Yet another 15 yo needing advice

quote:

Originally posted by Eric G:
This is my sons friend/teammate sseking some input too....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ulmLoSIyBo

Big kid! He is shifting then swinging, not good! He needs to get his hips to turn before he swings to get separation and stretch. He needs to learn to hit from the back leg and not the front.

He is also too narrow at heel plant - poor base.

quote:

He needs to get his hips to turn before he swings to get separation and stretch.

I'm not good enough at analyzing these things to be able to determine from this video whether this is true or not. One thing that would really help, is for hitters to tuck their shirts in when making these videos.

With shirt tucked in, we can see much more easily whether separation is created between hips and shoulders on the initiation of the swing, because separation creates ripples in the shirt that aren't there if the shoulders and hips move at the same time.

There are several things he needs to correct; however, I would begin by having him start the swing with his hands, not his upper body. Watch when he takes a pitch, his hands never move, just his body.
It is ok to load but he is getting too far outside his back foot. Looks like a slugger not necessarily a hitter. Calm the body and "Trust the Hands!

In my opinion,

First baseman?

Grip/wrists look good but I’d prefer to see more bend/flex in both wrists (for late bat speed)

Stance and posture looks good

Weight shift back or “move back” as I like to call it looks great. Slight inward turn when the pitcher separates his hands! Weight to inside of back foot.

Stride: his “no stride” doesn’t maximize his hamstrings or his upper body stretch, which is probably why his hips look slower than they should for a kid that size. My advice would be after the season experiment with a slightly wider stance or implement a longer stride. If it’s stride, take hands back an extra notch at the exact same time foot moves forward. And self toss every other day during the off-season.

Lots of power potential for this boy.

quote:

Originally posted by Clint Taylor:
There are several things he needs to correct; however, I would begin by having him start the swing with his hands, not his upper body. Watch when he takes a pitch, his hands never move, just his body.
It is ok to load but he is getting too far outside his back foot. Looks like a slugger not necessarily a hitter. Calm the body and "Trust the Hands!

I don't understand why you want him to commit with his hands first. If he starts with his hands he loses any kind of power coil or load. I like that he keeps his hands back when he takes. He need to get a good stretch and THEN hands come along as the body gets linear then rotational.

Finally he needs to get off his back foot at contact. Most pros have only about 1% of their weight on their back foot at contact. All good hitters shift their weight back for a little rhythm and load. Weight then has to shift forward. You start linear with some kind of stride or weight shift to front and become rotational turning around the front hip.

All in all, not a bad swing. I bet he's a good hitter in real baseball- as opposed to the internet! Haha

I am willing to bet you "get under" or hit many flyballs. Keep things simple. All the stuff written above may be true, but what is most important in your swing is to keep the back shoulder tall when you start to swing. You are what many hitting coaches call "collapsing backside."

Hit off a tall tee to correct this. Place a tee on a bucket, or on a chair so that it is "tall." The height of the ball should be about an inch below your armpit when your stride foot lands. Now just hit the baseball off the back of the net. If you pop the ball up (hit the top of the net) you know you collapsed backside, or let the back shoulder drop prior to your swing. This will allow you to correct the problem without "thinking about it."

Keep things simple.