Squishing The Bug

A player is having trouble over rotating her back foot while batting.
Does anyone have drills to correct this mistake.

 

I place a cinderblock or bucket or whatever is available beside their rear foot.

I recall seeing coaches place a softball beside the rear heel. Back in the day they instructed the player to knock the ball away with their heel as they squished the bug. Nowadays the purpose is to NOT knock the ball away as the the rear heel raises. If you knock it away you squished the bug.

I believe the squish the bug cue started out good and then got over-interpreted; as many drills do.

 

How does one over rotate the back foot? All good hitters rotate their back foot, the only problem would be over rotating the front foot, that would mean to much weight on the back foot and no weight shift to firm front side.

 

Look at Pujols' foot, not squishing the bug:

http://www.chrisoleary.com/projects/Baseball/Hitting/RethinkingHitting/Essays/RotationalHitting.html


This is squish the bug: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC7pvFKxAyA
A better (worse) example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DztFN0AdAXA

 

Walk through

Teach them the walk through drill as well. Have them walk forward and hit off a tee or while you soft toss them. This will keep them from spinning out and help them to get that back foot in the air and move those hips which is most important.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnDyV03iGvU

 

Thanks for that kind of question, RaleighFastpitch. We need more posts like this. Many brains are better than one brain.

Also, thanks to joesimtre for the Candrea link.

Anyone have other drills for preventing over rotation of the rear foot?

 

Walk up

Been to many UNC camps. Coach P really stresses the walk up drill in all her hitting camps. Says its something that can be worked on at home.... If she is using it and Candrea is using it. It has to be a good thing. I would love for my DD to hit like Pujols. 240 million.....i'm dreaming

 

question

What do you think of Jessica Mendoza's technique? Is it "squishing the bug"? Is the weight staying too far back?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=2qCrRTG17Hc

 

Nothing wrong with her foot action. She's not over rotating or spinning her rear foot.

 

She does not squish the bug. If you are able to slow down that video, you will see that at contact, she is up either on the toe of her shoe or very close to it. The term "squish the bug" implies that the entire front half of the foot stays in contact with the ground and is rotated during the swing. Mendoza does not get off the ground as much as say Pujols or Bush did in the previous video clips, but she still drives off the back side rather than keeping her weight back and squishing the bug.