting hitter, and will give up a couple of strikes while zoning in on the pitches, then hits the next one. Now, she can rarely do that because coach nearly always wants her to try a couple of bunt attempts first.
So, at this point I have two questions:
1. Any advice for improving her ability to make quality contact when she only has one strike left to work with?
2. Are there any other elements of her swing that need to be addressed, hopefully with an eye towards getting the additional power she needs to get the ball past the infielders?
I've taped a tee hit in full and slow motion, and a front toss hit in full and slow motion. Since I made these last Friday, I've been doing additional work on getting her to fire her hips ahead of her shoulders to a greater degree, but she hasn't made quality contact in the two games she has played since then, so I am unable to judge the results just yet. Any advice will be greatly appreciated! It looks like I can do one video per post, so I'll add the others in additional replies.