You may want to eliminate the action he has where he raises his arms in his decision phase. Some would call that loading, but eliminating this delay as early as possible will give him a swing that will need very little alteration as he progresses.
He should try to keep his hands at the loaded position as the pitcher is coming to his release point. This will keep him balanced and able to wait on off speed pitches.
Posts: 1644 | Location: Tampa | Registered: August 06, 2005
Looks pretty darn good for a 10 year old! Has very good balance and quick hands. The only things I really see are the position of the bathead at go (which is behind his body making it a longer swing) and he looks late on a lot of pitches (meaning he doesn't have his load completely back before he starts his swing) kind of herky jerky. Work on a more relaxed separation and a more verticle bat. Keep it in front of his head. I think his bathead position is why he was hitting the ball off of the handle so much too.
Posts: 574 | Location: mid west | Registered: January 23, 2008
Not too crazy about those low hands that start low, raise-up then come down again... might want to eliminate that action... I think he could use his lower body more effectively... At impact you should be able to draw a straight-line from the lead foot through the top of his head... At least that's what Doyle Academy teaches...
Here's my 10-year-old... This was taken last year at age 9, I don't have any video of him hitting in a game because I'm usually managing/coaching... All I have is stuff we do in the back yard (I'll try to get more recent stuff soon)... Anyway, this was taken when we were trying to institute a tap-step (that never really got him anywhere, so we decided to stop) that was thought could benefit him by former MLB-er Dante Bichette...
Come on Eric, who's teaching all these kids the "softball" swings? I don't like this swing at all. I believe if you put the hands under the chest, you will have hard time with the inside corner and the outside corner strikes. You probably will hit the ball on the middle of the plate. But you still can't catch a High heat because your hand position is too low. JMHO.
Eric, No offenses, you want comments, I can only give you a nagetive side of the opinion. Right or wrong, I hope you can take it.
Posts: 124 | Location: Kansas | Registered: January 20, 2008
Originally posted by Bolts-Coach-PR: Not too crazy about those low hands that start low, raise-up then come down again... might want to eliminate that action... I think he could use his lower body more effectively... At impact you should be able to draw a straight-line from the lead foot through the top of his head... At least that's what Doyle Academy teaches...
Here's my 10-year-old... This was taken last year at age 9, I don't have any video of him hitting in a game because I'm usually managing/coaching... All I have is stuff we do in the back yard (I'll try to get more recent stuff soon)... Anyway, this was taken when we were trying to institute a tap-step (that never really got him anywhere, so we decided to stop) that was thought could benefit him by former MLB-er Dante Bichette...
Originally posted by coachbwww: Come on Eric, who's teaching all theses kids the "softball" swings? I don't like this swing at all. I believe if you put the hands under the chest, you will have hard time with the inside corner and the outside corner strikes. You probably will hit the ball on the middle of the plate. But you still can't catch a High heat because your hand position is too low. JMHO.
Eric, No offenses, you want comments, I can only give you a nagetive side of the opinion. Right or wrong, I hope you can take it.
No offense, but you might want to take a look at this guy's hand position before you go bad mouthing low hand position. JMHO.
Originally posted by powertoallfields: [No offense, but you might want to take a look at this guy's hand position before you go bad mouthing low hand position. JMHO.
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I know , I know, those old timers all swing like that, including Barry Bonds who may or may not be a Hall of Fame. Those are some kind of "Big" guy's swings, but the kid in the vedio is not Ted or Babe. Emulate the hall of Fame's swing won't help him at the LL level, stand at 5' feet or shorter, low hand position and swing up only produce pop flies when facing the high fastball.
Posts: 124 | Location: Kansas | Registered: January 20, 2008
By the way,the kid has a great swing,some minor flaws but overall,pretty good.I do feel the hands being low(in the setup) are causing him some issues right now.You might want to try a more traditional approach to see what kind of results he gets.If it doesn't work,he can go back.
Since others are posting their kids,I thought I would put my 9 year old in here.Of course it is a softball swing too.
I can tell you the downward motion in that video might be accentuated by that Griffey Ultimate Tee he's hitting on... Although he hits his share of groundballs, his regular "flight" is a linedrive that does climb...
I'll try to post different views later on...
Posts: 44 | Location: Florida | Registered: February 29, 2008
Your son has a great swing, he uses his lower-half correctly, driving through the ball, and at impact you can draw a straight-line directly from his lead foot through his head... I like everything I see here.
