Mini-Pronk

[Tewks]

Loading together... Don't let him go back. Or if he does go back, make him tip away or hitch so the rear arm doesn't get loaded when he is back.

The phrasing "draw back the tipped barrel" went well on Wednesday. Draw is back with the fingers. Teach talked about this a while ago. Feel the barrel working back (past your head, over the shoulder) when striding. Stride by spreading the legs but definitely spreading from the rear leg. Keep centered around the rear leg when stride happens. Barrel will go from back to behind.

Or have him do the Babe Ruth swing.

[Pronk]

We had a little Tewks style hitting session up on the big screen as my new laptop from work has HDMI.

We stared hard at the Freese clip, and many other clips about the back leg being in charge, including any kind of stride. I had him sit there and do it until the pelvis started to drop. Did not mess with hands much outside of just putting a wiffle in his hands (not swinging, just feeling). Anyway to me it looks like when the pelvis begins to drop, the leg is basically starting to win right then, so it's obviously a critical checkpoint.

[Stealth]

I am not sure this will help but sometimes I tell kids you have to engage your lower body before you can use it. If I want to use my legs I need to engage them first. It pertains to anything I guess - I can't use my hands unless I engage them before I swing. Just a thought.

[Pronk]

I am not sure this will help but sometimes I tell kids you have to engage your lower body before you can use it. If I want to use my legs I need to engage them first. It pertains to anything I guess - I can't use my hands unless I engage them before I swing. Just a thought.

Matter of fact I mentioned something similar to him. In Freese only the rear leg engages first and it's not like it goes far, but it's far enough to allow the COG to lower. No different than Mini really, mini doesn't get out far, but far enough to allow the leg to win. Now you clearly must pull back with that top hand to "arrest" the momentum as Teach likes to say, but if you feel like you can't take a stride to swing then you have to make it the first priority.

[Pronk]

Today.... Slightly better. Getting the hip tilted if you ask me. Now like a dumb ass I really forgot to emphasize Lumbar Lordosis today and I am wondering if that will really push him over. I was focused on using the back leg instead of reaching with the front.

Last three hits is what I used since he was messing around early. Smashing everything. First is a pull, kind of loses the leg a little (that's where I think LL emphasis may put him in a better position)






These two were oppo. After the one on the he threw the bat down and said I am done after that one as it was smoked to the gap (really both were, but the one on the seemed harder)

[Pronk]

Yesterday was sort of a waste in that we didn't manage to accomplish what I was trying to convey, but not a waste totally because it put my ass to work.

First here is the swing. No need to post a bunch he hit very hard and not as far in front as you'd think given his lack of SNF. Several good things going on, but it was killing me about the lead leg and lack of a pelvis dropping action. Even striding didn't fix it.




First I had him doing Tewks throw drill a few times with a ball in his hand. One bad one good. The bad one, we would internally rotate the front leg as the elbow starts to flex to get the ball back. As he did that he felt horrible trying to throw from that position. Then we'd do a good one and it would show how that curved in front leg restricts the back leg. I am sure I have some very slow toss clips early on where he didn't revert, but that's fine when I whipped it in underhand reverted to this.

When I saw the clip I was like shit, he wasn't able to feel it under duress and still turned the leg inward, which stalls the back leg winning because the pelvis closes off. Stare at the clips over the last week or two and you'll see that the rear leg doesn't start to turn until he's cleared the front. That is causing the cross-stride you see in both kids sometimes.

So I got busy sneaking into empty conference rooms, had to design a new drill for him to feel the pelvis get "sat" while not turning the leg in. Adding the stride alone wasn't sufficient as long as the lead leg was blocking.

Drill was simple. Stand in a relaxed stance feet a bit wider than shoulder width, and turn the lead leg out to 45 or so and don't let it turn it. Then take a small stride, holding the low back and seeing how the leg starts quickly ala Paul Molitor. Then I put my hands back and tried to feel the hands moving back and up a little to feel the clamp as the leg is turning. Pretty basic HI stuff but something new. Also when the leg is turned out, I showed him later how your back leg coil at femur snap off position is not very drastic. The lead leg slight turnout simply prevents turning the pelvis too far.

Now imagine that swing above with no other change except forcing the lead leg out somewhat in setup and leaving it there. It tightens the system, shortens the stride a little and might just whip. I don't think I would be trying all kinds of band-aids. In this swing the hips are bottom of top, but much like DD this swing can work in HS it just makes it a little forced and muscled up looking.

Now at least 4 times today I busted off to practice this. I felt the hip tilt, I felt the pelvis drop and the hands moving back to clamp and turn with the rear hip. Then it dawned on me. After hundreds of dry swings with my hands only (no bat in office) I kept thinking this seems familiar like we've done this before. Of course.....

You F'n Dumbass
He's done this before........ At the clinic..... Before on left after on right. I think we can do it better now he is so much bigger and hands working better. Anyway my point is this. If Steven has absolutely no inward turn of the lead leg there is no blocking and that rear leg wins much much sooner, and most likely WHILE the hands are working back. Starting around frame 35 (give or take) let's say he starts to stride with the hands working a little back and up and almost ready to GO at about 46 again give or take. Just prior to that I'd say front leg finally got normal at frame 44 and rear leg starts at frame 45. My theory is that if he changes nothing on that swing except turning the leg out, he's got a chance to find...
THE TRUTH

[Stealth]

I can picture your boss walking by the "empty room" as you are doing this......glad I work out of my house.

