Mini-Pronk

[Pronk]

Finally get to play some ball again. Not a particularly good day at the plate, but good ABs. Just not back in sync yet. Did a nice job laying off balls. He's been hitting off the tee a lot and I think he's gotten himself twisted into a pretzel a bit. My camerman basically wasn't sharp today but I got this clip to look at a fouled out pop up.




Yesterday in the cage I said don't you think your hands are too low? Now he sees it. I think there are two things going here. The low hands are allowing him to twist that shoulder in too far I think. Again too much tee hitting you have to be careful, and every once in a while completely open the chest and make sure the leg is coiling you back.




Here is what I mean about the hands I think it's just enough to create a little rushing. So we think,
- relax that front shoulder a little
- raise the hands a little
- see that helps click back turn the leg forward sooner (no stall)

I missed his first AB, hard smash up the middle but a busted pickoff play had the 2B already sitting up the middle. Flied out to CF and grounded out to 3B (might have that clip but from back). Also walked and scored, 3-2 count I think each AB.

[Teacherman]

Ask him to click back....and as he begins to turn forward....take the barrel toward the dugout behind him. That will provide resistance for the leg to work against and it should eliminate the stall. Do this as one fluid movement. He's doing it pretty well on the right above. Might be able to stretch it even tighter.

[Pronk]

First Wood bat homer. Kid had a very rough summer season but really turned it around of late, and has helped his team win the first two playoff games. Yesterday a homer in the first AB was the first home run all season for our team. The other hit I show was a long ball hit off the fence in the 9th is the 2nd one here and that was the game winning RBI. I couldn't go today but in the 2nd game playoff game he went 2-4. Also dropped 15 lbs, and got the bench up over 300 deadlift to 400 (all for reps).

I did caution him about over-training right now and that he wasn't spending enough time on the back leg winning. Killed his swing. Steven as we saw in 10th grade when I came back mid-season, goes from a talented hitter to sub .100 without the back leg. Same happened in summer, kind of lost it for whatever reason, new league all college pitching kids who are in the 2nd-3rd year of college, and he was probably pressing. Settled in, this whole month and is up over .300 for the month. Compared to most of the regular everyday hitters his K count was lower, so he wasn't getting blown away, he just can't get the arms and hands around when there isn't any leg winning. As an aside her overheard one of the coaches talking to the top hitter who was wondering when "the big boy" was going to get it going, that he's got the fastest bat on the team and was struggling. The guy said these HS freshmen always struggle, watch he'll get it going, and he did.

On the 2nd one, he loses the toe, but I think he got such a good lowering of COG he got through anyway but maybe it cost him the extra 8 feet he needed to get it over. I think he wrung the rag there, it was like the COG was lowering right away so losing it to me didn't really matter that much. Hands still stayed back.

[Teacherman]

Very sweet.

The swing and the story.

It helps everyone.

[Pronk]

Rich I was staring at the hit clip where he loses the toe for a second.

When I went back and looked frame by frame I kept thinking this was a good example of rightperson wrongperson as to what happens when you've maxed out the rearward coil with a little fwd mo. Particularly when all the coil rearward is from the back hip. I will try to dig up a typical clip where he had no click back and no back leg this weekend.

So many things change when the leg is winning.
Everything sets up for a clean barrel path.
COG lowers, Leg starts turning, back hip resisting
As the leg clearly wins the battle the front hip gets cleared smoothly without rotating it
Nothing is in the way of the hands.

Doesn't mean you won't mistime it, misjudge it. Just means you won't have to swing around your body and push.

[Al Oha]

On the 2nd one, he loses the toe, but I think he got such a good lowering of COG he got through anyway but maybe it cost him the extra 8 feet he needed to get it over. I think he wrung the rag there, it was like the COG was lowering right away so losing it to me didn't really matter that much. Hands still stayed back.

I am not sure how the rear toe gets linked as a symptom, but here is my thought:

His COG gets lowered, but it does so because he lowers the the rear shoulder as the rear elbow slots and forearms rotate. He gets a lateral tilt, but not by precise SnF mechanism. This tells me he is not properly aligned with the top torso pull backs to oppose the lower half forces in reversing the click-back: He has not maximized rear hip socket separation. Because if he was, I would expect the shoulder to be almost stalemated in place, if not leaning rearward, as the rear elbow gets down into the "truth" position.

