- Apr 17, 2019
- 331
- 63
Grip and coming out of posture.
IMO fix the grip first. Low hanging fruit, quick and easy. You literally have to roll over the ball if your punching knuckles are aligned. Try it - see how far you can keep a palm up/down hand orientation and where the tip of the barrel is when you must roll. There are a lot of trickle-down effects of a player trying to make the 'strong man' grip work. She might hate it because all the rest of her mechanics will need to be adjusted to make it work. It'll be worth it. Here's Antonelli verbosely expressing his thoughts on grip. (TL;DR: knocking knuckles isn't great, punching knuckles isn't great. Find the natural position that allows the wrists to snap through contact. Probably halfway between the two positions.)
Those balls were all relatively mid-high. How does she handle low/away balls? I'd suggest trying some low tee work focusing on the spine tilt being directionally (not necessarily literally) over the plate and holding that tilt. Try to go oppo with that ball. Check the left forearm to bat line at contact. It should be a more or less straight line. (I think fixing the grip might fix some of this too.)
ETA: I know she's not fully big knuckles lined up, me - I'd want that top hand 'unwound' a bit so top hand big knuckles are more hidden from this angle. When you do that, you'll find the back elbow will drop. To get it back up, point the knob more to the catchers feet and less to her own foot. (Trickle down effects from here with bat speed, path, but she looks like an athlete and will make the adjustments. Post followup video, thanks!
IMO fix the grip first. Low hanging fruit, quick and easy. You literally have to roll over the ball if your punching knuckles are aligned. Try it - see how far you can keep a palm up/down hand orientation and where the tip of the barrel is when you must roll. There are a lot of trickle-down effects of a player trying to make the 'strong man' grip work. She might hate it because all the rest of her mechanics will need to be adjusted to make it work. It'll be worth it. Here's Antonelli verbosely expressing his thoughts on grip. (TL;DR: knocking knuckles isn't great, punching knuckles isn't great. Find the natural position that allows the wrists to snap through contact. Probably halfway between the two positions.)
Those balls were all relatively mid-high. How does she handle low/away balls? I'd suggest trying some low tee work focusing on the spine tilt being directionally (not necessarily literally) over the plate and holding that tilt. Try to go oppo with that ball. Check the left forearm to bat line at contact. It should be a more or less straight line. (I think fixing the grip might fix some of this too.)
ETA: I know she's not fully big knuckles lined up, me - I'd want that top hand 'unwound' a bit so top hand big knuckles are more hidden from this angle. When you do that, you'll find the back elbow will drop. To get it back up, point the knob more to the catchers feet and less to her own foot. (Trickle down effects from here with bat speed, path, but she looks like an athlete and will make the adjustments. Post followup video, thanks!
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