Keep up the GREAT work!
Posts: 44 | Location: Florida | Registered: February 29, 2008
Since others are posting their kids,I thought I would put my 9 year old in here.Of course it is a softball swing too.
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tfox:
Your son's swing is very good. This is not the softball swing I am talking about. The starting position of his hand is about right not too low. The only minor flaw I think is that "The long stride" he took. Please correct it now since he is still young. You will know what I mean when he grows up.
Posts: 124 | Location: Kansas | Registered: January 20, 2008
Since others are posting their kids,I thought I would put my 9 year old in here.Of course it is a softball swing too.
]
tfox:
Your son's swing is very good. This is not the softball swing I am talking about. The starting position of his hand is about right not too low. The only minor flaw I think is that "The long stride" he took. Please correct it now since he is still young. You will know what I mean when he grows up.
Thanks for the kind words,I am sure he would appreciate it.
We/his coach and I used the Epstein approach and he has always been a wide stance hitter.He used to start wide.Also remember that he is on concrete and sliding a bit,but he does like wide,I am sure he will change his style somewhat as he gets older but we are not trying to copy anyones swing,we are trying to develop HIS swing.
Check out my daughters swing in the daughter hitting II thread, that swing was learned from the same coach. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfDI2vbY4gU looks quite a bit different.My son has been at it with the coach longer but same methods of teaching just different styles for different people.THIS IS CRITICAL imo.
SORRY,didn't mean for this to be a hijack.
Posts: 349 | Location: henderson ky | Registered: July 12, 2007
Your son's swing is very good. This is not the softball swing I am talking about. The starting position of his hand is about right not too low.
coachbwww,
The starting position of the hands do not matter as long as you can get them to a proper launch position as the swing starts, or as powertoallfields says, "at go."
Some kids naturally load their hands up, some load them down, some load them forward, etc. How you load can vary from hitter to hitter.
My natural load is up. Once I realized this, I lowered my hands quite a bit because when I loaded them up, I got them in a better launch position.
Hopefully these will come up, but here are a few "current" players (since you seemed to skeptical about Ted Williams )
The only minor flaw I think is that "The long stride" he took. Please correct it now since he is still young. You will know what I mean when he grows up.
Even from the naked eye, that stride is, give or take an inch, only about 6 inches. What is so long about that? And what do you mean by "You will know what I mean when he grows up? Why don't you just tell us now?
"Hitting a baseball is the single most difficult thing to do in sport" - Ted Williams
Posts: 253 | Location: Seattle | Registered: June 01, 2007
I like the tfox kid's power swing, he got some explosivness.
"The long stride" is indicating some kind of over swing. It may not show a lot in that tfox vedio clip, but when you click tfox's link, on the right side, you will see tfox showed another clip of his son in a cage, the clip is called " rotational almost mastered", in that clip it looks more like a "wild" stride, tfox knows what I mean.
Personally I don't like the wide standce and the long stride. Long stride will hurt your timing when you try to catch a higher speed fastball, especially when you play at higher level. Medium -height kids with wide standce will have some hard time against high strikes.
I don't have problems with kids swing like this at age 9. They will learn new things when they play the game long enough. But I would like tfox correct it along the way.
I really hate that this thread has moved on to my son's swing but that almost mastered was LAST SUMMER and alot has changed since then.That was also off a machine and he had some issues timing the machine,no arm action.
AND,in that video,he gets wider than he does now.He was in between making up his mind if he liked to step or not.He used to start real wide and when he started working on a step,he would get too wide but he isn't doing THAT now.He starts narrower and has a short step but ends kinda wide.
Notice how the bat is still on the shoulder,that is what causes some of the issues you see in that clip but imo,is a great way to TEACH how to get where he is now.
IMO,wide isn't a problem when done correctly.Difference in philosophy I quess.
Posts: 349 | Location: henderson ky | Registered: July 12, 2007
Just go back to the basics. Set up stance etc. for checks points.
I low hand are good why not take them lower and than load.
I mean I can bend my knee and start my hand position out two inches off the dirt but if i can get my hands up there and load its ok?
I would say the less you have to move them to load position the better
IMHO,
drill
if you note you will see him pick up his hands a little in the vid. Why go through all the extra movment and just load. it would seem it would prevent a direction momentum and he would have a faster bat
Posts: 67 | Location: Virginia | Registered: December 14, 2007
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