Young hitter for review!

I like the swing alot....

Posture fairly upright, but the pitch is high, so it's good......Weight shift momentum is very good.....Nice connection....Looks like he is powering from the middle and using his front leg properly....

My guess is he had to wait a bit on the pitch....A little slower than anticipated.....Probably a good adjustment keeping his front foot in the air a little longer.....

I'm no professional but I was always taught by my coaches and every coach I've ever known to keep my head as still as possible. Look where his starts and ends up.

Flipp,

You posted this one before. Correct?

Flipp.....

The arms get off the merry-go-round at the right time...

The swinging gate is nicely done.....

Front elbow points to the ball....

Very nice swing.....Excellent....

quote:

Originally posted by TPBulldogs35:
I'm no professional but I was always taught by my coaches and every coach I've ever known to keep my head as still as possible. Look where his starts and ends up.

I think you should be looking at head movement only from the time his front foot plants (pre-swing). Looks real quiet once the swing begins... I like this swing also...

Flipp,

Nice looking hitter. In time my guess is he will spread out a bit more, not be quite as upright and shorten the stride. Good quick hips!

1. Doesn't maintain BOX
2. Bat drag
3. More pulling, hands get in front of rotation.
4. push stroke

I'll not mention the style with stance which I do think affects his ability to be as efficient as he could.

Tough clip for me to see if bat is perpendicular to spin. So no comment there as well.

I counted 6 frames to contact once his foot plants but the bat drag could actually want to make you add more frames.

Vance, you mean like this?....Where ya been?....Missed ya around here....

http://www.hitting-mechanics.org/HMOFTP/AlKalineDET_01.gif

IMO the kid has very good swing technique, especially for a 14 y/o.

Very nice natural swing. He swings the bat nicely and is agressive in attacking the ball.

He generates good bat speed and makes good contact in front of the plate.

He even has room for improvement as he moves to higher levels of the game without major adjustment.

Dog, sorry. I've been super busy and not around computer much.

Big Al Kaline. I enjoyed watching him.

I'm not saying I don't like the swing. Its not bad for a 14 yr old. But I have seen much better. If he continues to improve is the big question. I see kids like this who still swing like this when their Sr. in high school. He isn't as nearly as efficient as he could be. Lets not give him a break just because he is young.

But knowing Jason he will help him reach his potential.

First off, pretty nice swing. I will go with the majority in saying it looks pretty good. I count 5 Frames to contact from the time the bat knob starts coming around.

I disagree with Vance34 on the bat drag. I don't see it. Vance34 could be correct, but I don't see it.

The thing that sticks out to me is a 1-frame pause between the heal plant and starting to bring the bat around. This could account for the difference in Vance34's and my frame count. I started counting when the knob started to come around. He started counting at foot plant.

The slight pause I think I see and the contact slightly out front more than optimal may be a result of what BlueDog postulated. He may have been slightly fooled into an early swing.

redbird5,

Yes I posted that clip in the "Pre-High School" forum.

Here is another swing from this hitter:



The result of this swing was a single to left field. The pitch was outside.

Any thoughts on this swing?

Jason

P.S. Vance you have a PM.

Outside pitch and still all the things I mentioned above plus looses connection. He needs to learn to SIT SIT SIT for those off speed pitches.

Do you guys see any loading and umloading?

Following Vance 34's thinking it's not his sucess today but where he's heading. Few high school hitters get away with a long stride ( 1st photo) or significant change in the location of the center of gravity ( 2nd photo). Imho he's close to hitching but that's could be because the (-3?)bat is heavy for him right now. The good news is this is all normal evolution and helping him adapt to faster piching with that darned curve ball will take care of it. Best thing I saw was fast hips, they're critical to a quick swing.

Good points Vance. I also see 3 movements from his bat starting position. From his stance to his r-shoulder and then down. The down concerns me because it could become a hitch. With that very long stride, breaking stuff could be a real challenge for him. In the second footage he was lundging for the ball which goes with the long stride. PG said he may have to get wider as he progresses and I agree.
Using a reference point of where his head begins in the 1st shot, to the middle of the tree, look where it finishes, near the top of the truck. He is changing his eye level. If he were wider, he may start at say the top of the fence, and hit with his head at the top of the truck, not as much head movement that way. JHO.

He goes around the ball on the last swing. I don't think that has anything to do with his head movement. His bat gets flat early. He drops and sweeps. I don't see a lot of perfect swings. I like him. He gets rotation, has that slight knee turn in. He is fairly much locked when the rotation starts.

Like I've said before, his head movement will be how much he starts off center plus 1/2 his stride length. He does keep his foot close to the ground as he strides.

The world is going to shorter strides and longer bases. When he strides and his head goes forward his hands stay back, at least to some degree. He does keep enough bend in his elbows.

He looks physically strong. You gotta love metal for pulling an outside pitch for a base hit.

It seems he has a lack of proper pitch recognition or he has no confidence in his swing quickness....

I thought he may have been fooled in the first clip, but he starts early in both clips, so.....

After seeing his swing on outside, it does seem he has a top half rotation problem and incorrect use of posture...

The kid is pretty close to getting a high level coil/uncoil. Right now he is still spinning/sliding.

I like to focus on arm action/how hands get moved since the hands are the boss.

Notice he cocks the bat way up from horizontal to vertical. This encourages a little inward turn of the whole body as he bends at waist and forces the back arm to internally rotate which strongly influences the front leg to internally rotate which gets a good hip cok started. That is a good way to start the swing, but then he is in trouble "because" the hands are/stay too high.

