My 7 year old (LA 6) has a pretty good swing for her age and size. She is a right throw, and left batter. I switched her hands hitting when she was 5. She is small and fast, 3'10" and 45 pounds. I'm guessing she is always going to be on the small side, her mother is too. I have been working with her some trying to get her to load, and keeping her hands up. I know she is only 7, but she loves the game an likes to practice so we might as well make it productive. We were playing around out in the garage earlier and I took a few videos, figured I would post and see if anyone has any obvious stuff to work on. Here she is in her unicorn and croc glory lol
Lillian 7 years old
- Thread starter Dew5000
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Dew5000
Yes the load is important. What are you trying to load and how?
She is dropping the barrel and the hands because she is left trying to use her body as the hands are dead. She isn’t using the body as well as she can.
The hands and stride look good, until the launch position. Then the lowerbody stops. The back leg doesn’t turn, there is no running start with the lowerbody. This leaves the hands (that should pause) in limbo because the lowerbody has paused.
Yes the load is important. What are you trying to load and how?
She is dropping the barrel and the hands because she is left trying to use her body as the hands are dead. She isn’t using the body as well as she can.
The hands and stride look good, until the launch position. Then the lowerbody stops. The back leg doesn’t turn, there is no running start with the lowerbody. This leaves the hands (that should pause) in limbo because the lowerbody has paused.
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Running start, preparing the swing. Your ready to swing on every pitch.
Dew5000
I just wanted to say one thing. I would ditch the tee you have. You can’t set the low level pitch because of the way the tee is made. That big tall thick base, top isn’t forgiven.
Amazon product ASIN B00PYE71AE
This is the youth Tanner tee. Save your tee for working on really high pitches, which she should. Working on the high pitch should help with not dropping the hands.
The top is extremely flexible and you can’t feel the bat slow down as you pass through it.
I just wanted to say one thing. I would ditch the tee you have. You can’t set the low level pitch because of the way the tee is made. That big tall thick base, top isn’t forgiven.
Amazon product ASIN B00PYE71AE
This is the youth Tanner tee. Save your tee for working on really high pitches, which she should. Working on the high pitch should help with not dropping the hands.
The top is extremely flexible and you can’t feel the bat slow down as you pass through it.
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1. Her hips start 'open' and go more 'open' (red line). (Some call this stepping in the bucket)
The hips and shoulders should coil inward (toward the plate, not away) as you stride to toe touch. Nothing else (tape lines, kill the stride, etc.) will fix this properly. Also, try to land on a very bent front knee.
2. The hips opening prematurely (#1) is mostly to blame for the elbow dropping prematurely (yellow).
The rear forearm must be flat (green) at toe touch, otherwise you lose leverage (it's called bat drag). This is why some have said the bat is too heavy. It's not, you just lost leverage over the bat. BTW, the hands are pretty much in the right place (the hands should be 4-6 inches from the armpit from toe touch to hip slot)
3. The tee is too far forward (blue)
The tee should be at the ball of the front foot - after the stride. (blue). The current tee placement makes your DD push her biceps away from her torso to hit the ball. Once the swing starts forward (at toe touch) the biceps should stay as close to the body as possible (think ice skater slowing/speeding their rotation)
So, fix these in reverse order. The tee is an easy fix. Then work on the rear forearm (show her how to pull it back like a bow and arrow). Then it may take a while to fix the coil in. Some kids can pick it up at that age, many wait until 9/10. If you fix #1 and #2, you will be ahead of 99% of kids.
NOTE TO LURKER DADS:
Your kid does the same thing. Video the swing, and you will see it. Save thousands of dollars on lightweight bats, and enjoy deep blasts to the outfield.
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She is adorable.
Absolutely love the outfit!
Bat is too big.
Tee is too high.
Smaller bat and kid-sized tee, then please send more video.
Shes 7...let her swing. Fix your tee placement and set it highest, fix the bat size, tape a batters box and plate to the floor so she can set up properly and let her swing. Trying to fix too much else too early is just super confusing for these little ones that don't yet have enough body awareness to correct the things we want.
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Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
She has definitely developed a tendency to step out, or in the bucket sometimes which makes her fly open. I used to do that same thing when I was a kid. Definitely going to keep working on that.
The bat is actually a touch heavy, but I let her use it some to help build up some strength. Will definitely work on keeping that back elbow up.
Yea, tee definitely looks forward. We were just messing around, and the video is from a weird angle too which might make it look worse. I have started working with her doing wall drills against a net to help keep her swing nice and tight.
Her bat isn't too big for her. It might be slightly heavy, but definitely not too big. Her typical bat is 1 ounce lighter.
The tee is a kid sized tee too,but I agree there are better options.
The video is at a strange angle that makes both the tee and bat look larger that. They actually are.
The tee is a kid sized tee too,but I agree there are better options.
The video is at a strange angle that makes both the tee and bat look larger that. They actually are.
