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quote:Originally posted by Low Finish:
I'm clearly not from Southern CA, but it looks like he's peddling (I hate the term "linear", but I'm going to use it) "linear" junk. He over-emphasizes backspin far too much, and the demo videos on YouTube look like a swing down barrel path, which is anything but high level.
He doesn't understand that "squash the bug" is bad. Apparently, he thinks it's part of a good swing (as is shown in the stride, hips, hands video). The guy is stuck teaching what he learned as a player. Hitting down on the ball is great for ground balls, and this guy seems to be unable to understand that. Watch the video. The second swing is... better then the first and third ones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...=channel_video_title
Now personally, I wouldn't waste your time with this guy. I would get my hands on Epstein (best widely available MLB swing material) and see if you can find an Epstein Certified Instructor, if the prices are close to each other.
In summary: Stay away from this guy. He will kill your swing or your son's swing.
quote:Originally posted by Low Finish:
He still equates rotational with a home run swing. The swing isn't purely rotational, and that's obvious. But he doesn't understand "swing level to the ball". He thinks swinging down is good for backspin.
Swinging down is great, for ground balls and pop-ups.
Match the plane of the pitch with the plane of the swing. Epstein is the best public material out there.
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy33:quote:Originally posted by Low Finish:
He still equates rotational with a home run swing. The swing isn't purely rotational, and that's obvious. But he doesn't understand "swing level to the ball". He thinks swinging down is good for backspin.
Swinging down is great, for ground balls and pop-ups.
Match the plane of the pitch with the plane of the swing. Epstein is the best public material out there.
I've never seen a swing where the barrel didn't travel downward. I've also never seen a swing where the barrel didn't travel upward.
Where the downward and upward paths in the swing happen is key.
Having the down portion of the path happening too soon leads to the upward path being too steep and too early. Having the upward portion of the path happening too late leads to too much downward path and a roll over ground ball.
Trying to match the plane of the pitch almost always leads to too steep of an upward path. Some have to feel like they are swinging down more to actually match the plane of the pitch.
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy33:
I've looked through his youtube videos, and the one that I don't like is the "Bat Path on a low pitch" video. The others are pretty good and the swings that are demonstrated by the players are pretty good for amateurs. I'm not crazy about how he was showing the "stride, hips, hands" drill, but overall it wasn't too bad.
I love the emphasis on head stability and extension. I think he brings many good things to the table for a hitter to improve. This assessment of course is only coming from limited videos that I just watched, but not bad.
I would not say that he emphasizes the terms "linear" nor "rotational" which I believe is a plus.
quote:Originally posted by standballdad:
Thanks for the review, I am going to let him do an eval on my son and see what he says. Dont know if I will have my son take lessons from him. I want to evaluate him as well. Thanks again
quote:Originally posted by standballdad:
Feed back on sons evaluation/lesson from Ryan Dambach. He does emphasize back spin, but he uses hitting down on the ball as a hitting cue, he says the bat actually gets on plane with the ball at contact or even slightly upward. I can tell you from my first sons lessons and how it translates in a game, my son was always a good hitter (1 or 3 hole hitter). He has absolutely been smashing the ball in the last two tourneys. For those of you who are familiar with the the BLD fields in Riverside California, he hit two HRs (line drives)this weekend
quote:Originally posted by standballdad:
Feed back on sons evaluation/lesson from Ryan Dambach. He does emphasize back spin, but he uses hitting down on the ball as a hitting cue, he says the bat actually gets on plane with the ball at contact or even slightly upward. I can tell you from my first sons lessons and how it translates in a game, my son was always a good hitter (1 or 3 hole hitter). He has absolutely been smashing the ball in the last two tourneys. For those of you who are familiar with the the BLD fields in Riverside California, he hit two HRs (line drives)this weekend
quote:Originally posted by Low Finish:quote:Originally posted by standballdad:
Feed back on sons evaluation/lesson from Ryan Dambach. He does emphasize back spin, but he uses hitting down on the ball as a hitting cue, he says the bat actually gets on plane with the ball at contact or even slightly upward. I can tell you from my first sons lessons and how it translates in a game, my son was always a good hitter (1 or 3 hole hitter). He has absolutely been smashing the ball in the last two tourneys. For those of you who are familiar with the the BLD fields in Riverside California, he hit two HRs (line drives)this weekend
Swing down means (at least in the words of a former MLB player) start down, but flatten the path behind you. Don't take a 45 degree angle down to the ball. Personally, I think about swinging level.
