First try SnF

[mikecon]

Earlier this month, old swing


Tonight, first try feeling for SnF

[mikecon]

[Teacherman]

Introduce yourself, please.

I see you joined on 3/13/13. How old are you? Where do you play?

This is very significant improvement. If you just started on 3/13 then you're learning quickly. Had you gotten some HI information before then? If so where? Not that I care. I'm just excited about your improvement.

I would hope everyone on this site can feel your new engine. Compared to the old engine it is vastly improved. Still some tweaks to make....but you're 'in the ballpark' now. You've got a bit of a scap 'plunge' but we can fix that.

Not many here, but many on other sites will get hung up on your posture, your lean, your arms....some things you do that may cause you trouble aligning bat and ball.

BUT.....those issues a very very minor compared to the bigger picture of learning how to DRIVE the barrel with the rear leg and back. And that you have taken a large step toward.

Nice job.

[mikecon]

Thank you!

Hello Teach! Thank you very much for the feedback and reassurance!

Pictured is my 13 yo son, Matt. My name is Mike. I coach his travel team. We live in Long Island.

I've lurked through your blog and internet hitting haunts elsewhere for quite some time. It's been clear to me for most of that time that you're on to something quite valid and I've been waiting for a good opportunity to get Matt with the program.

His swing to this point is the product of a particular professional instruction that we all agreed to align with as a team a few years ago. Essentially, from that point I've become a bit obsessive with regard to hitting mechanics and came across the likes of you and others who so clearly have a great passion for it. My ability to teach hitting prior to that was mostly limited to parroting what I was taught as a player whose career ended after high school in 1984. So, ever since Matt started taking lessons, I've endeavored to validate his instruction. It wasn't long before my own research and the instructor's methods and objectives started to diverge. This winter as I watched him try to force my son through a cookie-cutter process that obviously limited Matt's athleticism, and heard Matt out about how it just didn't feel right, it was time to go another way.

As a coach, I've always made it a point to first understand, work with and establish the feel of mechanical recommendations on myself so I can 1) validate them; and 2) express them to my kids in sincere and relatable terms of my own. Such was my experience with HI. After absorbing and validating the blog material since last season, and stopping Matt's lessons the beginning of this month, it was time to set off to reengineer his hitting mechanics.

So here we are.

Last weekend I had him hit with the SnF drill off the tee. It didn't take him long to perform it correctly. And we quickly caught his attention with how hard he could hit the ball in this manner. (Unfortunately my work schedule and the cold weather around here have limited our time in the yard together but hopefully we'll be catching up quickly)

Yesterday, in the kitchen after dinner (I was home at a decent hour after I snuck out from work for an afternoon team practice), I had him grab a bat and feel for that SnF engagement from a more traditional stance. We messed around through a few swings (essentially attack oppo), he could feel the whip and hear the 'whoosh' behind him and he said, "I want to go out and hit right now!" I told him just work off the tee for now and I would video to see where we're at. The 'after' swing above is the last swing he took last night.

Surely certain balance, movements, etc, are a little out of whack, but I was thrilled at what I was generally seeing: that he had begun to find that swinging-with-his-back feel and pulling barrel whip so quickly. The really awesome thing was he was appreciating the value of it, too. He is psyched to continue this process. The continued input of you and the members is GREATLY appreciated in this project! I will continue to post progress and look forward to any and all feedback and suggestions!

[mikecon]

Update

Introduce yourself, please.

I see you joined on 3/13/13. How old are you? Where do you play?

This is very significant improvement. If you just started on 3/13 then you're learning quickly. Had you gotten some HI information before then? If so where? Not that I care. I'm just excited about your improvement.

I would hope everyone on this site can feel your new engine. Compared to the old engine it is vastly improved. Still some tweaks to make....but you're 'in the ballpark' now. You've got a bit of a scap 'plunge' but we can fix that.

Not many here, but many on other sites will get hung up on your posture, your lean, your arms....some things you do that may cause you trouble aligning bat and ball.

BUT.....those issues a very very minor compared to the bigger picture of learning how to DRIVE the barrel with the rear leg and back. And that you have taken a large step toward.

Nice job.

Thanks again for the feedback and input! Took some new swings at home after practice this afternoon against live pitching (machine)... Tried to address "scap plunge" by lowering the altitude and rearward distance of hands and top-hand elbow; keeping pull-back just back and around and not up. Aiming for posture in general not so extreme. (Wish I'd gotten him to move that front foot more open to 'hip-width' and not toed-in/closed off!)

Overall, do you see progress or regress? Advice for next steps? (Purposely avoiding stride until we feel we can be consistent with feeling, engaging and launching new engine)

P.S. This is in a little 24' cage with machine spitting 35mph for ~85+ mph time equivalent. I.e., barrel is launching PDQ!

[Teacherman]

I'm working tonight. Something for you to study.





Ask questions. I'll offer more tomorrow.

[mikecon]

Thank you for this!

The arm-action issue is apparent and no surprise given a history of drills like this:

The lack of the basic premise of hips leading the way and no separation ('x-factor') in these 'old' mechanics was one of the biggest things that bothered me for quite some time.

OK...

Arm Action vs. Hand Action
So I believe you're saying that the initiation of the barrel turn -- the uptick -- needs to be more carried out by the hands without that vestigial smidge of knob-pull. Should that be our focus regarding this comparison and our work to be done?

Create A Path
I think the issue here is partly created by the previous issue, i.e., that arm action is pulling a bit ahead of the hip/torso rotation. I think another contributor is that front foot/leg is blocking off more complete rotation. Both Matt and I believe that SnF is happening, but maybe not as efficiently/effectively as it could?

Am I close?

We really apreciate the guidance!

[mikecon]

From ...Flick Your Hands...

It means your first engine is slow/weak.

[Stealth]

Teach - might be a good time to discuss shoulder bypass.

[ray]

Stealth - I admit I am still learning HI terms - is pullback and shoulder bypass the same thing?

Teach - might be a good time to discuss shoulder bypass.

[Stealth]

No. Basically the shoulders shouldn't do anything. If they power the swing at all you are in big trouble. Look at Teachermans comparison with Steven.

[mikecon]

Clearly the speed of the barrel and completeness of rotation are very different in the side-by-side below. As is the apparent lift of COG by the younger Matt (in some effort to align the barrel?)

But the differences in 'arm action' (apart from the high powered second engine wrist action by elder Matt that overtakes young Matt's barrel) seem pretty subtle. I'd love to better understand what I'm seeing (or not).

Thanks all for your insights!

--

[mikecon]

No. Basically the shoulders shouldn't do anything. If they power the swing at all you are in big trouble. Look at Teachermans comparison with Steven.

Is shoulder bypass mostly accomplished by 'turning the triangle'?

[mikecon]

Is shoulder bypass mostly accomplished by 'turning the triangle'?

Beside the differences in the effectiveness of both engines, is the key difference in the Kemp stills the bottom-hand elbow (action and location) in frames 3, 4 and 5?

[ray]

I agree - it was with that thought that pulling back would bypass the shoulders...

No. Basically the shoulders shouldn't do anything. If they power the swing at all you are in big trouble. Look at Teachermans comparison with Steven.