One other thing. He gets behind the ball, but gets under it. He should be "raking" not only behind, but snapping "on top of it", "over the fence", and OPPO. Maybe this is a good time for Teach to go over that concept.

In any case Pronk, your guy is an ox. I am certain we'll see a lot more of him in college ball.

Edit: He does not drop the rear shoulder in these earlier clips:

[Pronk]

Let me get this out of the way so new folks aren't confused.

I am not saying the toe slipping is a good thing, it happened. I am saying the way it slipped demonstrated the rightperson/wrongperson. The degree of rear hip pulling around seems more than usual here certainly compared to first game clip you posted. When maxes out the pull rearward, and the toe lost contact it slipped in the direction of the demonstration of rightperson. Not because he twisted his foot that way.


Now to Al's point I am not sure I am seeing it. Both balls were hit to RCF. Quick question have you ever attempted to duplicate the Molitor clip? We had an exercise years ago, was wondering if you tried it you might not have been here yet. Something, I am not sure yet if you are seeing is happening in the Molitor clip and that's what he's trying to do.

In any case, let's look at that clip on the left you posted. Sure the shoulder didn't drop but that isn't a good swing. He didn't get laterally tilted from the the hip socket. What degree would you say his head gets lowered? I don't think he's on his back leg very well in that clip. Sure his shoulder didn't drop but he popped it straight up. Can't you see him laboring a bit to get the bat through the zone? Also look in the direction of the hips. Notice that in the clip on the left, you don't really see his front hip ever get that look of being moved out of the way before any meaningful weight shift? Do you see the big difference in the degree to which the head is dropping from that first game clip on the left to now? For him that's everything, he proved with no bag leg, contact was compromised. 4

That also accounts for the more of what you call a drop in the shoulder though not all of it. I don't see it as a drop in the shoulder to lift the baseball. I see that the foot slipped a little and the body overreacted slightly because at the time the hip socket lateral tilt started he was on his heel, he wasn't planted firmly.

But I cannot overemphasize enough, just look at the first game clip above and compare to both clips I posted. Even the home run clip, do you not see the evidence of a greater rag-wring compared to Game 1. I lost my gif software, and am too lazy to kick the kids off the PC but a side by side would should he seemed to sell out to being more one-legged yesterday. As the head is lowering and the leg is turning the front hip starts clearing before any meaningful shift.. As far as click back, I think I see it best at full speed to see how appreciate how you get maxed out and quickly gets reversed. Because of the foot slip you might have a slight delay, but he recovered. There was a home clip I posted last fall, that was the same issue. Getting that degree of COG lowering is something we worked very hard on, and more than anything was the key to really getting him over the hump in the final two HS years. Looking at the leadup to that, you will see things like turning back the whole pelvis, (freewheeling hips), or trying to load the back hip by internally rotating the front leg. And clip after clip we posted his head never lowered, he never got sat. Finally that one day when we overcooked the pigeon-toe he got it. And if you look on the clip on the left you posted it was typical of the season. Pop ups, rollovers and once or twice a week a smashed deep but caught line drive.

[Teacherman]

IMO, his on-going fight is the pause in the rear hip.

Above, on the left....the pause.
Middle and right....no pause.

Do you do any Happy Gilmore work? IMO, if Steven can move out correctly.....such that he can control the move out with the back....I think the pause will leave forever....I think his rear leg will always win, and I think his performance and distance will increase.

This comes from watching him, knowing his past, and from recent workouts I've done myself. I have been doing a lot of Happy Gilmore work against a pitching machine. I can time the machine because of how it is fed. A ball runs down a track for about 2', drops into the machine and then shoots out. The 2' of run time resembles a pitchers windup pace. When I do the Happy Gilmore against the machine....I can get the timing down....and OH MY the quality of contact is impressive. The SnF is way off the charts. I love that combination of momentum and SnF. The forward momentum of the Happy Gilmore drill, INCREASES THE STRETCH, if done properly. And the FIRE is amazing.

