Mighty-Pronk

[Pronk]

He's come a long way, Pronk. IMO, there is one piece missing....a simple piece....that will tie the rest together.

I posted on it this week.

These two clips are not going to SHOW the difference....because of the camera angle differences....but I hope he can FEEL the difference.

That handle pressure BEFORE GO....telling the body that he will be applying pressure INTO the handle at go.....recruits what is necessary to finish the job.

IF he tipped the barrel a bit....and supported the weight of the barrel with the TOP hand....applying pressure INTO the handle to supply that support....from everything else he's doing....then TURN IT REARWARD....he should fall right into place.

So I am looking at these comments. This isn't a tip in the sense of tipping while the ball is in the air. But, look at how it's done. You can feel the fingers of the top hand supporting the weight of the bat. I honestly believe although we talk about it being the scap, that a choked top hand where the arms and/or palm is gripping the handle, prevents the elbow from getting worked under.

So back to the clip. I see no arms involved. The little pre-pitch tip. No arms whatsoever. I see hands which have full control of the handle. Look at Belle's top hand closely. Here is what I mean. Arms never get involved in anything to do with pre-swing or load, and you feel the fingers being told to do. I've always felt the bottom hand grip was more full but the top hand if I use the line between palm and fingers and really focus that you seem to find that perfect vertical forearm. But it's like Teach says as far as focus on that against the handle mentality.

[Teacherman]

Right here....

[Pronk]

Big weekend for Mighty-Pronk. Proud dad warning...

Mentally he knows now he can hit college type pitching that is a huge step for his confidence. Our team got a late call to play a tournament up in Gainesville, just this little 8-team invitational. Let me just warn you dads, you'll hear this, but you need to not forget it. You never know who's watching. This just seemed like some non-descript tune up event with dads and moms only.

On Day 1 John threw 5 shutout innings over the Jacksonville Warriors. Didn't get the win as it was 0-0 when he was finished. That's three straight tournaments of shutout innings. I am not sure how he's doing it except knowing how to pitch, mixing things up. He's not a pitching prospect per se, although with his height and length, some coaches will still look at him. In game 2 he beat out an infield hit to SS, and ran home hard on a single sliding at home and knocking down the catcher. Good baseball especially when we won 4-3 the infield single was with two outs nobody on. But he K'd and struckout. I didn't care for the swings but didn't stress over it.

I told him one thing Sunday, I want you, to turn the vault handle or frisbee, from the back. I showed him how if you push forward and start to turn the vault your swing plane gets messed up. A two-minute conversation at the trunk.

Sunday we play Chet Lemon's Juice the first game, and Kevin Sullivan and a couple of his assistants (U of Florida head coach) show up and watch every pitch. Chet Lemon's Juice had two kids throwing who were Perfect Game top 50 guys, the one ranked 24, Baker has hit 92. The other McMullen was 46 I think. Florida is not there to scout us. John has his biggest day, going 3-3 against these guys all solid singles to the OF. Now Florida is filled up with commitments for his grade, it doesn't mean he will get looked at by them but it does provide video because every college coach is fully aware of Chet Lemon's Juice.

As a perfectionist dad, I still want to see that back upper arm not get lifted. I'd rather he just pull the handle straight back with the fingers while keeping the elbow low, ala Kent. That raised upper arm makes it tough for him to get under with all that movement. Another thought is hands not arms, really anything like that and he's always fought that.

Naturally I missed the first hit, with a malfunction in my recorder. 2nd AB he hit the left one a long way foul, and then hit the right one hard to LF for a hit with two strikes.





Last ups, he hit the ball on the left to the fence, but I think it was foul because he might have lost stretch there trying to get the hands through. Although a double would be better than a foul this is the good kind of foul ball if such a thing exists because it lets the pitcher know you can handle his fastball inside. That ball was scorched in the video you can hear Chet Lemon say "Don't put another one there". Then he hit the curve ball for a single on the right.

[Teacherman]

Good progress....





Above: Earlier HAND action CAUSES better LEG action. Pelvis getting turned open earlier....better....by the leg. Watch the stripe. Stretch happening.



Above: Hammer turning into a swivel. You see the arm push on the left....pretty pronounced. Hammering down to and through on the left. But on the right....the body is doing a much better job of turning the barrel around the corner....hand is swiveling better. He's working against the rearward resistance he's creating with the barrel. Good things are starting to happen. Barrel gets under to get the ball in the air.

Significant progress.
And....results followed.

You're damn close. Closer than he's ever been.

Get the back to resist the move out more will help everything.

P.S. His back is better on the left. His hands are better on the right. Combine them.

[Stealth]

Chet Lemons teams are always top notch. Good stuff here, congrats!

[Pronk]

Against a very solid opponent today, state runner-up last year, we lost 3-0, but he ripped this double. Actually it was a triple but... coach let one of his young guys out there and as he came around 2nd he held him up, and then said no GO, and that little hesitation allowed him to get nailed at 3B (one ump, bad call but that's beside the point). Interesting because this ball starts out fairly low but he hit the thing on the screws, the RF moved hard to his right and it still got up over him to one hop the fence. I feel just a bit less momentum here, like he's starting to trust it.

