Connection / Hitting topic

[straightleg]

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Connection
I think the hardest part of the swing to teach.
Sometimes hard to see unless you video it and slow it down.

You start the swing - go to toe touch. Next comes connection.

Some believe, as the heal plants / Others, right after the heal plants.


What do you believe in?
1. After heal plants do you just hold on and turn?
2. After heal plants you pull with just lead shoulder /arm / fingers?
3. After heal plants you pull - push with both shoulders /arms and hands, all together?


Go early with top half and you disconnect.
Dont seperatate enough with arms and you disconnect - your top half gets ahead of rotation.
Cast out lead arm and you disconnect.



Like to hear you opinion on this part of the swing. What happens
And what you do to improve it.


The swing below is my daughter. This was after impact and she is disconnecting to go through extention. Arms past rotation.




Straightleg
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[Coach G]

I actually think that connection is alot easier to teach than weight transfer mechanics.

A bunch of things have worked for me when teaching connection, but not all kids understand things the same. what works for some might not work for others.

I had a kid whose bat drag was so severe it looked like it would be painful to even attempt.
We spent days going over the concept of connection and one day when he got to toe touch I blurted out try to maintain the flexion in your lead arm.
He looked at me and said "what." So I told him again he did it. The bat drag was gone. He turned back to me and said " that made more sense to him than anything else he ever heard."

[chesspirate]

and she is disconnecting to go through extension. Arms past rotation.


"Connection" is not something that is maintained throughout the entire swing. It will usually start somewhere around the time the front foot touches down (not exactly the same from hitter to hitter) and is then maintained for approx the first 3frames (30fps) of the swing to about what most people call the lag position, depending on pitch location (where the ball is over the plate, in or out, how high or low, and how deep or out front). generally, around that point the wrists will start to uncock and "connection" is pretty much all done.

I wouldn't get to hung up on defining exactly the moment of connection 'beginning' and connection 'ending' but be more aware/concerned that the hitter is at some time early in the actual swing process, efficiently connecting the bat to the body's rotation by not allowing the arms to fall behind or power ahead.

As far as what a hitter must feel to accomplish this goal, that could be a thousand different things to a thousand different people, but I would suggest if teaching the hitter about connection specifically, to start by having them try to maintain connection as long as possible up to contact, and usually/hopefully things will start to look better. It all comes down to what will make the hitter move correctly as far as actually teaching the swing is concerned.

[jbooth]

Connection
I think the hardest part of the swing to teach.
Sometimes hard to see unless you video it and slow it down.

You start the swing - go to toe touch. Next comes connection.

Some believe, as the heal plants / Others, right after the heal plants.

What do you believe in?
1. After heal plants do you just hold on and turn?
2. After heal plants you pull with just lead shoulder /arm / fingers?
3. After heal plants you pull - push with both shoulders /arms and hands, all together?

Go early with top half and you disconnect.
Dont seperatate enough with arms and you disconnect - your top half gets ahead of rotation.
Cast out lead arm and you disconnect.

Like to hear you opinion on this part of the swing. What happens
And what you do to improve it.

The swing below is my daughter. This was after impact and she is disconnecting to go through extention. Arms past rotation.

Straightleg


OK, first we have to fix the spelling. It's "HEEL", not "heal." ;):D
If you bruise your heel, it may take awhile to heal. :waving

To ME; "connection" is simply making the bat move primarily from the rotation of the body. To do that, the hands must be far enough back to cause the muscles in the front shoulder to be stretched, so that the hands move at the instant the shoulders rotate.

If the hands are forward, then the shoulder must move to create the stretch, and therefore, connection happens too late.

If the hands are back and connected, but then you push the hands away from the back shoulder, you disconnect.

There's a difference between disconnecting from body rotation and adjusting to the pitch location.

Staying connected and then adjusting is when the hands stay back and rotate with the shoulder, and then you release the hands and barrel to the ball. You guide the momentum coming from hand/shoulder connection.

Disconnection is when you force the hands away from the shoulder early, and create momentum from arm action that is separate from the shoulder momentum.

[straightleg]

First I was good at Math - slept during English:D

Thanks Chess and JB.

Both of what you guys said I understand and agree with.
Hearing someone else explain it, gives me a good visual in my head.



Getting connected at the right time, Is probably what I see happen back and forth. If its just right it is powerfull.

If you miss either way, you loose some distance and power on the hit.




Straightleg

[jbooth]

First I was good at Math - slept during English:D


Obviously! :laugh (I hope you know I'm just messin' with ya.)

If its just right it is powerfull.

Uh, that's "powerful."

If you miss either way, you loose some distance and power on the hit.

You "LOSE" distance, a knot can become "LOOSE."
If you stay loose, you may not lose the game.
But, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.

You get an "F" in spelling today.;):waving

[bob_r]

One of the things I do is a drill where I have them rest the bat on the shoulder on a 45 degree angle, be in a good athletic stance and tell them this is just a drill so don't try and kill the ball. Then I tell them to just rotate into the ball and finish high. What usually happens is much better hit than normal. At that point they are more receptive to understand what just happened.