If you think about "slightly up" you won't do very well once they change locations on you...
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy33:quote:Originally posted by standballdad:
Feed back on sons evaluation/lesson from Ryan Dambach. He does emphasize back spin, but he uses hitting down on the ball as a hitting cue, he says the bat actually gets on plane with the ball at contact or even slightly upward. I can tell you from my first sons lessons and how it translates in a game, my son was always a good hitter (1 or 3 hole hitter). He has absolutely been smashing the ball in the last two tourneys. For those of you who are familiar with the the BLD fields in Riverside California, he hit two HRs (line drives)this weekend
Awesome! Good luck in the future.
quote:Originally posted by standballdad:quote:Originally posted by Low Finish:quote:Originally posted by standballdad:
Feed back on sons evaluation/lesson from Ryan Dambach. He does emphasize back spin, but he uses hitting down on the ball as a hitting cue, he says the bat actually gets on plane with the ball at contact or even slightly upward. I can tell you from my first sons lessons and how it translates in a game, my son was always a good hitter (1 or 3 hole hitter). He has absolutely been smashing the ball in the last two tourneys. For those of you who are familiar with the the BLD fields in Riverside California, he hit two HRs (line drives)this weekend
Swing down means (at least in the words of a former MLB player) start down, but flatten the path behind you. Don't take a 45 degree angle down to the ball. Personally, I think about swinging level.
If you think about "slightly up" you won't do very well once they change locations on you...
Agree, the hitting cue is not "slightly up or level" that is just the result of the swing itself.
quote:Originally posted by standballdad:
Anyone here in the OC ever hear of this guy or maybe even used him? Looking for some feedback. I went to his Website and he looks like he teaches some good stuff here, but would like to hear what others might have to say or have experienced. Thanks in advance. Here is his link.
http://ryandambachhitting.com/
quote:Originally posted by Billy White:quote:Originally posted by standballdad:
Anyone here in the OC ever hear of this guy or maybe even used him? Looking for some feedback. I went to his Website and he looks like he teaches some good stuff here, but would like to hear what others might have to say or have experienced. Thanks in advance. Here is his link.
http://ryandambachhitting.com/
Hi Standballdad! My son has been working with Ryan Dambach for over a year now and I can tell you that he is THE BEST hitting / mental skills coach I have come across. Before working with Ryan we had worked with several other instructors, all of whom were merely teaching what they had learned from their coaches in the past. Ryan is different. He has completely devoted himself to the study of the mechanics of the baseball swing as well as the mental side of hitting. "Low Finish" has no idea what he's talking about. If you want to prepare your son to play at the next level, you need to be working with someone who can help him develop a mechanically sound swing that is repeatable.
Once he has that, Ryan will work with him on approach and mental skills. My son has gone from being a marginal "contact" hitter, to being a consistent power hitter. His confidence has skyrocketed, not only because he is hitting the ball well, but because he knows his confidence doesn't come merely from results, rather it comes from executing his swing properly. (then the results take care of themselves) Hope this helps!
quote:Originally posted by J H:
I'll take a stab at this one. Low Finish- Just because O'Leary posted a few clips highlighting a few hard hit balls that didn't have backspin does not mean that backspin is not beneficial to a player. In his post, O'Leary states that research has shown backspin is a good thing. Basic principles of physics state that a ball with backspin will travel faster and further than a ball with any other type of spin. That is the reason that a four-seam fastball travels faster than a knuckleball (or any other pitch for that matter). As for the statement about the exit angle pertaining to the timing of the bat through the zone, I would venture to say that hitters like Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez would probably scratch their head at that. They are some of the most prolific hitters of this era and hit the ball with enormous backspin, and enormous distances, to all fields.