[Teacherman]

IMO, best swing yet.

He's buying in?

I like it.

Keep turning the barrel suddenly and pulling back.

[Pronk]

IMO, best swing yet.

He's buying in?

I like it.

Keep turning the barrel suddenly and pulling back.

Yes I do believe buy-in is occurring.

[mikecon]

Big weekend for Mighty-Pronk. Proud dad warning...

Good stuff! Congrats... Good things happening here quickly it seems.

You never know who's watching...

Perhaps the best advice that can be given. Every kid needs to be making this assumption every minute he's out there -- games and practices.

[Pronk]

Looks like my site is blocked again, but it usually opens up.

Today another two-RBI double, this one to LF. We won 4-1 so it turned out fairly significant (first inning). That is the first clip and the 2nd ball believe it or not was hit very deep to CF a home run on many of the fields we play on. He appears to get shifted out too much but keeps the hands back enough to at least put a good lick on it as it's moving off the plate... Definitely one of those "whoa" type hits. Would love to see him lean back a little. Maybe a feel of head staying over knee.

Now on the double, he turned the barrel nicely...possibly a little loss of stretch when he saw it was inside. One interesting thing about this ball is that it was largely hit right up the line. Maybe a few feet fair and it stayed completely straight, it never hooked foul. He truly hit the inside part of the ball here. The other thing was I was trying to get him to work under and was doing it with my hands.

He says, "Dad it's not the hands getting the elbow under".
Me: Really, that's what Teacherman insists
Him: Well if he says the back is getting to go under he is totally right because that is what I feel

Double left, deep out right (only got up twice)

[mikecon]

Looks like my site is blocked again, but it usually opens up.

Today another two-RBI double, this one to LF. We won 4-1 so it turned out fairly significant (first inning). That is the first clip and the 2nd ball believe it or not was hit very deep to CF a home run on many of the fields we play on. He appears to get shifted out too much but keeps the hands back enough to at least put a good lick on it as it's moving off the plate... Definitely one of those "whoa" type hits. Would love to see him lean back a little. Maybe a feel of head staying over knee.

Now on the double, he turned the barrel nicely...possibly a little loss of stretch when he saw it was inside. One interesting thing about this ball is that it was largely hit right up the line. Maybe a few feet fair and it stayed completely straight, it never hooked foul. He truly hit the inside part of the ball here. The other thing was I was trying to get him to work under and was doing it with my hands.

He says, "Dad it's not the hands getting the elbow under".
Me: Really, that's what Teacherman insists
Him: Well if he says the back is getting to go under he is totally right because that is what I feel

Double left, deep out right (only got up twice)

Can't see the vids at the moment but it sounds like he is getting seriously locked in. I'm thinking confidence and trust are flowing very nicely at this time.

[Pronk]

Well temporarily the video is up.

The double I had to do an emergency take with the cell camera. I love the vivid color of the cell camera but it's so hard to keep steady (Samsung S4). Perhaps I need to not zoom in when I use it.

[tom.guerry]

Sounds right:

"Well if he says the back is getting to go under he is totally right because that is what I feel"

[Teacherman]

Hey man, you gotta get ready. Get one of those little tripods that your phone will hook to. First priority when arriving at the game is to find a seat at the right angle and get the tripod set up. I remember staking my claim to my lawn chair spot.

This is another good swing...another step forward. The progress needs to continue to get there. No question the swing is getting more and more sudden. He can 'stay back' more yet do what he's doing with his hands.

I have a headache from the shaking video.

[Pronk]

A little bummed his tournament this weekend, the swing fell apart a bit.

I will try to post a clip later, but we were literally driving back and forth so that he could attend all of his homecoming activities and we had very little sleep. Obviously with all the driving, and the getting back to get him going to his dance, we didn't have time to look at Saturday's game to fix on Sunday like we normally do if there is an issue.

The slower pitching we sometimes see he just overglides, but the other issue is he was lifting up his lead arm into the swing plane and was not catching the barrel. If you look at the Chet Lemon game and the double from Monday it's much more of a "turn the barrel" swing. For some reason he was lifting the arm up and out and it messed up his swing for sure. He still had a good weekend scoring 3 of the 5 runs in our last game including stealing home to get the last run on the 1st-3rd throwdown. They had the play on but he beat it anyway.

Also pitched very well he held a team who won the PG Super 25 and was runner-up in this ProspectWire tournament to 1 run over 5 innings. In fact it was 1-1 into the 6th when he left they got a couple of runs to beat us or we'd have been the pool winner. Not sure why he is so successful he barely hits 80 but the downhill ball, nasty location and biting curve makes it tough. In four tournaments now this is the first team that scored a run on him, I am really surprised at his success pitching when there are kids hitting much higher speeds.