Bat Speed -- Baseball Hitting Forum

Posted by: Jimmy (matheje@nu.com) on Mon Apr 9 08:44:50 2007

> Hi Skip
>
> You state:
> #
> “Grab a bat. In slo=mo do an exagerated knob-to-ball lin. swing. As you approach contact, pull the front shoulder open the way you should for the rot. swing taught here. Notice that you have virtually NO plate coverage. Outside pitches, no chance of contact. Middle-in, weak glancing hits off the end of the bat. In short, he's "flying open" with the front shoulder.
>
> My older son is an agressive powerful HS hitter. When he goes into a mini-slump and mis-hits fastballs off the end of the bat, he always somehow cures it willing himself to somehow keep the shoulder "in" until contact,”
> #
>
> Although I would never advise a “linear knob to the ball” swing, keeping the lead “shoulder “in” until contact” may work for your son. However, I hope you are not saying that the better hitters keep their lead-shoulder “in” during the swing. All the best MLB hitters have their lead-shoulder rotating as they initiate their swings and obviously have no problem with plate coverage.
>
> To clear up any misunderstanding, here is the Griffey clip I used the a post below -- http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/griffey_ken1.mpeg – Would you point out in his swing what you mean by “keep the shoulder "in" until contact?”
>
> Jack Mankin

Guys, back to the issue at hand, which is an 11 yr old popping up to the right side, weakly, I think I am onto what the problem is. In watching him swing I notice he is "falling back" toward the catcher. He starts off nicely, loads, but as he initiates the swing the back shoulder moves down and back, and there is poor balance. With the weight moving back his the barrel of the bat loops under and there is a mile upper cut and pulling off of the ball. It's fairly subtle to the eye, but the result is unmistakeable, with sort of sliced pop-ups to the opposite field.

The combination of these mechanical flaws leaves him with no pop, late on many pitches and finishing with poor balance.

Any suggested drills to correct????

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> > Hi Skip
> > 
> > You state: 
> > #
> > “Grab a bat. In slo=mo do an exagerated knob-to-ball lin. swing. As you approach contact, pull the front shoulder open the way you should for the rot. swing taught here. Notice that you have virtually NO plate coverage. Outside pitches, no chance of contact. Middle-in, weak glancing hits off the end of the bat. In short, he's "flying open" with the front shoulder.
> > 
> > My older son is an agressive powerful HS hitter. When he goes into a mini-slump and mis-hits fastballs off the end of the bat, he always somehow cures it willing himself to somehow keep the shoulder "in" until contact,”
> > #
> > 
> > Although I would never advise a “linear knob to the ball” swing, keeping the lead “shoulder “in” until contact” may work for your son. However, I hope you are not saying that the better hitters keep their lead-shoulder “in” during the swing. All the best MLB hitters have their lead-shoulder rotating as they initiate their swings and obviously have no problem with plate coverage.
> > 
> > To clear up any misunderstanding, here is the Griffey clip I used the a post below -- http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/griffey_ken1.mpeg – Would you point out in his swing what you mean by “keep the shoulder "in" until contact?”
> > 
> > Jack Mankin
> 
> Guys, back to the issue at hand, which is an 11 yr old popping up to the right side, weakly, I think I am onto what the problem is.  In watching him swing I notice he is "falling back" toward the catcher.  He starts off nicely, loads, but as he initiates the swing the back shoulder moves down and back, and there is poor balance.  With the weight moving back his the barrel of the bat loops under and there is a mile upper cut and pulling off of the ball.  It's fairly subtle to the eye, but the result is unmistakeable, with sort of sliced pop-ups to the opposite field.
> 
> The combination of these mechanical flaws leaves him with no pop, late on many pitches and finishing with poor balance.
> 
> Any suggested drills to correct????

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