The challenge then is to make that Happy Gilmore HIP ACTION....part of a regular swing. Create that SnF around the hip socket with the momentum....but do it without stepping behind. As I posted earlier this week....I believe George Brett's rear hip action is very very Happy like....but without the step behind.



Doing a coil/sit/pullback move....against the leg....to activate the leg....very similar to a good throwing move....done AS you move forward....(don't do it against a leg that is resisting but not trying to move you forward) you get a very nice SnF load.....with momentum.....and a really nice FIRE. The combination of taking your weight/coil rearward around the ball of the femur....AS you move out....has a way of getting everything to tiime up nicely.....and you can feel the built in timing window. A window that can be quite easily timed to a pitchers motion and delivery.

[Pronk]

Update time:
Son #1 - Finished first semester at his school, and decided he didn't want to continue playing. He announced he misses football terribly and thinks he wants to walk on somewhere. We shall see. Now a month later he is like "dad maybe there is a JUCO where I could do both, haha. At his age I was making bucks in the Air Force at least while figuring out what the hell I wanted to do. As a true freshman he broke the Men's athletics (all sports) school record in the bench, squat and Power Clean, and is 6'2", probably could say 6'3" 235 now. Who knows. I was disappointed, but you just make the most of it. He would love to do both but isn't Jameis Winston.

He does however have some interesting things to think about. As I mentioned in John's thread, UCF walk-on is a possibility. Awfully risky though to just show up, all offers for preferred walk-ons were already finished. If he'd decided sooner he could have enrolled at UCF for Spring and tried out for Spring football, but we found out too late in the process. So he's just getting stronger, faster taking a little BP and some classes at a local JUCO (Seminole St.). At one point he deadlifted 525 over at his college, I am guessing he can hit people pretty hard right now so who knows. He was never ever marketed in football we have no idea. Also wants to play in the summer wood bat league again which might be cool.

[Stealth]

Thanks for the update. Keep us posted!

[Teacherman]

Good to hear from you Pronk. His strength report is amazing. Support him. (as if you wouldn't ) He will find his way.

[Pronk]

Ran into Swingbuilder. John had a good weekend in Jupiter. At least now we are hearing about $$$ before it was just interest.

Had a good weekend. Ripped our only strong hit off a kid from Georgia (Team Elite) in a 1-0 loss. Kid was dealing at 92-96. I do not have video of that hit unfortunately. The night before he took this one deep and it went further than I thought. This is the Marlins practice facility so a pretty good poke and a homer on a HS field.

Gotta love the sound. Ended up leading the HS team in every offensive stat except Triples and Homers where he trailed the leader by 1 in each case. The other kid had 5 triples he had 4 and the other kid had two homers to his 1. But Avg. OBP, OPS, RBIs, extra base hits, hits etc. he led the team. He's playing a lot of OF now he's gotten somewhat fast. Not blazing but fast enough for HS outfield and maybe college we'll see. He's not even as fast in HS as Stealth was but the long legs once they get going he covers a lot of ground. I had one of his triples at 12 seconds from contact.

[ropes]

Thanks for the update. Happy for the father, son success.

[Allistair]

Way to go! Nice to hear from you!

[Pronk]

I've been crazy busy with other stuff. Frankly probably not helping this one enough but for him that's ok.

We make small adjustments. Right before this tournament we got in the cage with the only goal of turning the bat from the back shoulder. I said, you know.... Just try and kill the ball. But do it by turning the barrel with force. There weren't many HRs hit at the tournament it's the Marlins/Cardinals facilities and for a HS kid with wood, it takes a good poke to get one out. So that one I posted he hit pretty far for a 17 year old. Still there are some physical beasts down there that do very well and manage to blast them out anyway.

Anyway I told him, vicious hands. he had 3 k's and 2 hits, both hits hard. All the k's were generally deep in the count with some fouls but like I said there were a ton of 90+ guys and you just aren't going to go 5-5 all the time. I wanted him to focus on not getting "big arms" and being viciously fast with the hands..