Would like to hear feedback on 13 yr old son in cage.

He is doing the Heel - toe thing it seems. He should have power, but no seperation of hips and shoulders may have difficulty with breaking balls or off speed. His swing is not level, which is good. It looks like a decent swing, but not the MLB.In MLB the back heel is pulled up by the swing of the bat, your back heel raise is different, not your falt since I've seen a few drills teach this. Im just guessing on all this.

I think overall the swing looks good for his age. He is a lot to work with. Here are a couple of suggestions from my point of view:
--Get a lower stance base, what I mean is get the butt out some more and back heels slightly off the ground so you are on the balls of your feet(this will allow for more hip movement).
--instead of allowing your hips to slide forward, tell him to reach his stride leg forward(you want very minimal head movt forward in the stride to prevent hip slide)
--Let the ball get back in the swing more, it looks like he extended too early, but I am not sure of the pitch location.
--try to get your hips going before the hands start, his hips and hands go together(this is a high level action, but it creates separation and more bad speed and power.

The good news is he is way ahead of the game and has a great place to start. Keep up the good work!!!!

Coach W

Nice suggestions pat

Thanks Coach W.

My initial thought was that he was too upright in these two swings.

Seems to be sacrificing a little power by dropping his stride foot down a bit early , rather than having more of a fluid motion which to attack the ball better . I guess i personally like to see kids have more of an aggressive type of loading/unloading action . JMO . Looks to be on the right track though .

Mr. Nobody,

I agree completely. his load is too early and very rigid. but definitely on the right track for a 13 yo

He is loading with his shoulders when he should be loading with his hips and lower body. He seems to have all the hand-eye stuff down and a nice follow through. He seems a little stiff in the legs also.

Hope this helps,

Jon
www.hardballcoach.com

Here is a clip of him from last night. I think the swing looks a little better.

more recent swing

I would work on getting more out of his lower half . Upper half and lower half should be more in sync with each other .

Samricky,

Great improvement over the first clip. I don't like the camera angle as well as if it were facing the open side of the hitter, but what a good looking 13 year old. You and him should have a lot of fun. Keep working!

Best of luck

quote:

Originally posted by kbat2012:
bat speed is the problem, in real game against faster pitcher, by the time he loaded up, the ball would be aready in the catcher's mitt.

Not if he is loading as he's reading. Not if he's loading his hands as he strides.

quote:

Originally posted by Samricky:
Here is a clip of him from last night. I think the swing looks a little better.

That's because it is.
A suggestion, take it,,, use it if you like.
Discard if you don't.

I understand it is a work in progress samricky.
At his age he has the ability to learn (continue developing) a pattern that will be a huge benefit.

What I see right now is a
load / stop (pause) / swing.
(much more so in the first clip, second clip is much improved)
Personally what I would like to see is more of a flow that has no stop or pause. After, just a little bit of repetition this will become second nature, imo, pretty quickly.

This is not intended to be a cookie cutter approach rather an introduction to this movement pattern.

No bat.
Draw or imagine a line out toward the pitcher.
Have him stand on the line.
With his feet close together execute a stride.
(Feet close just to work on the move,,he will find his own stance width)
Again, no arm action, no bat.
Now bring the back foot to where it is again close to the front foot and stride again.
Continue to "shuffle" down the line.
Turn around do it back the other direction.
As he strides have him feel as though his legs are engaged / bent / and body is in an athletic position. (beltline "tucked").

Now put a bat in his hands.
Ask him to move his "hands" back as he strides forward, down the line.
(Some cues I will use to get the "hands" moving correctly---
1. Slightly tip the bat toward the pitcher
2. Raise your back arm to where it is parallel to the ground (not a necessity)
3. Move your bottom hand toward the cather
4. Turn your top hand palm "slightly down."

I believe there are 2 things that could be enhanced in this very athletic young man.
1. Getting the barrel loaded
2. Moving forward (stride) while moving back (barrel, upper body, load)-----Stretch.
Whatever term you like---stretch, load, separation, barrel load, move the hands, raise the rear elbow, blah, blah, blah, is secondary to getting him in a powerful position----and the way he does it will not look EXACTLY like this.
But this clip illustrates the point, the pattern,
I'm trying to get across.

BlueDog- You give some good information here- for a major league swing. While we all want to emulate a major league swing, we all aren't dealing with players who have a major league body with major league strength and fast-twitch prowess.

This site is caller HS Baseball Web. They also have a Pre HS part of it. Most of the kids we are talking about have to make some amendments to what all of you are talking about to be "on-time". Yes- you need to "load", "stretch", "gather", etc. You also need to "fire" (as you say- I like that). That said, most kids (that is what we have here) can't do what Manny or Pujols does. They don't have the physical prowess. Yes, they need to get a good stretch. Yes, they need to unload quickly. The key is to tailor it to what a young player is capable of to be "on-time".

This particular 13 year old in this clip seems to have the ability/capacity to work towards the things that blue dog is talking about . What is wrong with working towards having an advanced swing ? I think blue dog has given appropiate advise without getting too technical . This young man needs to find a hitting instructor who will help him maximize his hitting potential and get him on the right path .

Mr. Nobody- I don't disagree with what he said. My point is that you have to work with what you have. Yes, load and unload- as far as you can while still being "on time". My point is that you have to adapt a little here. We are not teaching Manny. We are teaching Minny.

BlueDog- You try to give as much as a young player can adapt to his swing. No question, you want a guy to emulate a swing like Manny, Pujols, etc. The problem is that, in many cases, a younger player doesnt have the strength and athleticism. Therefore, you give them as much as you can and constantly keep working to expand what they have as they get stronger and more athletic.

You cant emulate most MLB players let alone the best in MLB. Reseaon is all the MLB are Great players and the difference between a good and Great player is luck. Luck can be many things not just Genes. The MLB swing is to this point even with slow move emg technology, inaccurately descibed to be emulated. And until we can, you just have to be lucky.