Hands working down

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

May 12, 2016
4,338
113
Tonight we worked on trying to get into a better launch position, and took away the up through it queue. Changed it to line drive.


Big improvement.. way to go!

Notice she's coming out of posture a little, standing taller from heel plant to contact
gif (93).gif

WW mentioned changes to help the hands be free.. posture will also aid in this. If a hitter loses posture(standing taller through out the swing), they will
1. Eliminate space for the hands to come through
2. Push the hands more
3. Their swing will be longer
4. Lose bat speed and power

JMHO
 
Last edited:
Oct 13, 2014
5,471
113
South Cali
Here’s some swings in the cage. I pitch from about 30 feet and I’d guess the ball is thrown around 40mph.

loading into the hips isn’t what should be transpiring during the negative move. But loading the glutes and hammies via the heels should be the goal. The hips will hinge’ bc of this posterior load.

It’s as simple as creating pressure vertically down through the heel and thereafter maintaining that pressure as long as possible. most kids will push right through that looking for ‘more’ load. I think that is what is happening here. She seems to push from the back leg losing her load and posture. Then compensations ensue.

Try ‘riding a horse’ as a cue to maintain the back leg stabilization. I also use a cue of ‘get against a stable rear leg w the hands’ and hold onto that back leg during stride. You must preset posture beforehand w that cue. Here are a few examples.

The load should be small and deliberate, not big and fast. The goal is to stabilize the rear leg and move from the middle. Not the front leg or back leg.

1629903627675.gif

1629903437921.gif
 

Attachments

  • 1629903316971.gif
    1629903316971.gif
    1.9 MB · Views: 14
Aug 15, 2021
4
3
Here's the video.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

Hey there! The main cause is that her hips are starting and then basically stop rotating too soon. To get the idea, try taking a swing without rotating your hips at all. It creates a very "around the ball" swing. Now she is moving them at first, but because she's essentially stopping them too early, it causes her upper half to get stuck, and then her barrel has to release out and around. Have her think taking her belt buckle to the pitcher every swing. Looks like she's almost trying to keep her back toe touching the ground, which could be for her what's causing her hips to stop rotating. Lots of hitters have their back foot actually travel forward or up as they are near contact. Having her not try to keep it connected to the ground the whole time could help her have the hips free up too. A good hitter for her to emulate based off how she naturally moves I think would be Mike Trout. Here's a few examples of back foot, belt buckle etc.









Hope that helps!
~Coach Peterson
The Hitting Vault
 
Aug 15, 2021
4
3
Here’s some swings in the cage. I pitch from about 30 feet and I’d guess the ball is thrown around 40mph.

Ahh that cage video was helpful! She does still look like she's trying to keep the back hip from turning. But I would also add in having her work on her keeping hip hinge during the swing and doing one handed drills like this...

 
Jul 17, 2012
1,091
38
Thanks for the replies! All helpful stuff. Backed off on the changes as she started her fall season. It's a quick one in NEPA, so she'll be back at it early October.
 
May 15, 2008
1,913
113
Cape Cod Mass.
A sound grip is more than just knuckle alignment. It looks to me like she has the bat too deep in her palms and not enough in the fingers. This is what is causing her to roll her hands early and look a little locked up. The bat should be held in the fingers first and then rolled into the palm. If you can try a Prohitter thumb guard it will give you the feel. I prefer this one because it's more stable than the Prohitter. The second video will talk a little about gripping in the fingers.



 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,468
Members
21,443
Latest member
sstop28
Top