Help on this swing video please

[Redsfan1]

Any advice on my 11 year old is much appreciated. Obviously there are flaws here but I notice he doesn't drive through the ball very well. At 5' 5" 95lbs he doesn't have a lot strength yet. Good contact hitter but a lot of weak grounders. Doing a lot of work with Insider bat and some wrist/foreman strengthening. Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiF7zTaQS-c

[Chris O'Leary]

Any advice on my 11 year old is much appreciated. Obviously there are flaws here but I notice he doesn't drive through the ball very well. At 5' 5" 95lbs he doesn't have a lot strength yet. Good contact hitter but a lot of weak grounders. Doing a lot of work with Insider bat and some wrist/foreman strengthening. Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiF7zTaQS-c

He needs to stop using the Insider Bat immediately.

He has the characteristic flaw of using the Insider Bat, which is hitting the ball too far out front (which the IB encourages due to the bend in the shaft).

By pushing his hands forward like he does he kills his whip, which is why he doesn't make hard contact.

He's got to learn to let the ball come to him more.

[mkoehn]

I am no expert at all, in fact I am going to video tape my soon to be 10yo to put up here for advice. But 1 thing that does jump out to me is no load what so ever. Could that be a power leak? I am curious what the rest think....

[Dirtberry]

Redsfan1,

Your son has his top half rotation just ahead of his bottom half rotation.
This causes him to not be able to decelerate his shoulders at contact.
Shoulder deceleration is vital in order for the arms and wrists to play their part at the right time. Ask him to rotate his shoulders no further than 90 degrees (parallel with the line that runs from first to third) and have the bat clear his top hand maneuver before he releases his shoulders the rest of the way. He also displays a static start to his swing. Add in a small upper half load, timed with his stride. You will notice an immediate power surge and correct contact ball exit backspin.

[Chris O'Leary]

I am no expert at all, in fact I am going to video tape my soon to be 10yo to put up here for advice. But 1 thing that does jump out to me is no load what so ever. Could that be a power leak? I am curious what the rest think....

He doesn't load, but that's not as big of a problem as how he pushes his hands forward to contact.

[CoolHandLuke]

Was the coach feeding a JUGS or was it live pitching? The most glaring issue is the lack of load. This is common from hitters when hitting off a machine. They don't have a timing mechanism to start the load and end up just reacting to the ball as it shoots out the machine. So if he was indeed hitting off a machine, it's not a good indicator of his normal "game swing" and should save judgement until you see video from live pitching. Now if he was hitting off a live arm, he needs instruction on loading effectively on every pitch. He's not strong enough to generate bat speed from a static stance without a load.

[CoolHandLuke]

He doesn't load, but that's not as big of a problem as how he pushes his hands forward to contact.

He's pushing his hands forward BECAUSE he isn't loaded properly (not ready to swing). It's basically an emergency hack, he's seeing the ball late and throwing his hands at the ball. If hitting off a machine it's understandable, if not, he needs to pick up the pitcher's release point better and load properly at release point.

[Redsfan1]

He's pushing his hands forward BECAUSE he isn't loaded properly (not ready to swing). It's basically an emergency hack, he's seeing the ball late and throwing his hands at the ball. If hitting off a machine it's understandable, if not, he needs to pick up the pitcher's release point better and load properly at release point.

It is from a coach. I have been preaching this to him but he obviously refuses to do it. It's a good thing he can pitch and play solid D because the hitting stin
ks!!!

[songtitle]

I agree with everyone about his lack of coil/load.

I would have him work in a mirror on his stride/coil/load from stance to toe touch. Do this for a few minutes every night.

Make sure he shifts his weight from his back to his front foot (seems like he's starting with his weight on his front foot). I recommend using bathroom scales for this (try to get 100% of his weight on the front).

I would also have him raise his back elbow (or at least end up with a raised elbow) as he strides forward (like every MLB player).

I would not worry about anything beyond toe touch until he gets the coil/load/stride down pat.

[Chris O'Leary]

He's pushing his hands forward BECAUSE he isn't loaded properly (not ready to swing). It's basically an emergency hack, he's seeing the ball late and throwing his hands at the ball. If hitting off a machine it's understandable, if not, he needs to pick up the pitcher's release point better and load properly at release point.

The fact that he uses the IB says that it may be more than a timing problem.

[johnlanza]

Make sure he shifts his weight from his back to his front foot (seems like he's starting with his weight on his front foot). I recommend using bathroom scales for this (try to get 100% of his weight on the front).

I've seen this piece of advice several times in this forum. 100% on the front foot? Almost sounds impossible, unless the batter is going to be standing completely on his front foot. I may try this drill with my eight-year-old tonight to see what percentage he gets on his front foot. Do you know of a link for a demonstration of this drill?

[cps]

I agree with everyone about his lack of coil/load.

I would have him work in a mirror on his stride/coil/load from stance to toe touch. Do this for a few minutes every night.

Make sure he shifts his weight from his back to his front foot (seems like he's starting with his weight on his front foot). I recommend using bathroom scales for this (try to get 100% of his weight on the front).

I would also have him raise his back elbow (or at least end up with a raised elbow) as he strides forward (like every MLB player).

I would not worry about anything beyond toe touch until he gets the coil/load/stride down pat.

Do you want 100% on your front foot before you begin swinging?

[songtitle]

Just get some scales, and stride onto it. Don't swing, or go past the toe touch phase.

[bbrages]

I've seen this piece of advice several times in this forum. 100% on the front foot? Almost sounds impossible, unless the batter is going to be standing completely on his front foot. I may try this drill with my eight-year-old tonight to see what percentage he gets on his front foot. Do you know of a link for a demonstration of this drill?

Scales measure force. In a dynamic situation, it's possible to put more than your body weight onto a scale. Jump in the air off of scale for an example.

So if you get a (dynamic) force on the front scale equal to the kids' weight, that's not quite the same as standing (static) on the front scale.