Hitting the inside of the ball

[rob]

I have been working with the setpro stuff for about 6 months and I have found pretty much everything I thought about hitting was wrong. Last night I notice my son reaching for the ball on his swing and I remembered something from the BS(Before Setpro) era where I would try to have kids hit the inside of the ball.

This seemed to help him stay more connected and reach less. Is this a good cue?

[ssarge]

Any cue that works THAT day with THAT hitter. . .

I would say that the challenge is figuring out the root cause of the problem. And making sure ahetver "fix" works doesn;t create unintended consequences.

Any chance of posting a clip?

Best regards,

Scott

[chesspirate]

I really like cues.

I was working with a teammate the other day in the cages and he was working on getting over some bad info (someone had told him to make contact when the arms are in the "power V" position) he knew this wasn't right, but nobody had ever told him otherwise, and he's a decent hitter anyway.

But anyway, we were at the cages and i kept saying the same thing over and over and over, he understood what i meant BUT i don't think it was as effective as it could be, i wish i had a cue for him. The right cue might make all the difference in him understanding what i'm saying, and him actually being able to DO IT.

If the cue leads to better mechanics, that's great, but it would still be a good idea for the player to understand what is really happening throughout the swing, that way he'll know what is taking place, and think of a cue to make it happen.

[rob]

Here is a clip

The problem he is having is getting disconnected and I think I am just learning what it means myself. The thing that I am noticing is that as he is rotating his shoulders at a certain point his shoulders stop rotating and then his arms take over and then he picks up the rotation again. Last night during front toss I noticed he was hitting the outside of the ball. He does pull almost everything. So, I told him to hit the inside of the ball because you are reaching with your hands and hitting the outside of the ball. After I told him this it seemed to take the urgency out of him reaching to the ball with his hands and he was hitting the ball more up the middle and even on inside tosses he was not pulling them as far to the left. Anyway this clip is before I told him about the hitting the inside part of the ball. But this clip shows the disconnection:

[Mark H]

Very nice swing. I would have just told him to let the ball get a little deeper but if your cue did what you want, fine. About six frames. Should get quicker with reps I think. Might be a half frame of hip slide. If I'm right there's a significant quickness gain right there.

[chesspirate]

I was staring and staring at this clip trying to figure out what was catching my eye, and i've concluded its his load, or lack there-of of the upper body.

It doesn't seem to me that he's loading the upper body/arms at all, but maybee it's just really small and really early, but that's a problem as well, as Steve said (and i've tested myself) when faced with size of load or speed/quickness of load, go for the faster one.

In this clip things are going on in preparation for the swing and the upper body and arms are just waiting.

In personal experience, leaving the bat out there forces the body to use the arms to push the bat, this would also be a possible explanation of the disconnection you see. If you can get the load right, it should make it easier to stay together and in the proper sequence.

[swingbuster]

As usual I will give you another point of view. Many kids cannot get the hands behind the rotational mechanism with the bat in the 45 launch slot...one plane. When they cannot they hit the outside seam.

Letting the ball get deeper cues fail me. The outside seam is a close assurance that the hands are getting ahead of the hip turn in tee and toss applications and as far as I am concerned most game situations.

What you are describing is the Achilles heel of one planing done incorrectly.

Learn what plane transition is and how it affects your natural ability to hit the inside seam effortlessly and how it gets you hands going back as the rotation starts without thinking keep or push my hands back.

RH hitters struggle with this problem IMO

[Mark H]

Letting the ball get deeper cues fail me.

Try to take the ball too far out in front and the kid ends up reaching. This is left over from the "hands to the ball" swing that many kids have where they HAD to take the ball out front to keep from getting jammed. This is basic stuff you should be familiar with, whether or not you agree with it, from the setpro days. I think you moved yourself along from study to guru too quick.

[Ohfor]

A very nice "base swing". You've done well getting him to this point. "He's in the ballpark". Now, fine tuning the load and reducing the hip slide etc etc will quicken him up. and lead him to the "one move" swing.

I agree with Chesspirate. A better shoulder load would help. I agree with Mark about the hip slide.

.gif's are always slower than real life. So, it's hard to tell for sure. But, I'd like to see a quicker load/unload of the hips. Create the cusp. I think this will go a long way toward eliminating the slide.

Get some intent. Hit the crap out of the ball. Turn. Hard. Explode. You don't have as much time in a game as he does here.

As I look at the .gif, it's all pretty much at the same pace. I like to see a sudden increase in the pace at the time of the "go" decision.

[Mark H]

Get some intent. Hit the crap out of the ball. Turn. Hard. Explode. .

Exactly. All the time checking video to make sure inefficiencies haven't appeared in this good base swing.

[Ohfor]

My "little bit of experience" has shown that a cusp in the hips can help stop the "go to the ball" syndrome.

Hard to cusp and go to the ball.

At least you'll feel bad trying to do both and you'll figure out a way to fix it.

[rob]

My "little bit of experience" has shown that a cusp in the hips can help stop the "go to the ball" syndrome.

Hard to cusp and go to the ball.

At least you'll feel bad trying to do both and you'll figure out a way to fix it.

I think you have seen me post my son's swing on Setpro and I appreciate greatly the acknowledgement from Mark and you that he is "in the ballpark". We have worked hard on it. And really what we have been shooting for is just a "base swing".

I know that his loading is virtually non existent so we do have to figure a way to do that. Hitting the inside of the ball may be the thing that helps him stay more connected. But I do have a question. What does cusp mean? I am thinking that is a slight counter rotation of the hips while striding but I am not sure.

Thanks for your help.

[Ohfor]

I think of it as a sudden change of direction.

The sudden unloading of the load.

[swingbuster]

cusp ( P ) Pronunciation Key (ksp)
n.
A point or pointed end.
Anatomy.
A pointed or rounded projection on the chewing surface of a tooth.
A triangular fold or flap of a heart valve.
Mathematics. A point at which a curve crosses itself and at which the two tangents to the curve coincide.
Architecture. The point of intersection of two ornamental arcs or curves, such as the inner points of a trefoil.
Astronomy. Either point of a crescent moon.
A transitional point or time, as between two astrological signs.

[rob]

I think of it as a sudden change of direction.

The sudden unloading of the load.

Oh, so you are saying that the cusp is more of an intent thing that leads to the explosive turn?