My son's latest swing

[azmatsfan]

I haven't gotten any feedback on my son's swing in quite a while. He has a break from games right now, and he's starting HS in the Fall so now is a good time to tweak his swing. There are a couple things I want to work on, but I wanted to get some input from objective eyes.

[Bolts-Baseball]

Overall, He looks pretty good...
The only thing I see immediately is lead elbow really straightening a bit too much...
His hands are getting a bit too far away from his head...
This is creating a pretty long swing...

r8cho7.jpg

It's something to work on...

Impact position looks good.... that little ankle roll-over at the end probably needs to get gone too...

How old? What size bat? Height and weight?

[omg]

I haven't gotten any feedback on my son's swing in quite a while. He has a break from games right now, and he's starting HS in the Fall so now is a good time to tweak his swing. There are a couple things I want to work on, but I wanted to get some input from objective eyes.

Out of curiosity, what are the things that you or his coach have been trying to emphasize recently? What re some keys that he is trying to accomplish?

[azmatsfan]

Out of curiosity, what are the things that you or his coach have been trying to emphasize recently? What re some keys that he is trying to accomplish?

Recently he's been playing around on his own with different ways to load his hands as he strides, trying to find what's most comfortable. He's been hitting well this Spring and Summer, so I haven't wanted to change anything until we had a break. Now we do.

One of my concerns right now is that he sometimes gets the bat head at too much of an angle forward at toe touch. It's actually behind his head sometimes. This swing isn't as bad as I've seen. My other concern is that he's losing power by hitting "on" his front side rather than "against" his front leg. I wanted to get some other opinions before we start making changes in a swing with which he's been successful.

My son's goal is to get more air under the ball. He's a line drive hitter (which is what I've preached to him since he was 8). He's getting tired of hitting ropes for singles with an occasional double in the gap while some of his friends will hit the ball farther (but not necessarily harder). That's not a concern of mine right now.

[azmatsfan]

Overall, He looks pretty good...
The only thing I see immediately is lead elbow really straightening a bit too much...
His hands are getting a bit too far away from his head...
This is creating a pretty long swing...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]111477[/ATTACH]

He's 14 going into 9th grade. He's 6'2" and still growing. I'm 6'4" and he's going to fly by me soon. He's only 140 lbs right now. He'll fill out once he's done shooting up. He's using a 33" drop 3 in this video. He also has a 33" wood bat he uses a lot.

It's something to work on...

Impact position looks good.... that little ankle roll-over at the end probably needs to get gone too...

How old? What size bat? Height and weight?

He's 14 going into 9th grade. He's 6'2" and still growing. I'm 6'4" and he's going to fly by me soon. He's only 140 lbs right now. He'll fill out once he's done shooting up. He's using a 33" drop 3 in this video. He also has a 33" wood bat he uses a lot.

[pstein]

One of my concerns right now is that he sometimes gets the bat head at too much of an angle forward at toe touch. It's actually behind his head sometimes. This swing isn't as bad as I've seen. My other concern is that he's losing power by hitting "on" his front side rather than "against" his front leg. I wanted to get some other opinions before we start making changes in a swing with which he's been successful.

My son's goal is to get more air under the ball. He's a line drive hitter (which is what I've preached to him since he was 8). He's getting tired of hitting ropes for singles with an occasional double in the gap while some of his friends will hit the ball farther (but not necessarily harder). That's not a concern of mine right now.

He needs to coil "around" the rear hip and not let the weight shift until he decides to swing. He's losing a lot of power from (as you put it) "hitting on the front side".

[omg]

Recently he's been playing around on his own with different ways to load his hands as he strides, trying to find what's most comfortable. He's been hitting well this Spring and Summer, so I haven't wanted to change anything until we had a break. Now we do.

One of my concerns right now is that he sometimes gets the bat head at too much of an angle forward at toe touch. It's actually behind his head sometimes. This swing isn't as bad as I've seen. My other concern is that he's losing power by hitting "on" his front side rather than "against" his front leg. I wanted to get some other opinions before we start making changes in a swing with which he's been successful.

My son's goal is to get more air under the ball. He's a line drive hitter (which is what I've preached to him since he was 8). He's getting tired of hitting ropes for singles with an occasional double in the gap while some of his friends will hit the ball farther (but not necessarily harder). That's not a concern of mine right now.

When he takes standard on the field bp, where does he typically hit the ball with authority and where does hit the ball with less authority? Is he a pull guy, a spray guy, or oppo guy, generally?

You say that he hits a lot of line drives but he wants to get more loft and distance. It's a mistake to do this. Bryce Harper is a good example: he has more power than anybody his age yet he is sticking with a line drive swing, spraying the ball around, and he has done a great job of not trying to lift the ball to the pull side.

I agree with a previous poster that the flop of the back ankle at the end is a problem. This might be caused by really trying to drive his legs and thrust his hips. I know coaches advocate this but I am an advocate of letting the lower bodywork happen as opposed to forcing it.

I don't see that he is not hitting against his front leg. I see that part of his swing as being solid, including the stride.

As for the bat wrap, that may or may not be a problem. If he has good bat speed, a short swing, and good pitch recognition it is not a problem. A lot of guys wrap because they want to get that front shoulder down and in, get more coil. He wraps more than Pujois but there are always variations in this due to flexibility, strength, and style. Sometimes a guy who grips that top hand more in the palm as opposed to the fingers will wrap more. I think that's why a lot of the hitters in the bigs use that direct protect thumb thing.

Overall, it looks pretty good, based on the limited video, but my first thought was that he is a little wild with the lower body.

[Bolts-Baseball]

Upon further review...

