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My 2019 attended 3 higher level single school DI prospect camps the past couple weekends and received solid evaluations, of which each provided a similar hitting recommendation.  Anyone have further celerity on this, and maybe some links to drills he can do?

"Little spinny, stay through middle, good space in swing, try to stay on backside a little longer"

"Like to see you use middle/backside more at the plate." 

"Pull happy loses backside."

 

 

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2019Dad posted:

[URL=http://www.directupload.net][IMG]http://fs1.directupload.net/im.../171110/haxsoj3i.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

 

 

yes, I think so. Bellinger probably has more lateral tilt than the average guy because he uses a lot of Uppercut. other Players are tilted anteriorly over the plate (Forward hip hinge) but more centered laterally (like Miggy or Pujols who probably swing a Little flatter than bellinger).

 

Generally the anterior tilt makes the up/down adjustment and lateral tilt creates the upward plane. the more centered you are the flatter the swing and the more lean back the more Uppercut (unless you drop the Hands and create the plane with the arms which I think is bad, you want the swing to be Level from shoulder to shoulder and the tilt creating the bat angle (anterior tilt) and attack angle (lateral tilt).

Last edited by Dominik85

Sounds like he is rotated too far open at contact so he may have issues driving the ball the other way. As others have said, a hitters weight is quickly shifted from the back side to the front side early in the swing and the back foot typically only has light contact with the ground or even none at all by the time the bat reaches contact. I think "staying on the back side longer" may be a little misleading.

In most cases the fix actually has much more to do with the front side than the back side. Pay attention to how the front foot is positioned when the front heal plants. If the front foot is open when the heal comes down, i.e. pointing towards the pitcher, then there is little resistance to keep the front hip from flying open and taking everything else with it. The foot should be closed off at roughly a 45 degree angle when the heal lands. This forces the front leg to lock out as the front hip rotates and restricts the front hip from opening up too far. It is normal for the front foot roll to the outer edge and then straighten out after contact as the weight begins to return to the back side.

I think Mike Trout is a good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX_dm39fkfw

 

Coach Deye posted:

Sounds like he is rotated too far open at contact so he may have issues driving the ball the other way. As others have said, a hitters weight is quickly shifted from the back side to the front side early in the swing and the back foot typically only has light contact with the ground or even none at all by the time the bat reaches contact. I think "staying on the back side longer" may be a little misleading.

In most cases the fix actually has much more to do with the front side than the back side. Pay attention to how the front foot is positioned when the front heal plants. If the front foot is open when the heal comes down, i.e. pointing towards the pitcher, then there is little resistance to keep the front hip from flying open and taking everything else with it. The foot should be closed off at roughly a 45 degree angle when the heal lands. This forces the front leg to lock out as the front hip rotates and restricts the front hip from opening up too far. It is normal for the front foot roll to the outer edge and then straighten out after contact as the weight begins to return to the back side.

I think Mike Trout is a good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX_dm39fkfw

 

What about bautistas front foot here?

Dominik85 posted:
Coach Deye posted:

Sounds like he is rotated too far open at contact so he may have issues driving the ball the other way. As others have said, a hitters weight is quickly shifted from the back side to the front side early in the swing and the back foot typically only has light contact with the ground or even none at all by the time the bat reaches contact. I think "staying on the back side longer" may be a little misleading.

In most cases the fix actually has much more to do with the front side than the back side. Pay attention to how the front foot is positioned when the front heal plants. If the front foot is open when the heal comes down, i.e. pointing towards the pitcher, then there is little resistance to keep the front hip from flying open and taking everything else with it. The foot should be closed off at roughly a 45 degree angle when the heal lands. This forces the front leg to lock out as the front hip rotates and restricts the front hip from opening up too far. It is normal for the front foot roll to the outer edge and then straighten out after contact as the weight begins to return to the back side.

I think Mike Trout is a good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX_dm39fkfw

 

What about bautistas front foot here?

Not saying that no one ever does it or you can't make a living being a pull hitter. However, if the analysis from the coaches is that he is "pull happy" or "spinny", then making sure the front foot lands closed will generally help change that diagnosis. The other solution is to get up on the plate with your pull swing and find coaches that don't try to change a pull hitter's approach. Either is fine by me.

 

teddy9 posted:

wow, great gif of bautista....  here's a round of BP, but not sure it's going to give any insight.   I'm trying to find recent video of his swing.  Thanks everyone who has chimed in, I'm digesting it all. 

The last 20 sec of vid is a second round of BP, just "zoomed in".  (2019 5-9ish, 150ish) 

https://youtu.be/ZjHrpIYE7j4

 

Teddy, I would suggest spending more time looking for hitters/clips who are staying on the ball and driving it oppo.  It appears that the critique of your son is that he has too much of what the pull hitters like Bautista and Bellinger are showing and that he needs to work on balancing that with more of an oppo/middle approach.

Looking briefly at his clip from UNC (good looking kid, BTW), it appears that his intent is always pull so his hips and upper body commit to opening early and opening fully.  So, he collapses a bit more (around the ball) than one would see with a balanced approach.  So, even though he occasionally hits oppo direction, those hits are lacking connected power - he has already spent much of his stored rotational energy.  I have a kid that looks just like this in our program.  When we can get him staying back and balanced and thinking oppo/middle, he is strong to all fields and can hit both FB and off-speed well.  When he reverts to his pull tendencies, he hits pull side and pull side gap well but hits outside pitches and off-speed weakly.  

I'm dealing with the same thing for my 2019. For some reason he's gotten pull happy this fall and I didn't want to change anything until he was done ( which was yesterday). His front shoulder flies open just like your son's does and can hit the ball middle in fairly hard. But anything outer 3rd is off the end of the bat and hit softly. We've talked about hitting the ball to right hard and staying closed longer, but that goes out the door after the 1st swing.

If anybody has any specific drills for helping with this, we are going to start working on it this wknd.

Texas 2 Sons posted:

I'm dealing with the same thing for my 2019. For some reason he's gotten pull happy this fall and I didn't want to change anything until he was done ( which was yesterday). His front shoulder flies open just like your son's does and can hit the ball middle in fairly hard. But anything outer 3rd is off the end of the bat and hit softly. We've talked about hitting the ball to right hard and staying closed longer, but that goes out the door after the 1st swing.

If anybody has any specific drills for helping with this, we are going to start working on it this wknd.

Son sets up tee on the outer part of the plate and hits a half bucket, then it's front toss pounding the outer edge of plate (on the black) for the remainder of the bucket.  This is part of his continual routine.

Texas 2:

There two areas for the player to improve. "Back off the plate" to have a longer look at the ball.

In his mind remove the left field foul line. the foul line should be left center for RH hitters.

For LH hitters use right center. Study the pitcher from the dugout, from the "on deck" circle and from the parking lot.

"shut of your cell phone" and concentrate on your role. Role is "see the ball"

Bob

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