Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sat Dec 31 11:29:06 2005

>>> Hi,

6 years old is to young IMO. The swing is very child like. It has bat lag/drag, hip slide. The main issue is leadig with the elbow and some hip slide.

Like I said it is very child like, typical LL swing for many hitters/kids.

Try to change the setup for starters. The back forearm should be level with the ground, not pointing up in the air. The hands should at the shoulder and not above. Look at any ML at launch and you will see the proper setup.

This might some with the elbow leading. It more then likely will ot solve the problem, but it gives you a place to start.

To solve the problem you need to work on connection, aviod bat lag/drag and work on the swing being powered by rotation. His rotation doesn't look all that bad for 6.

Work on BHT, leadarm, and connection to rotation. <<<

Hi Chuck, Shawn & Tom

Excellent analysis and suggestions. -- Chuck, the boy looks like a fine young athlete that has spent time practicing his swing. I would say he is well on his way for a 6-year-old. But, like most young hitters, he relies far too much on the back-side (especially the top-hand) to swing the bat.

Placing most of the burden of accelerating the bat on the back-arm causes the back-elbow to swing under the armpit and ahead of the hands. A frontal view of the swing usually shows the elbow swinging inward toward the bellybutton. This creates a loss of linkage to shoulder rotation and although the batter gets full shoulder rotation, the bat is left dragging well behind. Once the shoulders reach full rotation, only the arms are left to bring the bat to contact. -- Also, pulling forward with the back-side causes the axis to slide and lean forward.

As Shawn points out, during the boy’s practice, he needs to work on getting the lead-side more involved in accelerating the bat. With the lead-side sharing the load, the back-elbow will stay back at his side during rotation. – I will place below a drill I use for your consideration.

Jack Mankin
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Thumb to Shoulder Drill

I would suggest your son practice the following drill to get the lead-side more involved in the swing. The drill works best when practiced with a heavy bag (or tire) before hitting off a tee or soft toss. --- There are two keys to efficient rotational transfer mechanics. (1) Do not drive the top-hand forward at the start of the swing. (2) Make more productive use of the lead-side.

To help a student accomplish these keys, I have the student take their normal launch position – with one major change. I have the batter lift the thumb of the top-hand away from the bat and point it toward their back-shoulder. As the batter initiates rotation to start the swing, the thumb should be close to or touching the shoulder. The batter should try to keep the top-hand pulling back so that the thumb remains at the shoulder. The bat-head is accelerated back toward the catcher by lead-shoulder rotation pulling (through the arm and hand) on the knob-end of the bat. The accelerating trajectory of the bat will cause the top-hand to separate from shoulder as the forearm rotates and lowers toward the horizontal contact position.

In order for the batter to pull the thumb to the back-shoulder during initiation, he must pull the back-elbow back toward the third base dugout. He is now learning the basics of how to apply Top-Hand-Torque while maintaining a good CHP.