3 swings on the Hit-Away - opinions, observations, suggestions for improvement

[steddie]

3 recent swings on the Hit-Away for P1. Seeking comments on the usual stuff such as THT, pulling the knob, lead shoulder drop, weight transfer, separation, connection, balance, "L" at POC, letting ball get deep, extension, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCMU5vq51cg


<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NCMU5vq51cg?hl=en&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[songtitle]

He's pushing his hands. They are coming forward too soon. His hands should not leave his armpit/shoulder area until his back elbow "reaches" his hip.

[hitnpeas]

He's pushing his hands forward too soon.

When would you consider it to be a good time to "PUSH" the hands forward?

[azmatsfan]

The second swing is significantly better than the other two. He gets the bat head up as he loads, where it stays flat in the others, and he does a good job in the middle swing of using his weight shift to really drive his hips. In the other two he seems to keep his weight back and spin.

[omg]

The swing is plenty good enough. If he has good eye-hand and good mental attributes I see it as a swing that will work-I especially like his plane through the ball. The limitations of seeing 1 or 2 videos on the internet, of course, makes the above highly speculative at best.

By the way, how did he do this season?

[pthawaii]

3 recent swings on the Hit-Away for P1. Seeking comments on the usual stuff such as THT, pulling the knob, lead shoulder drop, weight transfer, separation, connection, balance, "L" at POC, letting ball get deep, extension, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCMU5vq51cg


<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NCMU5vq51cg?hl=en&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

At risk of hijacking your thread, how do you like the swing-away? I'm thinking about getting one for my 7yo but I'm not sure if it's a good to do (he might not be able to use idependently, he might develop a bad swing). Would like to hear your thoughts. Right now, he has a taped wiffle ball on a string hanging from a tree in the backyard and it keeps getting stuck in the branches lol. I guess anything might be better than that!

We do have a metal pole in the ground (laundy line), that would work.

[Swing Coach]

He's pushing his hands. They are coming forward too soon. His hands should not leave his armpit/shoulder area until his back elbow "reaches" his hip.

Called "diconnection" here in my neck of the woods. Keep the hands back and let your rotation do the initial work.

SC

[songtitle]

Called "diconnection" here in my neck of the woods. Keep the hands back and let your rotation do the initial work.

SC

Me, too. But, we had a thread a couple months ago, and I was surprised to see many different definitions of "disconnect" used around the country.

[steddie]

At risk of hijacking your thread, how do you like the swing-away? I'm thinking about getting one for my 7yo but I'm not sure if it's a good to do (he might not be able to use idependently, he might develop a bad swing). Would like to hear your thoughts. Right now, he has a taped wiffle ball on a string hanging from a tree in the backyard and it keeps getting stuck in the branches lol. I guess anything might be better than that!

We do have a metal pole in the ground (laundy line), that would work.

Well, I think it can be beneficial in some ways.
a. Batter gets in a lot of swings in a relatively short time span. (Of course, a bad swing done many times wrong could be harmful...) Also provides a pretty good cardiovascular workout.
b. I think, due to the fact that the ball is moving in a circle around a pole, it seems to encourage making contact when the ball is deep. If you try to make contact too far out front, or try to pull the ball, you get negative feedback when the bat hits the piece that connects the cables to the ball. The "best sounding" hits seem to be the ones that would normally result in hitting the ball to the opposite field or center field.
c. It might improve intensity of focus and timing. It is very satisfying to string together several good solid hits in a row -- good hits make the ball and cables wrap neatly around the pole, and the ball comes back to the batter in a consistent way which allows getting into a rhythm. Bad hits result in the ball coming back to you slower, with less energy, and makes it more challenging to make good contact since the ball tends to drop down away from you.

So, I guess it could be a good thing if you maintain a watchful eye, and throw in plenty of live pitching.

[steddie]

He's pushing his hands. They are coming forward too soon. His hands should not leave his armpit/shoulder area until his back elbow "reaches" his hip.

Thanks for the comment. I must admit, the hands pushing has been a pretty tough thing to address. However, in the clips, I do notice some improvement in maintaining the hands/shoulder relationship a bit longer than he has in the past. I wonder if the ball position at poc is a factor -- seems to do better with lower pitches rather than higher.

[steddie]

The swing is plenty good enough. If he has good eye-hand and good mental attributes I see it as a swing that will work-I especially like his plane through the ball. The limitations of seeing 1 or 2 videos on the internet, of course, makes the above highly speculative at best.

By the way, how did he do this season?

Thanks omg. The eye-hand thing is a strength for him and the mental part is also I suppose, if that refers to patience and pitch selection (What else would you include?). He was walked a lot this season and struck out very seldom. But power seemed to be lacking.

This season was good in some ways and not so good in others. Early in the season, the hitting was frustrating. The coaches seemed to like the Sit 'n Spin technique. We started working mid-season on getting a bit of a weight shift forward and a small stride and he started hitting like he used to. He began hitting the balls to deep outfield rather than just beyond the infield or grounders. Just when things were starting to look good, he had a growth plate issue with his elbow from overuse at SS. That pretty much sidelined him for a few weeks. Soon after that, the season was cut short and ended because other player injuries wouldn't allow us to field a competitive team.

I think we are back on track for the fall with a new coach and team. I see a return of the old enthusiasm that's been missing.

[omg]

1. There is way more to "mental part" than patience and pitch selection. For example, fearlessness of the pitch is often overlooked and does not appear obvious at most times to a father/coach or the player for that matter.

2. As to the power, I wouldn't dwell on it as he makes an aggressive move to the ball. The more he practices, the stronger he gets, the tighter his mechanics become, the more power he will have. Outside of that power is "God-given" as my friend Domingo Ayala would tell you.

3. Don't fall into the trap of thinking this technique or that technique will make a power hitter. Just stay natural and practice.

4. Although I wouldn't teach "sit and spin" I also would be very positive about what a coach has to offer,ie, not fall into the trap of attributing success or failure to the coach or circumstances. You'll just get into the cycle of analysis that gets your kid sidetracked. Keep it simple and practice a lot, if you son is up for it. There is no other way.

5. Having said that, I do believe in the short stride and a combination of shifting and turning but I would not teach, other than the short stride, too much about lower body mechanics. Check for fear/anxiousness as a culprit with direction and balance problems. But keep it natural-don't contrive the lower body mechanics. There is nothing forceful or mechanical about them-it's a release and unwinding type of thing,ie, it happens absent the negatives I mentioned.

And take care of that arm. He can get a lot of good practice at ss by working on beginning the dp (short or underhand throws) and not messing up his arm.

[steddie]

P1-2ndSwing.GIFHere;s the middle swing example as a gif -- testing to see if gif making software works.