Hitting Analysis Request II

You have the same issues that I pointed out last year.

Try this.  When you coil inward during the 'stride', you correctly turn your shoulder, but your back elbow should not go behind your back like that.  Continue to turn your shoulder, but take your back elbow toward the catcher.

This is causing the downstream issues - no bathead turn, leading to bat drag

Wow, he's done a lot of good work and come a long way.  Looks good.  Nice quick first half, good use of the lower half, barrel comes thru the zone on a nice path, good balance.  I will mention two things but they tend to be preference items as opposed to correction items.  I like the hands to come to a spot just a little higher at load.  With his hands loading low, he may struggle with high pitches against good pitching. 

Also, I would like to see just a little less of a hard break/stop between foot down and fire.  I understand that it may have been a necessary step in order to incorporate some of the mechanical fixes but I would say it is time to get a bit more fluid with the load - swing transition. 

Think about climbing up a set of stairs.  You raise your knee and then the knee reverses direction as the foot goes down to the step.  You don't raise your knee and stop with a hard pause.  That would be awkward and you would probably lose  a bit of balance.  With good  quality pitch speed variance, this hard stop can make for some balance challenges.  I do see some guys do fine with the distinct load stop, then fire but most have fluidity to where you can hardly tell they have transitioned from load to swing.

Along the same idea as Cabbage, I like to tell players to load early and slow but be sudden when you launch the barrel.

Thanks for the feedback so far. 

Cabbage and Standball -

The two areas pointed out are the two key things in queue. 

LOAD:

He had a really difficult time getting his hands lower through the zone.  This resulted in a very steep bat angle.   I think he's made good progress, but a byproduct was his hands were starting tighter to his body and lower.  I think he can begin to start working on getting his hands a little more back and up during the load.  I really like the idea of him loading early and slow when doing that. 

STRIDE:

He doesn't seem to naturally want to stride into the hit and his shoulders tend to try and dominate his swing.  He has used a no stride swing in the past, but struggled to get his hips through the swing.  He is kinda in between a stride and no stride swing right now.  I think if he can do the slow/early load and then stride, that might be the answer to make it feel right for him.

Sultan -

This is something we have looked at a lot.  Regardless of where his hands start, he drops his back elbow to his side before his hands really move.  I wish that were not the case, but I am not sure it is really going to change without an enormous amount of effort.  I'm also not sure this hurts him right now except for a little timing wise.  I get the bat drag comment, because of the elbow/hands start.  However, I don't think he really has bat drag as I understand it, but I am interested in differing opinions and discussing (I am no expert).

I don't know why the video is sideways, but I'll try to fix that.

NDallasDad posted:

Sultan -

1) Regardless of where his hands start, he drops his back elbow to his side before his hands really move.  I wish that were not the case, but I am not sure it is really going to change without an enormous amount of effort.  I'm also not sure this hurts him right now except for a little timing wise. 

 

2) I get the bat drag comment, because of the elbow/hands start.  However, I don't think he really has bat drag as I understand it,

 

1) It makes no difference where his back elbow is at the start.  It matters where it is at 'toe touch' (after the 'stride').

His back elbow is wrapped behind his back.  The back elbow should go back toward the catcher (make sure you continue to coil inward with your hips and shoulders - don't stunt that). [Note that the back elbow may snap back/behind only during the 'uncoil' phase]  This elbow position causes him to then drop his elbow without moving the bathead towards the catcher.  Further, it's contributing to the bat drag below.

2) He has a terrible case of bat drag.  Back elbow is well in front of hands at this 'hip slot' position.  At no time in the swing, should the back elbow be ahead of the hands.

This is causing more than 'timing' issues.

These are serious swing flaws with easy fixes.

So, the first thing I would do is to coil inward as you stride forward, but take your back elbow back toward the catcher (not behind your back).  Think of pulling a bow string back.  Make sure that you continue to coil inward with your shoulders and hips.  Your hips could actually coil inward much, much more as well.

Then, after you fix this, and if you still have bat drag, maybe focus on keeping your hands even with your back elbow as you swing forward.

Not much of a hitting coach here.  I can help if I'm pitching and can see it from that angle...but not so much from a side view video.  Here's one thing I noticed....not sure if anyone else has ever heard it.  My son was told by 2 different hitting guys (one played MLB, the other college All-American at a big school)....that when hitting from a tee, it should be an inch and a half to 2 inches higher than your ideal pitch position.  Not sure it ever mattered, but he always moved the tee up higher than anyone else.....he hit .478 with 4 HR's his senior year in HS so I never argued.  Raise the tee up a little bit....then do what all the other guys said lol

Edit:  after seeing the still pics....I'd also move the tee back in the box about 2-3" it's

too far forward in my opinion

SultanofSwat posted:

 take your back elbow toward the catcher.

 

I'm having a hard time understanding and visualizing this?

standballdad posted:

SultanofSwat posted:

 take your back elbow toward the catcher.

 

I'm having a hard time understanding and visualizing this?

 Take it roughly back 'toward the catcher' vs. behind his back

why are you stopping the video? I have seen many MLB hitters take the elbow back as the OP, it loads the scapula. BTW, not arguing just trying to understand 

"why are you stopping the video?"

This is the end of the coil inward phase. In the next frame, Posey begins to 'uncoil'.

As I mentioned earlier, the back elbow may snap 'back' ('loading' the scap) during the uncoil.  The OP has not begun to uncoil in the above pic. (Of course, you should begin to uncoil just before toe touch. I did not want to add more issues to the thread)

You don't intentionally take the elbow behind your back.  It should only happen when you uncoil.

If you intentionally take it back as the OP has, it will drag forward, not snap.

(I don't know if this makes it any more clear )

Okay it looks like we have different opinions but that's okay. I believe the loading of the scap causes stretch between the hands and the rear hip as you are loading. The uncoil occurs when the barrel is launched from a loaded scap position. Like I said there are many views on this. 

I just figured out who you are from BBF  now I understand