Jayleen - 14yo

[Work=wins]

Thanks WW. The pushing out of her back leg could be my fault. We were working to stop her from moving to far forward at stride. She would land very heavy on the front leg and be forced to swing. So I mentioned striding with the rear leg instead of reaching with the front while working on the new load. Maybe wrong cue?

Timing her stride is tough work and takes reps of front toss etc. I have found backing the ball up(timing oppo) is much better than hunting out front(pulling the ball). Not from a physical standpoint but a timing standpoint. This should stop over striding. You simply don’t have time to do so. The only thing that needs to happen is adjustments to inside(faster) pitches which can happen w a stride that is cut short or a get the front foot down early cue. Off speed pitches can still be adjusted to ‘out front’ bc there was never an over stride to begin with. You will typically see pros cut their stride short or get their foot down earlier than normal w a ‘reach’ or just a simple active front foot for adjustments w a bit more of torso tilt backwards for inside pitches and a more 50/50 stacked position for outside and off speed pitches. It’s about timing the start of the swing more so than anything. A player has to recognize location to make this happen regularly.

I use a cue ‘load as late as possible without being late’ to anything. If that doesn’t make sense let me know.

 

[HunterMO]

Lots of softball since the last videos. A lot of good and a lot of bad. Working through a lot of the aforementioned things noticed and suggestions. Travel ball included going 0-6 during one tournament to going .800 with 7RBI, 8R and 0 SO in another. Some big ups and downs in July as she saw consistently better pitching and worked on flaws in her swing.

She's a freshman this year and started HS ball. Which is 5-days a week of hitting and fielding practice for a month leading into games. During this time we really don't work at home because I'm a huge proponent of making time to disconnect. The risk, is that it's truly up to her to decide whether she's working on things during practice or not. And I don't see any of her hitting for that month. [Insert twitching here].

During a JV vs V scrimmage she hit her first ball over the fence off the #1 JV pitcher. Who, at a lesser school, could be a starting Varsity pitcher. What made it happen? "I just decided I wanted to hit one hard" [Insert facepalm].

Here are some clips from a game earlier this week. Admittedly, she took advantage of a slower pitcher with these. But we are seeing more and more swings like these versus the flat or late swings.

 

[_MIA_]

Nice hits. How did you guys sucker Perry into driving almost 4 hours to play you for a HS game?
Was it a tournament?

 

[HunterMO]

@pattar, Thanks. I thought the same thing when I saw them on the schedule! It was part of a tournament. Weather delayed things a little and another local school dropped out altogether (still not sure why). Which allowed our JV to end up playing their JV (or mixture of their Varsity/JV). Perry's Varsity squad was really good and fun to watch.

 

[efastball]

She looks good to toe touch. (better than most)

She looks good from toe touch to hip slot (better than most)

Then from hip slot (start of above clip), everything goes horribly wrong.

Both biceps must stay with the torso. Notice how the front bicep pushes almost a foot away. Also the rear elbow pushes forward towards the pitcher (it should stay with the hip as it rotates)

Also, the front knee starts bent (as it should), but it never straightens. This straightening in this phase pushes the left hip backwards (completes the rotation).

The fix of course, is dry swings from hip slot to contact. Let her get the feel of how it should work. Keep the biceps glued to the torso, and straighten the knee.

 

[efastball]

So I mentioned striding with the rear leg instead of reaching with the front while working on the new load.

This is exactly correct. Also, make sure you land on a very bent front leg.

 

[HunterMO]

View attachment 26469

She looks good to toe touch. (better than most)

She looks good from toe touch to hip slot (better than most)

Then from hip slot (start of above clip), everything goes horribly wrong.

Both biceps must stay with the torso. Notice how the front bicep pushes almost a foot away. Also the rear elbow pushes forward towards the pitcher (it should stay with the hip as it rotates)

Also, the front knee starts bent (as it should), but it never straightens. This straightening in this phase pushes the left hip backwards (completes the rotation).

The fix of course, is dry swings from hip slot to contact. Let her get the feel of how it should work. Keep the biceps glued to the torso, and straighten the knee.

I appreciate the feedback. I don't know that this specific clip is representative of her swing overall. In this swing she made a very last minute adjustment on a changeup and reached out to go get it (rather than sitting on it).

Do you see this happening in the other clips as well? There is a clip underneath the one you grabbed, I think that swing tends to be more of her normal swing.

She has games tomorrow and I'll try to get some updated videos from her front side rather than the behind home plate videos I posted the other day.

 

[Eric F]

View attachment 26469

She looks good to toe touch. (better than most)

She looks good from toe touch to hip slot (better than most)

Then from hip slot (start of above clip), everything goes horribly wrong.

Both biceps must stay with the torso. Notice how the front bicep pushes almost a foot away. Also the rear elbow pushes forward towards the pitcher (it should stay with the hip as it rotates)

Also, the front knee starts bent (as it should), but it never straightens. This straightening in this phase pushes the left hip backwards (completes the rotation).

The fix of course, is dry swings from hip slot to contact. Let her get the feel of how it should work. Keep the biceps glued to the torso, and straighten the knee.

I see an athlete just athlete-ing on a change up that almost beat her, and isn't really a representation of her "normal" swing pattern. Same thing happens at the highest level of the game.

 

[efastball]

Why would you post an unreprentative swing for time-consuming evaluation by others? Good luck.

 

[Eric F]

Why would you post an unreprentative swing for time-consuming evaluation by others? Good luck.

It seems that multiple swings have been posted. It just takes looking past the first one to see that.