Building a swing: THE BEGINNING STEPS

what's going on everybody josh cathcart back here at harbaugh academy in pearland texas for this next video i'm just going to kind of walk through the swing building process i get a lot of questions you know where do i start with the young kids what's the first thing we need to do um where should most of our practice time be focused and just like anything else in hitting that can always be very individual so for this video i'm just going to go over the basics if i've got a kid that's coming in really doesn't matter if he's an eight-year-old or you know 14 15 16 17 year old we're always going to start at the bottom okay i use the analogy of if you're going to build a house what's the first thing that you do okay you put down the foundation without a proper foundation the house doesn't stand without the proper foundation the swing doesn't work okay one of the biggest mistakes that i see with young players especially with the video analysis that are coming in is all these really exotic stances going on you know you'll have kids that see big league guys and they get their hands all crazy and they have these big high leg kicks and all this other stuff and in my opinion they're doing it for a couple reasons number one they're copying something they saw okay number two it's so that they can feel stronger okay young kids feel a lot stronger when they have a bunch of moving parts because they don't understand efficiency they don't understand creating potential energy okay and that's what we're trying to do in the swing right when we go from our stance into our load we are creating potential energy we are loading muscle groups to begin to fire when they're called upon so for me the most important is always balance of course you're going to have to see the pitches and all that but from a swing standpoint balance is number one so going from there i'm going to go ahead and back up and i'm going to get to this plate okay so my pitcher would be out here i would be a right-handed hitter all right if i've got guys that come in and we've got our feet too close together this is a no-no for me okay we want to be athletic we want to be as athletic as possible in everything we do and this just isn't a very athletic position yes you will see big league guys start with their feet close and up high but if we are talking about the basic fundamentals of the swing and where to start i like to go right outside of my hips okay a good guide would be the front edge of home plate and slightly back from the back corner okay so this would be a good starting position i like to have some bend i don't ever want to start with a kid with a big leg kick okay this is not an especially a drift back in the leg kick all right let's talk about keeping our head as still as possible and simplifying this okay again this is not for everybody it's going to vary but for the beginners let's simplify nice athletic start and then just a simple little sit and step okay simple sit and step is all we need to do with the young kids to get into launch position you hear me talk about lost position all the time all right launch position let's go through our checkpoints feet as wide as the bat is long as a general rule hands over the back foot front arm creating a slight bend and a box with the back shoulders and front arm knob would be facing down to the catcher's feet we don't want to get this back real flat we don't want to have this bat way up in the air set right here chin right over the front shoulder so that i can see the pitcher with a relaxed neck i don't want to have to be straining my neck to look back all right first thing get kids from stance simple load into launch this is the first step getting into a consistent proper launch position okay from here once you have a kid that can go okay in my stats launch one stance launch okay now we start to talk about how the body is going to sequence the swing one thing that is missed a whole lot with young players is the importance of the front foot the front foot is not going to come down perfectly flat or it shouldn't okay we should go soft with the heel slightly up the heel triggers the rear hip as the heel hits the ground then my hips start and this is where the sequence comes working from the ground up i like to talk about a tornado effect okay heel hip into my core into the shoulders and then out the head arms and hands and through the barrel all right starting with the young players i start from launch get them to launch have them feel the hips one two and then go ahead and make their swing if they can stay balanced at the end of their swing holding this one two count pretty good idea of what's going on with the body okay that's a really good start for that so launch position then up into sequence heel plant hip drive into the core all right the upper half the upper body and when i speak of upper body i'm talking from you know shoulders and arms not from the waist up this would be my core okay i separate that the upper half would be up in my shoulders and my arms all right this is the last thing to pay attention to everybody sees all this casting or these arm bars or the hand drop you see this problem because it's just kind of in your face but in reality most of our upper body issues come from improper launch and improper sequence okay so if we're talking about building a swing for a young kid or maybe even an older kid that has some real mechanical issues and needs a swing overhaul always start at the bottom one more time through that stance slightly wider than shoulder width nice easy small sit and step to begin to let them get into launch as they get more and more comfortable you're going to see kids that want to toe touch and go you're going to see kids that do have a little bit higher leg kick but at the beginning learning to keep the head still and get into a proper launch position is key all right again from launch then it's heel plant into the hip drive notice my upper body didn't start to turn as i got to here we've got to separate the hips from the shoulders and feel that rotation right here then i would go ahead and get connected we've heard about this from launch heel plant hip drive connection at the back where the back comes connected to the rear shoulder hands stacked over the hip and back knee from connection the rotational move continues into lag and then from lag as we release into contact out to an extension to the middle of the field there are videos that i have done that break down each part of this but as a whole when it you know when we're talking about building the swing ground up still head proper launch sequence okay sequence is key you're going to see many young players that want to land and already be moving their hands forward because they're just trying to make sure they get the barrel there they don't trust their turn they don't trust the body they don't trust the balance they just know i've got to get the barrel there so you see the hands early so in balance stance athletic starting position minimal head movement small load just a little scent stride to proper launch heel plant into hip drive and then balance swing at the end if you can get your players to get that down you're on the right track if there's any questions please reach out we love doing this we love hearing from you we've got camps coming up this summer getting ready to rev it all up reach out to us on any of our social media outlets we'd love to hear from you you

Channel: Baseball Doctor

Views: 18,770

Rating: 4.9805193 out of 5

Keywords: building a baseball swing, building a baseball swing from the ground up, building a swing, the beginning steps to building a baseball swing, the beginning steps to fixing a baseball swing, baseball swing mechanics, baseball hitting, baseball hitting tips, hitting tips, baseball swings, hitting fundamentals, baseball swing, softball swing, baseball tips, softball tips, tips for hitting, hitting tools to building a solid foundation, baseball doctor, baseball doctor hitting, ball

Id: gqBmE7diAyg

Length: 9min 39sec (579 seconds)

Published: Fri May 21 2021