Posted by: swb (batspeed@integritycorp.com) on Thu Apr 25 23:31:15 2002

See my earlier post to Joe Smith (http://www.batspeed.com/messageboard/output/6510.html). It pretty much applies here (except I can't tell whether your son is hitting with "L" or "R" mechanics, from your post).

I'm pretty humble about trying to correct hitting problems when a player is standing in front of me, let alone attempting it "in the blind" here. I've coached a lot of successful hitters, and I always "take it from the top". I look at their initial batting stance, their hand position, feet (toes in, on the balls of the feet), balance, etc.. I really appreciate Jack Mankin's comments about the swing initiation being vital, i.e. that you can only make marginal corrections after that point. Make sure he's got a good batting stance at start.

"Swinging under the ball", in simple terms, that means the path of the bat head doesn't match the path of the ball. Perhaps he's swinging "down" (playing golf), or working with a severe upper cut (dropping his shoulder?).

Have him work off a tee, video tape him if possible, and study his form. My rules of thumb (i.e. for this week, anyway) to check are:

1) What part of his body moves first? Are his hands moving towards the impact point (upper body), or does his lead knee, and then hips (lower body) start first? (Latter is the correct method.)

2) Do the hands move together, downward, at initiation? If so, you can't develop top-hand torque? The bottom hand represents the stationary axis of rotation for the top hand, and if it's moving at the start, you will generate no top-hand torque.

3) Does most forward movement halt before the swing initiates, or is the body "sliding" forward during the swing. If the body moves towards the ball during the swing, then torque developed by rotation of the body around the stationary axis of the spine will suffer, because, well, the spine is not stationary.

That's the "check points" I'm working on with my own kids this week. (If they'd just get over the flu, first, so we could play some ball!)

Of course, there can be 1001 other issues that might be tripping your son up, including, perhaps, some better pitching as he gets older, and the season progresses. Remember, what I write here is just one man's opinion.

Regards.. Scott