Swing

I see the same things, but I'd like to see him hit when he's not standing in a foot deep hole in the ground...

Geez, that was painful to watch...

I am with Coach on this one. Yikes, 

 

He has very little lower body action and as a consequence he is not "connected" with his hips and hands. Pretty typical for young players. He can hit the ball but will have limited power until he gets connected up and drives with his lower body. Kind of hard to do in a hole.....

Yes, I know...its an old field with dust for dirt...we fill it in all the time and within a few minutes he's 6 inches shorter.  Babe Ruth actually played a this very field and hit a homerun from that batters box back in '28 (i think that's the year)...there's your fun fact for the day!

Looks solid .....not sure where others are seeing very little lower body action.  I see a little bit of leading with his lower body versus initiating the swing with the hands, although he does a good job getting his lower/upper body into correct position at impact.  Pause it at 34 secs to see a textbook impact position.

 

Hands drifting down is obvious on some swings. He could practice some loading in front of a mirror.  Would like to see a little more evenness and synchronicity between hands walking away as front foot moves toward toe down as he appears to move the hands back quite a bit immediately before the front foot moves much.  That may help to not initiate the swing with his body moving so far forward immediately, which will be an issue if he recognizes off-speed stuff too late.

 

4base, thanks for pointing this out...didn't even notice that.  he's a young 2018, so i think he is young enough to have the kinks worked out.  Anything to get him to become the hitter he feels he can be is always welcomed.

He needs to get stronger... when he's stronger, he will be quicker, when he's quicker, his swing will be shorter... He can hit the ball, now just get him strong and those loopy, hump back line drives in front of the center fielder will be shots to the gap.

 

Seeing the same stuff as others, in addition I think he needs to load better.  His bat angle is off a little bit and there is a lot of motion right up until he starts his swing.  

Find a local hitting coach and see how it goes.

good luck

I think he looks pretty good for his age.  I agree with the others, he can work on loading/hip/hand action in the mirror.  My son is a professional ball player and he was home the last two weeks.  I saw him swing to the mirror everyday.

 

Have him go to youtube and have him watch his favorite young players like Mike Trout or Bryce Harper.  Have him emulate those players' swings while he is practicing. 

He actually just adjusted his load the other day from a step to a small toe tap...he still is getting the feel of it, so we will see this weekend how it goes in the game.  He does some practice in the mirror but it's mainly during winter.  He's going to an instructor this winter, so that will help a lot  too. Once I get a video of his toe tap mechanics, I will throw that up on here as well...thank you for all the responses.

Philly,  FYI I was referring to the upper body part of the load. In particular his arms/hands. His bat angle looks a little off and he has a lot of arm and body motion and does not really seem to settle into the load. 

A quick adjustment to make would be to get a little wider in his start stance and knock his knees in a little bit. There are some other things to work on, but I would start there.

The fact is, that you need to improve your reaction time and  the best solution is to practice with a pitching machine. You can adjust pitches with release points. This will help you to have quick wrists, a keen eye, and a powerful swing.