Posted by: Rich () on Sun Aug 15 08:47:07 2004

I've just started coaching a group of eight and nine year old girls who will be playing in 10u softball next spring.I also have a daughter who pitches in college and have noticed that it is the rotational batters that give her the most trouble. My question is, is there some way I can get these little girls started on their way to eventual rotational hitting? What should the first drill be? I have your DVD but I'm afraid that even the first drills on it may be a little too complicated at this time. They seem to only be able to think about one thing at a time.
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> Hey Coach Ray,
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> That's a great question... what i do is make sure that they have the most basic componet of the rotational swing down to muscle memorization before i try and teach anything else. and that is the rotation of the hip towards the pitcher.
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> Here's the drill that i've found the most effective. there maybe others that i'm not aware of but this works great.
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> 1) put a bat behind their backs and hook the elbows under the bat.
> 2) get in their stance: knees bent, torso tilted forward slightly, head up straight looking at the pitcher.
> 3) stride to toe touch(i believe in the stride and teach it right off the bat)front knee is bent as forward motion is stopped.
> 4) repeat #3 many times till they get comfortable with the movement.
> 5) Now go to toe touch and have them drop the heal and PULL the front hip back and around into rotation. as they do this the front leg will straighten(very important) and the upper torso will tilt back torward the catcher slightly. with the backward tilt you'll get a straight line from the knee to the hip to the shoulder. after the toe touch check the head as it becomes a stationary part of the rotational axis(in other words no movement VERY IMPORTANT!!)
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> This must be DRILLED INTO MEMORY then you can proceed to connecting the upper body to this very POWERFUL mechanic. when the girls have it ask for the next drill. best of everything. regards, Rich

One other thing... when the hips have completed their rotation check to make sure that the belly button is facing the pitcher. we want to get every once of energy out ot the hips!!! also do the drill at quarter speed to get the FEEL. then go half speed. then go full speed. if the go full speed to start they'll be falling all over the place :-)