From what I can see in slo-mo, he might slightly be "on" his front leg, like you thought... He's really, really close to hitting "against" it though... a little more lean in his swing and he'd be right there though...

I personally don't see bat-wrap, I see just an excessive hand movement away from his body...

[azmatsfan]

Thanks to everyone for the input so far.

Nice catch Bolts. I've noticed there was something about his hand path that hasn't look right before. When I first read your post I disagreed, thinking that his lead arm has been too bent at contact, especially on outside pitches. Then I looked at the photos and realized you were refering to his lead arm at load where I was looking at the lead arm at contact. His lead arm is more straight at toe touch than it is at contact. That's an issue. That gives us something to work on. I think his hands are sliding in a (dare I say it?) linear path as he rotates. That would cause power to be lost.

As far as the ankle roll-over I've told him not to worry about it since it happens after contact.

And omg, I appreciate you saying that about hitting line drives. I try to instill that in him, but you know chicks dig the long ball.

And pstein, maybe I'm not understanding your suggestion, but I can see his coil in Bolts' still frame. And the weight shift is powering his rotation, and he needs to be rotating before the go/no go point, so I'm not sure how he can hold back on his weight shift before deciding to swing. My concern was more a matter of hip slide, costing him some power due to a lack of push back from the front hip. It's an old habit that I see popping up.

[Encinitas]

Congrats on the big boy, you can't teach size. One of the easiest bang for the buck things I teach kids is to maintain some kind of pinch between the forearm and bicep. Such that the back arm is in more of a V, than in the Lazy-L as I liked to call it. This creates a tighter arc as he's starting to release.

As far as the back leg I think this is one of those things where we are probably pretty far apart. I want to see the back leg, and particularly the back upper thigh turning with a still-loaded hip. If you break apart the noise of the Tewks-swingbuilder-boardmember long thread from a while back you'd find that we all agree that you want the leg to start to turn from a still-loaded hip. We just differ on how to achieve it. i.e. you don't want the leg to turn as a result of shift to the front side, or because the hips are turning the leg. There is nothing wrong with a shift, or transfer, but he's wandered into shift-then-swing here vs. shift-and-swing.

Do you see the difference here?

kent0809side.gif

[pstein]

As far as the back leg I think this is one of those things where we are probably pretty far apart. I want to see the back leg, and particularly the back upper thigh turning with a still-loaded hip. If you break apart the noise of the Tewks-swingbuilder-boardmember long thread from a while back you'd find that we all agree that you want the leg to start to turn from a still-loaded hip. We just differ on how to achieve it. i.e. you don't want the leg to turn as a result of shift to the front side, or because the hips are turning the leg. There is nothing wrong with a shift, or transfer, but he's wandered into shift-then-swing here vs. shift-and-swing.

I would say this is one of two textbook "shift then swing" swings.

[mr. potato head]

I would say this is one of two textbook "shift then swing" swings.

Congrats on the big boy, you can't teach size. One of the easiest bang for the buck things I teach kids is to maintain some kind of pinch between the forearm and bicep. Such that the back arm is in more of a V, than in the Lazy-L as I liked to call it. This creates a tighter arc as he's starting to release.

As far as the back leg I think this is one of those things where we are probably pretty far apart. I want to see the back leg, and particularly the back upper thigh turning with a still-loaded hip. If you break apart the noise of the Tewks-swingbuilder-boardmember long thread from a while back you'd find that we all agree that you want the leg to start to turn from a still-loaded hip. We just differ on how to achieve it. i.e. you don't want the leg to turn as a result of shift to the front side, or because the hips are turning the leg. There is nothing wrong with a shift, or transfer, but he's wandered into shift-then-swing here vs. shift-and-swing.

Do you see the difference here?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]111490[/ATTACH]

Exactly what I was going to type prior to reading Encinitas/pstein's posts. Slow, deliberate walk up drills, making sure the hitter is coiling into the rear hip, can usually get a hitter to FEEL the difference.

[songtitle]

Here he is at toe touch.

bbf jake toe touch.JPG
He has not coiled properly. His shoulders have over-rotated, and his hips havent coiled.

His hands are too far from his armpit/shoulders(causing the front armbar). He should be able to touch his shoulder with his top thumb.

A few frames later...
bbf jake lunge.JPG

Instead of rotating his hips beginning at toe touch, he lunges forward.

At toe touch, he should simultaneously:
- drive his back elbow down
- drive his back shoulder down
- clear his front hip and start intentionally turning his front hip

[omg]

At toe touch, he should simultaneously:
- drive his back elbow down
- drive his back shoulder down
- clear his front hip and start intentionally turning his front hip

Really? Do you really teach this? I'm not saying it's incorrect-I'm sure video supports it- but given the split second nature of hitting isn't it too detailed?
And you are just talking about one element of the swing. So how exactly would you go about teaching this?

[mr. potato head]

Here he is at toe touch.

[ATTACH]111549[/ATTACH]
He has not coiled properly. His shoulders have over-rotated, and his hips havent coiled.

His hands are too far from his armpit/shoulders(causing the front armbar). He should be able to touch his shoulder with his top thumb.

A few frames later...
[ATTACH]111550[/ATTACH]

Instead of rotating his hips beginning at toe touch, he lunges forward.

At toe touch, he should simultaneously:
- drive his back elbow down
- drive his back shoulder down
- clear his front hip and start intentionally turning his front hip

IMO, if he will use the rear leg as the driver he won't have to intentionally do anything with his front hip. You finally started talking about the importance of coiling as you stride but you still focus on the front hip being actively turned? Why not just let the coiling of the rear hip and proper barrel path be the focus?