Sudden dropping of the hands

[CoachHenry]

My daughter has been progressing very nicely with her hitting. She has gone from "swinging the bat" to some solid mechanics. I can see how she can build on it going forward. Until last Saturday. Her first time up she dropped her hands really really low and when she swung it looked really ugly. She did that same thing her next two swings to strike out. I was struck dumb. Where did that suddenly come from? Her next two times up where duplicates of that. I was hoping for some anomaly for the first at bat but NOOOOOO.... now she is doing it all the time. It is like someone took her and for HOURS practiced that bad swing because she does it each time. How did this happen? With how she is swinging she has almost no opportunity to hit the ball.

I wish I had video for you but I don't.

During soft-toss and tee work she doesn't do it. Put her in the box and she does it. She gets herself into a nice stance, bat where I like it, etc. When the ball is thrown she drops her hands about a foot (maybe less), throws her hip and completely misses the ball.

Any idea why, other then she is 8 yrs old, a player would suddenly start doing this? Anything other then many many swings on the tee and soft toss that might help? I'm trying to come up with a specific drill that lets HER know she is doing it because she sure doesn't believe me. And I think if I showed her video she would think Dad is mad at her.

[CoachHenry]

Included in the work I am going to do with her tonight is one handed drills with a smaller bat.

[Chris O'Leary]

Any idea why, other then she is 8 yrs old, a player would suddenly start doing this? Anything other then many many swings on the tee and soft toss that might help? I'm trying to come up with a specific drill that lets HER know she is doing it because she sure doesn't believe me. And I think if I showed her video she would think Dad is mad at her.

What cues do you use with her?

Has she been told to swing level? Sometimes that can cause that kind of swing.

[CoachHenry]

What cues do you use with her?

Has she been told to swing level? Sometimes that can cause that kind of swing.

I haven't told her to swing level. We are more PCR based then anything else. As she is able to implement something and is solid in it I add a bit more, then a bit more, etc. Of course something has obviously broken along the way in some brief instant and I'm trying to fix it while the season is underway.

Right now the biggest cue she has needed was "feet, knees, hands back". From that and the hours we have worked together that is all she needs to get in the position we work on. And she's still getting there. I've never had a cue with her to not drop her hands because.... well she's never done it. Another coach on her all-star team was trying to help her and told her to swing at the ball from her load position of that caused her to chop down at the ball. She did just what he told her to do but not what he MEANT for her to do.

If you follow Englishbey, I'm going to have her do Drill #1, which might help with this.

[FiveFrameSwing]

My daughter has been progressing very nicely with her hitting. She has gone from "swinging the bat" to some solid mechanics. I can see how she can build on it going forward. Until last Saturday. Her first time up she dropped her hands really really low and when she swung it looked really ugly. She did that same thing her next two swings to strike out. I was struck dumb. Where did that suddenly come from? Her next two times up where duplicates of that. I was hoping for some anomaly for the first at bat but NOOOOOO.... now she is doing it all the time. It is like someone took her and for HOURS practiced that bad swing because she does it each time. How did this happen? With how she is swinging she has almost no opportunity to hit the ball.

I wish I had video for you but I don't.

During soft-toss and tee work she doesn't do it. Put her in the box and she does it. She gets herself into a nice stance, bat where I like it, etc. When the ball is thrown she drops her hands about a foot (maybe less), throws her hip and completely misses the ball.

Any idea why, other then she is 8 yrs old, a player would suddenly start doing this? Anything other then many many swings on the tee and soft toss that might help? I'm trying to come up with a specific drill that lets HER know she is doing it because she sure doesn't believe me. And I think if I showed her video she would think Dad is mad at her.

Sounds like a good candidate for Mark H's high-tee drill.

[CoachHenry]

Sounds like a good candidate for Mark H's high-tee drill.

Good thought. That makes it almost impossible to drop the hands and not know something is up. Thanks.

[patsox]

This sounds a lot like the uppercutting thread from a few weeks ago. Your description sounds a lot like what my daughter was doing. It took me all winter to break her of it. My description of what I did is in the following post.

http://www.baseball-fever.com/showpost.php?p=1185536&postcount=66

-Steve

[LAball]

I think dropping the hands makes her feel more connected to the hip.

[CoachHenry]

This sounds a lot like the uppercutting thread from a few weeks ago. Your description sounds a lot like what my daughter was doing. It took me all winter to break her of it. My description of what I did is in the following post.

http://www.baseball-fever.com/showpost.php?p=1185536&postcount=66

-Steve

Thanks. I will read that thread very carefully.

[CoachHenry]

Last night before practice I took my daughter over to the fields to work on this. The first thing I did was to not mention it and see if she dropped this bad habit as quick as she picked it up. Nope. So I did some soft-toss and noticed she was holding her hands higher then I like to see. So I had her drop them a bit, then a bit more, then a bit more until she didn't loop her swing. I had her drop them almost to the point that she almost has a flat bat swing now. She was making very good contact but naturally that's not the swing I want going forward. I did a quick round of tee work then pitching from normal distance with CONSTANT reminder to keep her hands in the spot that worked for her. She is 8 yrs old and does her best with what I tell her so I was ok with it. With 15 minutes left before practice I left the flat bat issue in place. During her practice I reminded her a few times during drills but during split-squad scrimmage I let her be he own batter. She got up about six times and each time her hands would creep up but most times she would catch it and correct it pretty good. Excellent, as she is trying to correct herself. I'm happy with that.

In the end I traded one problem for another, more acceptable one. Tomorrow I will go work with her again and see if I can undo the flat bat issue. However I'd rather her tendencies go that way to the looping swing issue where she doesn't have much of a chance to make contact.

[StraightGrain11]

What cues do you use with her?

Has she been told to swing level? Sometimes that can cause that kind of swing.

WRONG, Chris. Telling a player to "swing up" on the ball will get them dropping their hands. Telling a player to "stay on top of the ball" and attack "downward thru it" will usually get their hands back up. Why? Because its kind of hard to work "down" to an object your hands have already "dropped" under...

[CoachHenry]

WRONG, Chris. Telling a player to "swing up" on the ball will get them dropping their hands. Telling a player to "stay on top of the ball" and attack "downward thru it" will usually get their hands back up. Why? Because its kind of hard to work "down" to an object your hands have already "dropped" under...

I can see where a player might develop a drop in the hands because of being told to swing level. Never experienced it myself but to swing level a youngerster might drop their hands to do it. And my daughter, along with others I have worked with, will chop at the ball if told to stay on top of the ball and swing downward thru it. I'm not able to use those cues though I know others do successfully, to include you apparently. It doesn't seem to work with the way I convey things.

[CoachHenry]

One things I did with my daughter that helped is Englishbey's #1 drill. We did that drill in the off-season to help get her swing mechanics going in the right direction but then we got away from it as the season started. Most likely I should make that drill part of her warmup before practices and games.

[PhilliesPhan22]

Any idea why, other then she is 8 yrs old

You answered your own question.

[CoachHenry]

You answered your own question.

Sure! But while that is true, it's always good to find other reasons on top of that. Maybe I told her something that caused her to do that, or she "figured" something out on her own, or it's 100% that she is 8 yrs old. Or a combination of all that.