Posted by: Steve A. () on Fri Feb 14 10:39:41 2003

About a year ago I purchased "The Final Arc" for my brother (now 14). His batspeed has improved, because despite his skepticism (due to the fact that the video never shows someone generating jawdropping batspeed) I believe he digested the idea of rotating around the stationary axis. The application of torque became a problem, because for some reason he could not coordinate both hands resulting in pain to his right wrist when he attempted top hand torque. I suggested to him to loosen his grip on the right hand to allow better range of motion, but he didn't like the idea. Recently (since he began using a -3) his power improved, but he's locked in the homerun mentality and is just producing long fly ball outs because his axis is not straight but rater like this or more. His elbow's up, his weight is more than 60 % on his back foot and he's under the impression that he's the next Hank Aaron. I believe in batspeed, but his batting average has suffered. What can any of you good folks suggest to fix the pop-ups and improve his timing? What drills can I use?

The only way to make a truly informed response to your question is to see video, as I'm sure others will tell you. That said, my son had a similar issue after he received instruction in rotational hitting. What we discovered was that he was not balancing his weight properly before launch. In other words, he was already at the backward tilting axis you describe before heel plant. When he learned to set up the other way - perhaps 60% of his weight on the front foot before heel plant - a lot of the long fly balls straightened out into long line drives. Without video I can't tell you this is your brother's problem, but it might be worth looking at.