Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Tue Feb 18 15:05:12 2003

Hey Tom, you are a big Epstein guy - I have read his articles to collegiate baseball and watched his tapes and for the life of me cannot figure out HOW EXACTLY a hitter is supposed to get the bathead on plane with the incoming pitch.
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> > > > Weathervaning aside (that is a whole nother issue), what is the key thing for a hitter to do in order to get on plane? Is it the elbows or the hand path or what?
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> > > > If the front elbow is working UP then how can you keep the bathead from going DOWN? Do you wait until you know where the pitch location is before you get your elbows in the slot? That's got to be impossible for the average hitter facing a great pitcher. Who can wait that long? Is that when all this guessing stuff comes in?
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> > > > GETTING on PLANE is a simple cue but not that simple to do unless you are hitting off a pitching machine throwing the pitch in the same location pitch after pitch after pitch.
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> > > Rockys
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> > > Front heel drops, rear heel lifts, back shoulder dips all at the same time. That sets the general upswing to match the plane. Posture adjustments are also involved (body tilt). Smaller adjustments can be made by raising or lowering lead elbow. Obviously the bathead goes down before it goes up. The hands start at or near the shoulders/arm pit and end at the ball which is usually waist high or below. But, it's going up through the contact zone. What's so difficult?
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> > So Teacherman - plane is not plane it is a UPSWING and the bat is not on plane it is going UP. I understand that - but why use the word plane if you are talking about upswing. PLANE just means something different to me.
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> We're talking about geometric planes. The plane of the swing only matches the plane of the pitch when the plane of the swing is slightly up. Because the plane of the pitch is down.

I don't personally like the fence drill.

The key to being on plane,I believe,is front elbow action and Epstein's approach/cues are good.See Jacks post from 4 in the morning,Feb 12,output 10014 for this month.Or look at Jack's recent video and see how the kids drop that elbow(out of plane) and wrist roll early.

Epstein's weathervaning cue is a part of teaching his universal/absolute concerning matching the plane of the pitch.This should not be confused with the first universal he teaches which is how to torque the body(hips lead the hands,coil and uncoil trunk/separate and close upper vs lower half).This body torquing movement is taught by Epstein with the torque and numbers drills.THT happens with the drop(front heel) and tilt(back shoulder dip) as separation maximizes before launch.Working the front elbow slightly up(as the back elbow drops into the slot) at this point helps set the weight back over the back inner thigh stabilizing the axis of rotation.The way the elbows work together is necessary to create tight connection and get the bat on the power plane,lined up with the lead arm,perpendicular to upper body rotation.This basic movement is a part of every swing.Drop and tilt,work the front elbow slightly up.(more particularly I think it is best that this happen mainly by external rotation of the back arm as the front arm internally rotates,very similar to the fully scap loaded position of the overhand pitch immediately before the torso rotates,but with hands together in hitting and apart in pitching).

Weathervaning refers to/affects how the elbow moves once it is connected which depends on the torso angle you have set at launch,primarily by bending at waist,although this is intimately connected to where you typically "sit on your axis" as part of your overall style(sitting more behind axis/more lean back/more power high hits,but also longer to catch up to high pitch location).

In no case,as Jack points out is it likely to be a good idea to work the elbow down as this is usually accompanied by the killer wrist roll flaw.However,the elbow "weathervanes" in a "slot" that may be thought of as relatively up or down.No swing image/key/cue is perfect,but this is a pretty good one.

The kids on Jack's tape have the common flaws of dropping the front elbow and straightening the front knee prematurely.This needs to be fixed first(personal opinion) by learning how to torque the body,and second by learning how to create tight connection on plane.