[Pronk]

Sorry for the clips it's all we have right now. I get home from work around 6:00, and we literally have a two-light portable halogen set. Kid is super motivated right now. Coach texted me today wanting our new home address for colleges and told me that he's totally busting ass in the weight room (they workout 4 days per week) then he gets home and runs at least once more or goes to fight.

So for a day or two I had him dicking around with my drill but we couldn't get out and hit. Last night he said let's turn that portable light on and hit. He was yaking every damn ball. The sound was unmistakeable. Basically I had to fight him on this one. I showed him dozens and dozens of clips to tell jim what "feels right" sometimes sucks and almost nobody turns the leg in that way. Also I made him feel how that internally rotated front leg is a blocker. The real seller was modifying tewks throwing drill, but internally rotating the front leg at the same time you flex the elbow getting the ball behind the ear. When you do that drill closing the front leg instead of opening, it's a real eye opener.

I know, I know he's not there, still not at Truth, to the extent that college kid is that learned to hit on here. One thing I forgot to emphasize after we kept lead leg more open-ish I TOTALLY forgot to tell him NOT to step in. I was laser focused on the whether he turned the lead leg, but the step-in is a subtle move that can have a similar effect of blocking, so we might want to fix that.

Tewks be interested to see what you mean by rythym, do you think it will help find the clamp? For me when I do it Xmo style I've been showing him how short the swing is, if the leg wins with a clamp (i.e. out from) and he can sort of feel it, but we'll see if he can swing with a better clamp next time.

Right clip is oppo, seems to bleed the hands a bit when he recognizes outside




here is a low ball on left and last hit of the night on right. Totally crushed it, and said that's it. You can see the hands go upward with the back leg not started yet, so I am hoping getting rid of step in will help.

[Stealth]

I love the last one and his reaction.......oops. Most of the time we end on "home run derby" and I usually throw in the "gold" ball on the last one. That's a great way to end bp when they walk off like that.

He looks quick, it's starting to look like he can wait even longer. Now if he can take that feeling to the plate, that he has time even against 87-88 he should be able to barrel up some balls this season.

The best thing you said is he wants to hit. If that's the case the learning curve is going to increase quickly.

[Tewks]

Agreed that he wants to hit is awesome. I find that when kids are learning, when they really buy into the process, they get addicted to it. They want to improve, want to learn, want to feel. They take ownership of making it theirs. It is amazing to watch kids turn that corner.


I make a point with kids sometimes... that when I swing, I still get more mad than they do. I get PISSED when I take a bad swing. I don't yell or anything, but its like when your parents are mad and when they don't yell it is worse. You can feeeel the anger. I ask them why I get more mad then they get... I am done playing, don't need to get better. I want to get better. I make adjustments every damn pitch. Even now, I never take a swing off. Why? Because I know the process I'm trying to achieve, I'm not just simply taking swings. I am working. And the work is so much fun. The anger is fun. Because you know the process is making you better every single damn day.

[Tewks]

I want to say, KEEP GOING. I would have him get bigger with his actions if he was here.


Could you post a full round with balls and strikes being thrown? Private youtube maybe?

[Pronk]

Tewks I couldn't get Youtube to not pixel-ate the file, so if you could download this one below. This isn't a new set of swings and tomorrow he has a school function all day so we are off until Sunday. However none of these swings were posted the other night so to that extent they are new clips, just from a different time slot.

Roughly two minutes, a couple of interesting things between pitches where you see him carry the hands forward a bit, but on the other hand it's just some feel stuff. I couldn't find many good takes I think I have one, but he's probably not being picky enough. Bear in mind due to less than ideal light conditions I wasn't throwing them in the hard like I sometimes do in daylight.

It's almost 20 MB but should be fast with high speed. I think the 2nd pitch you hear us both mumbling, I think I said that hit was ridiculous that I'd like to see it on a field. Make you you do a Save as instead of trying to load a file in the browser.

http://coachdm.hittingillustrated.co...3011_group.MPG

[Pronk]

I am not sure why but the front clip is taking forever and a day to process so something might be wrong. (Youtube). I can make clips but Tewks mentioned seeing a series of swings. I think front I had one take, (which hasn't loaded) and the back clip he swung at a bad pitch on one of them. It is BP and you kind of fall into a rut of swinging at everything. Hopefully the Front clip processes soon been waiting a long time.

These are unlisted. Teach if you need a clip I can make one later.

Side swings:
http://youtu.be/D62F_IZF_lI

Swings from Back Perspective
http://youtu.be/OdDD8yOP6Tw

[Tewks]

I like the video clips.... the one-timers rarely show the failure and it helps so much when diagnosing stuff.



The handset feels so restricted to me. And I don't think he's getting the bat in his fingers. I need to get Austin to film me tomorrow...

[Pronk]

Here is the front clip.

http://youtu.be/ErkF0DcWSLA