View Full Version : problems popping up
SiouxNation
02-21-2008, 12:51 AM
my son is having a problem popping up it seems, he is 10 and playing travel ball (3rd year playing all-star travel ball) he has always been a very good hitter, not tons of power but very good avg., ob%, and slg. he also very seldom strikes out. we have been going to the cages 1-2 times a week as a team and on our own for about 6 weeks now ( getting ready for an indoor league that starts in march) ive noticed he is hitting alot of weak pop ups and fouling alot of pitches straight back.( much more so far this year than ever before ) i cant really notice anything in his swing thats seems to be causing this, his mechanics seem good (no video unfortunatly) what should i be looking for as a cause for this?
jbooth
02-21-2008, 06:23 AM
my son is having a problem popping up it seems, he is 10 and playing travel ball (3rd year playing all-star travel ball) he has always been a very good hitter, not tons of power but very good avg., ob%, and slg. he also very seldom strikes out. we have been going to the cages 1-2 times a week as a team and on our own for about 6 weeks now ( getting ready for an indoor league that starts in march) ive noticed he is hitting alot of weak pop ups and fouling alot of pitches straight back.( much more so far this year than ever before ) i cant really notice anything in his swing thats seems to be causing this, his mechanics seem good (no video unfortunatly) what should i be looking for as a cause for this?
Check to see if he is swinging down. That causes pop-ups. Watch his hand path from the sideview and see if his hands go toward the height of his front hip and continue too long on that path.
The hands start down, but then they must stay above the ball.
Like this;
http://firstpickclub.com/video/mannyswingplane.gif
To fix it, get in a cage with a tee and have him adjust his swing plane until he hits the ball on a line to the back of the cage. No hitting it on the ground.
Sammy
02-21-2008, 07:02 AM
Jbooth - I'm planning on shooting video of a group of kid's swings. I'm going to do both live pitching and off a tee. For the tee shot, assuming a neutral stance, where do you suggest setting up the tee, as in height, and relationship to the plate. As you describe, I want to see how they are contacting the ball.
Thanks!
Drill
02-21-2008, 07:03 AM
Also check to see if his head is sliding forward while hitting the ball.
drill
Chris O'Leary
02-21-2008, 08:49 AM
my son is having a problem popping up it seems, he is 10 and playing travel ball (3rd year playing all-star travel ball) he has always been a very good hitter, not tons of power but very good avg., ob%, and slg. he also very seldom strikes out. we have been going to the cages 1-2 times a week as a team and on our own for about 6 weeks now ( getting ready for an indoor league that starts in march) ive noticed he is hitting alot of weak pop ups and fouling alot of pitches straight back.( much more so far this year than ever before ) i cant really notice anything in his swing thats seems to be causing this, his mechanics seem good (no video unfortunatly) what should i be looking for as a cause for this?
He could be over-striding and sliding under the ball.
Go Cardinals
02-21-2008, 09:00 AM
Hit the top half of the ball...
jbooth
02-21-2008, 02:32 PM
Hit the top half of the ball...
Why? So, he can hit a weak grounder, instead of a pop-up?
How about, hit it in the center with a swing on plane with the pitch.
Plus he's probably already trying to hit the top of the ball by swinging down at it, and he's cutting though it and popping it up.
Just a guess, since I haven't seen him swing.
Go Cardinals
02-21-2008, 04:58 PM
Why? So, he can hit a weak grounder, instead of a pop-up?
How about, hit it in the center with a swing on plane with the pitch.
Plus he's probably already trying to hit the top of the ball by swinging down at it, and he's cutting though it and popping it up.
Just a guess, since I haven't seen him swing.
Well, we both guess in different directions. I assumed he is dropping his hands (something of that fashion) and that he is hitting the bottom part of the ball.
Lets hope I'm correct (means he doesn't have the bad hit down on the ball, squish the bug swing).
Really, we shouldn't jump on anything without video of him.
SiouxNation
02-21-2008, 08:59 PM
thanks for the tips guys, i dont think its a stride problem, his stride is 4-6inches at most, almost more of a pick it up put it down, after looking at some video from different sites i saw on this forum im thinking it may be that he is dropping his hands a bit, also he may have a bit of a rear hip slide, he had the hip problem his first year of coach pitch baseball 4 years ago, we worked hard to get rid of it i hope its not back. the pitches he is having the most problems with popping up are the ones a little higher in the zone, would the hands dropping or hip slide contribute more with higher strike zone pitches?
Go Cardinals
02-21-2008, 09:04 PM
im thinking it may be that he is dropping his hands a bit
Remember the hanson principle...
Compare what you learn to the video of the best:
Watch bonds' hands drop:
http://hittingillustrated.com/library/Bonds756a.gif
When is this dropping of the hands that you think is occuring? As he swings or in the load?
Chris O'Leary
02-21-2008, 09:06 PM
fouling alot of pitches straight back.( much more so far this year than ever before )
This could suggest a problem with bat drag. Especially the part that it's getting worse.
