Bat Speed -- Baseball Hitting Forum

Posted by: mb () on Tue Feb 18 17:28:14 2003

My son is 8 and we have been trying to implement Jack's approach. It seems that he is ALWAYS hitting to the right side of the field. Another coach made the comment that he is dragging his hands through the strike zone. Any suggestions on how to correct this problem?
*********************************************************
Rick,
95% of little leaguers hip slide toward the mound and either drag the hands or knob to the ball approach. They also hit weakly to right field. Very few can consistantly pull the ball with power. This is my experience 5 yrs of coaching little league. I also have the videos of my players to prove it.
Are you doing the bag drills? Make sure the shoulders and torso are really rotating. Practice keeping the upper arms connected to the body. this prevent from using the hands. Make sure you are tight to the bag and not reaching. The tighter to the bag the more you have to rotate the shoulders/hips to get the bat level on the bag. Try using a 30 oz. bat with the bag drills. IF the mechanics are not good it will hurt his arms to hit the bag. He will learn fast(sort of like Pavlovs Dogs).
Video tape some bag swings and live swings. When my son was 8 and weighed 40 lbs he could easily pull average little league speed pitching (my batting practice pitches) swinging a 30 oz bat. The other Major league coaches would watch in disbelief. My 11 yr old got so good at rotating that was opening to fast and any inside pitch was pulled foul. I had to get him to close his stance slightly and increase the inward turn to keep those hits in fair territory. It may take several weeks but keep hitting the bag 20-30 swings a day. The results will come. Only the lazy fail. I would also advise you to purchase Jacks tape. You will learn what to look for in the swing by actually seeing the drills performed.

Followups:

Post a followup:

Name:

E-mail:

Subject:

Text:

> My son is 8 and we have been trying to implement Jack's approach.  It seems that he is ALWAYS hitting to the right side of the field.  Another coach made the comment that he is dragging his hands through the strike zone.  Any suggestions on how to correct this problem?
> *********************************************************
> Rick,
> 95% of little leaguers hip slide toward the mound and either drag the hands or knob to the ball approach. They also hit weakly to right field. Very few can consistantly pull the ball with power. This is my experience 5 yrs of coaching little league. I also have the videos of my players to prove it.
> Are you doing the bag drills? Make sure the shoulders and torso are really rotating. Practice keeping the upper arms connected to the body.  this prevent from using the hands. Make sure you are tight to the bag and not reaching. The tighter to the bag the more you have to rotate the shoulders/hips to get the bat level on the bag. Try using a 30 oz. bat with the bag drills. IF the mechanics are not good it will hurt his arms to hit the bag.  He will learn fast(sort of like Pavlovs Dogs).
> Video tape some bag swings and live swings. When my son was 8 and weighed 40 lbs he could easily pull average little league speed pitching (my batting practice pitches) swinging a 30 oz bat. The other Major league coaches would watch in disbelief. My 11 yr old got so good at rotating that was opening to fast and any inside pitch was pulled foul. I had to get him to close his stance slightly and increase the inward turn to keep those hits in fair territory. It may take several weeks but keep hitting the bag 20-30 swings a day. The results will come.  Only the lazy fail. I would also advise you to purchase Jacks tape. You will learn what to look for in the swing by actually seeing the drills performed.

Anti-Spambot Question:

Three strikes is an _____________?
   Homerun
   Out
   Stolen base
   Touchdown