This means that as the stride leg THEN goes out (leading with heel/showing sole which are good things), the hands have to drop and poor elbow slotting action/sequence is forced so ability to coil well is lost. Hands are unable to "stay back" which means shoulders will not be able to "resist"/finish creating last quick coil/cusp later when hip uncoks.

A good coil with the hands going UP slightly at this point would be better. Compare this for example to the Pujols "up and over" type hand motion/arm action. SO, hands will need to come down/"hitch" when he coks the bat.

When the hands drop instead of going up and over, the body cannot get a good forward "carry"/defying of gravity.
Weight is then held back and you are forced to continue "back leg push while front leg is blocking" (Yeager) which means that the linear/forward weight shift is not being captured/converted to enhance/segment coil, but rather adds to unsequenced total body spinning - high/whip vs low/spin level pattern.

Pappa, ever read a book written by Jim Dixon? You should! Ever see a guy named George Brett? Once his front foot plants that head is set. To keep the head/ eyes from moving you'd have to be as efficient as Bonds with his loading and unloading and there isn;t many like that. Also, I could show you clip after clip of Bonds head moving alot prior to heel plant.

Does anyone see any loading and unloading in the swing clips above?

Flipp, nice potential for this kid.....Does seem that he needs to learn to rotate (just turn to the ball)......And, understand the role of posture better....

So, anything else about him?

dog-

While I think you might agree that good rotation is missing here and the ideal swing is a load/unload motion, I think of the swing foundation as being how the body coils and uncoils with the critical phase of the swing being when the load/unload programs overlap.

I would not describe what is necessary as "just rotate".

I think of it as turning the upper half against the lower half with the control being at the hand/arm/shoulder link level.

This is different from the rotate from middle or just rotate description which may or may not be a useful learning stage.

The term "posture" is also very vague. Do you use the word to describe muscle activation triggered by "offcenter balance" (Dixon) enabling torso control of rotation the way Dixon describes it or do you mean a particular sequence of moving through body positions, or both ?

I sometimes have a problem looking at one or two swings and determining what is good and bad about that hitter. We have all seen "great" hitters take not so good swings.

But regarding the two clips, I would "guess" this young hitter pulls everything. He is way out front, (almost lunging) in the second clip. I do like the way the middle of his body works. I think he is loading but wasting his load. And I think he will probably be better off by spreading out with less stride distance and using his hips and mid section more effiecently.

Lastly, I think this kid might have outstanding hitting "ability" and potential. But he might need to make some adjustments before tackling the next level. Looks like pretty much fastball guy right now. Not that that is all bad!

quote:

The term "posture" is also very vague. Do you use the word to describe muscle activation triggered by "offcenter balance" (Dixon) enabling torso control of rotation the way Dixon describes it or do you mean a particular sequence of moving through body positions, or both ?

Both....

And, the reason I say this is, because you gotta be able to reach the pitch without disconnecting....And, the back muscles need to engage as well as the middle muscles.....

All this, I believe, enables the arms and hands to resist producing any power.....

quote:

Originally posted by BlueDog:
So, anything else about him?

PGStaff nailed it when he "guessed" that this hitter pulls everything. That's exactly what he does. He struggles with anything outside. That second clip is a good example of how he typically deals with outside pitches. It's a "put the ball in play" swing. He also struggles with anything offspeed and high heat. Because he's so upright that high pitch looks so good, but he ends up popping it up or missing it entirely (if the pitcher throws hard). He likes pitches either inside or middle of the plate and belt high. If he gets a fastball there and gets a hold of it he will hit it a LONG way.

I don't see much loading of the middle in this hitter. N-y-m-a-n put up a side by side of him and Vlad Guererro a year or so ago and you could clearly see the differences in how each player loads. The inward turn of his front knee is deceiving. If I get time I'll put together a side by side to see if anything has changed. He tends to push through contact too.

Other than his parents this hitter hasn't received much instruction. Most of the comments I hear from his dad are things like "hands to the ball" and "don't drop your back shoulder". Change isn't an option for him. There's too much pressure to perform. He's been too good for too long and there are expectations for him. When he's struggling at the plate he's an emotional mess.

The kid is a super athlete and a fierce competitor. Plays RB/LB in football and is very aggressive. No matter what he's doing he wants to win. He also pitches. He throws left handed and hits right handed. He's fairly mature for his age too. I don't think he'll grow more than another inch or two. I could be wrong though. He's also benching around 200 lbs so he's pretty strong.

Jason

P.S. PGStaff you have a PM.

quote:

Most of the comments I hear from his dad are things like "hands to the ball" and "don't drop your back shoulder". Change isn't an option for him.

Yeah, it's a shame so may players never get a chance to reach their potential....

Flipp,

The majority of opinion regarding the stride and hands is dead-on in my opinion. I prefer little, or no stride approaches for the reasons articulated elsewhere in this post. I can't improve upon the responses, particularly tom.guerry's.

I'm concerned, however, about "change isn't an option" and "too much pressure to perform".

I'm not sure what your connection to him is but he has to adjust. He'll kill inside fastballs but will struggle at a higher level when the ball consistently goes outside.

It doesn't take a genius to figure that you'd bust him inside and then take him off-speed away. 14 year old pitcher might have trouble with that about high school seniors will be able to do it...(at least you hope so).

An old coach told me to "focus on the process, not the results" in reference to hitting. For example, the swing that resulted in a single to left. The result was good, the process was not. If possible, take the pressure off. Measure the progress in terms of swings done well rather than hits cheaply bought.

Don't sacrifice his tomorrow for today's glory. Every hs coach posting can tell you a story of a 14 or 15 year old stud that never seemed to pan out. He never adjusted.

I like the lower half move.

He could be better with a different upper body move IMO.

I believe he has good power now at times but he might strike out too much on good FBs