SiouxNation
02-21-2008, 09:11 PM
i think its in the swing, ive watched the load and stride pretty close since i noticed it happening, those are the first things i look at when he develops a little hiccup in his batting, the load looks fine and the stride is very small, when we hit in the cages we try to set the machine to hit all areas of the plate, some low in the zone, inside, outside, and up in the zone, he seems to be popping up alot more balls that are up in the zone than any ohter area (probably more there than the others combined)
Go Cardinals
02-21-2008, 09:14 PM
i think its in the swing, ive watched the load and stride pretty close since i noticed it happening, those are the first things i look at when he develops a little hiccup in his batting, the load looks fine and the stride is very small, when we hit in the cages we try to set the machine to hit all areas of the plate, some low in the zone, inside, outside, and up in the zone, he seems to be popping up alot more balls that are up in the zone than any ohter area (probably more there than the others combined)
Try having him think about the top half of the ball on the high pitches... he's probably getting under it.
Chris O'Leary
02-21-2008, 09:18 PM
he seems to be popping up alot more balls that are up in the zone than any ohter area (probably more there than the others combined)
Are these strikes?
It's not surprising that he's hitting the bottom half of balls that are up in the strike zone.
It's only an issue if he's under the ball for balls that are in the top 1/3 of the zone, because that creates a hole in his swing.
Jake Patterson
02-21-2008, 09:19 PM
my son is having a problem popping up it seems, he is 10 and playing travel ball (3rd year playing all-star travel ball) he has always been a very good hitter, not tons of power but very good avg., ob%, and slg. he also very seldom strikes out. we have been going to the cages 1-2 times a week as a team and on our own for about 6 weeks now ( getting ready for an indoor league that starts in march) ive noticed he is hitting alot of weak pop ups and fouling alot of pitches straight back.( much more so far this year than ever before ) i cant really notice anything in his swing thats seems to be causing this, his mechanics seem good (no video unfortunatly) what should i be looking for as a cause for this?
Maybe he just needs a break?
Go Cardinals
02-21-2008, 09:27 PM
Maybe he just needs a break?
I agree...
You know Bonds was asked to give the best advice he could for a kid who wants to play pro. He said the best advice he could give to a kid is, "have fun!"
Have all the batting and popups to date been against a machine? If so, maybe we ought to put the ideas on hold until live pitching starts and he's still popping up.
SiouxNation
02-21-2008, 11:32 PM
thanks again for all the things to look for, ive asked him if he wants a break, actually encouraged it,our last 3 years of travel ball have consisted of about 15-20 games per year,4-5 tournaments from april to august, this year we are palying indoors in march, 7 games over 8 weeks, before we do our tounaments. i never ask him to go to the cage, he asks probably 3 times a week, heck he wants to work on catcher drills every day, i have been making him slow down, telling him lets just go easy for now and see where we are in april,lol. he's the same way in football season, dad can we work on this or that. he just asked me tonight "hey can we sign up for hockey?" i told him he had to learn how to skate better before we could talk about that, next thing he said "when are we going skating again?" he is a very gung ho kid, he's asked about wrestling, karate, gymnastics ( he was actually recruited pretty hard for gymnastics when he was 5,:eek: we declined) he would go all year if he could. i like him to play different sports as much as HE wants, i dont think its all that good to concentrate too hard on any one sport this young, that being said i do want him to have the proper instruction for any sport he plays.
Go Cardinals
02-21-2008, 11:41 PM
thanks again for all the things to look for, ive asked him if he wants a break, actually encouraged it,our last 3 years of travel ball have consisted of about 15-20 games per year,4-5 tournaments from april to august, this year we are palying indoors in march, 7 games over 8 weeks, before we do our tounaments. i never ask him to go to the cage, he asks probably 3 times a week, heck he wants to work on catcher drills every day, i have been making him slow down, telling him lets just go easy for now and see where we are in april,lol. he's the same way in football season, dad can we work on this or that. he just asked me tonight "hey can we sign up for hockey?" i told him he had to learn how to skate better before we could talk about that, next thing he said "when are we going skating again?" he is a very gung ho kid, he's asked about wrestling, karate, gymnastics ( he was actually recruited pretty hard for gymnastics when he was 5,:eek: we declined) he would go all year if he could. i like him to play different sports as much as HE wants, i dont think its all that good to concentrate too hard on any one sport this young, that being said i do want him to have the proper instruction for any sport he plays.
sounds like your a great dad:highfive:
SiouxNation
02-21-2008, 11:49 PM
lol, he doesn't think so when he gets in trouble.
jbooth
02-22-2008, 01:25 AM
Remember the hanson principle...
Compare what you learn to the video of the best:
Watch bonds' hands drop:
http://hittingillustrated.com/library/Bonds756a.gif
When is this dropping of the hands that you think is occuring? As he swings or in the load?
Bonds isn't dropping his hands.
Dropping the hands is when they go down toward the back hip before going at the ball.
He lifts his hands UP to his armpit and then rotates the hands and back shoulder together, toward the ball.