I personally was a bit disappointed to find that O'Leary's rationale came in the Joe Thurston clip with no other backing evidence. I do not accept his statement that because two players hit home runs without backspin and one player was late on a pitch then therefore backspin is overrated.
quote:No backspin. The ball was just hit under the center
quote:Originally posted by NDD:quote:No backspin. The ball was just hit under the center
I don't see how that is possible.
quote:Originally posted by Billy White:quote:Originally posted by standballdad:
Anyone here in the OC ever hear of this guy or maybe even used him? Looking for some feedback. I went to his Website and he looks like he teaches some good stuff here, but would like to hear what others might have to say or have experienced. Thanks in advance. Here is his link.
http://ryandambachhitting.com/
Hi Standballdad! My son has been working with Ryan Dambach for over a year now and I can tell you that he is THE BEST hitting / mental skills coach I have come across. Before working with Ryan we had worked with several other instructors, all of whom were merely teaching what they had learned from their coaches in the past. Ryan is different. He has completely devoted himself to the study of the mechanics of the baseball swing as well as the mental side of hitting. "Low Finish" has no idea what he's talking about. If you want to prepare your son to play at the next level, you need to be working with someone who can help him develop a mechanically sound swing that is repeatable.
Once he has that, Ryan will work with him on approach and mental skills. My son has gone from being a marginal "contact" hitter, to being a consistant power hitter. His confidence has skyrocketed, not only because he is hitting the ball well, but because he knows his confidence doesn't come merely from results, rather it comes from executing his swing properly. (then the results take care of themselves) Hope this helps!
quote:Originally posted by Low Finish:quote:Originally posted by NDD:quote:No backspin. The ball was just hit under the center
I don't see how that is possible.
I have no idea either, the ball is clearly hit slightly under center, but it doesn't spin. I imagine it has something to do with the Coriolis Effect.
quote:Originally posted by NDD:
LOL, I don't think so. How do you know the ball is not spinning?quote:Originally posted by Low Finish:quote:Originally posted by NDD:quote:No backspin. The ball was just hit under the center
I don't see how that is possible.
I have no idea either, the ball is clearly hit slightly under center, but it doesn't spin. I imagine it has something to do with the Coriolis Effect.
quote:Originally posted by NDD:
I don't see the seams moving on the pitch either, was it a knuckle ball?
quote:Originally posted by standballdad:quote:Originally posted by Billy White:quote:Originally posted by standballdad:
Anyone here in the OC ever hear of this guy or maybe even used him? Looking for some feedback. I went to his Website and he looks like he teaches some good stuff here, but would like to hear what others might have to say or have experienced. Thanks in advance. Here is his link.
http://ryandambachhitting.com/
Hi Standballdad! My son has been working with Ryan Dambach for over a year now and I can tell you that he is THE BEST hitting / mental skills coach I have come across. Before working with Ryan we had worked with several other instructors, all of whom were merely teaching what they had learned from their coaches in the past. Ryan is different. He has completely devoted himself to the study of the mechanics of the baseball swing as well as the mental side of hitting. "Low Finish" has no idea what he's talking about. If you want to prepare your son to play at the next level, you need to be working with someone who can help him develop a mechanically sound swing that is repeatable.
Once he has that, Ryan will work with him on approach and mental skills. My son has gone from being a marginal "contact" hitter, to being a consistant power hitter. His confidence has skyrocketed, not only because he is hitting the ball well, but because he knows his confidence doesn't come merely from results, rather it comes from executing his swing properly. (then the results take care of themselves) Hope this helps!
I would have to agree with your assessment of Ryan, son has improved after only a few lessons. I too am impressed with the way he handles his hitters and the way he talks too them. How old is your son? mine is 14 and will be going to HS next year.
quote:Originally posted by Billy White:
Sorry for the delayed response...I don't check this board very often. When I posted my original comment, my son was 10 or 11. He is currently an 11u player, but just turned 12. As our season has progressed, I have noticed a lot of kids who used to hit well are starting to fall behind. Pitching is getting better and kids with long swings are simply not able to catch up. I suspect this will continue (even more so) as the kids get into your son's age group. I believe Ryan is preparing my son with a "next level" swing that he will be able to take to the next level and beyond. Best of luck!
