Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Jun 14 18:32:01 2000

>>>What am i doing wrong? i hit them hard but usually top it and send a desent hit to somewhere, good right? no not when they all go right to guys or we play on grass and it just dies. Any hints? if i hit it in line drives/elivated line drives it will be a lot better . Please help i have a game on thursday, NOTE this was at batting practice if that matters, in a cage and a machine once again if it matters. <<<

Hi Troy

Giving advice on someone's swing that you have not seen can only be guesswork. But I will give you my best guess. --- Most often, results as you describe are caused from the wrist starting to roll over before contact. Premature rolling of the wrist has been the downfall of many hitters.

The rolling over of the wrist is a natural part of the swing when it occurs at the proper time. The wrist will naturally roll when both arms have reached full extension. With good shoulder rotation (belly button at the pitcher at contact) both arms will not reach full extension until long after the bat passes through the contact zone. But if the batter mainly uses mainly his arms to accelerate the bat and has limited shoulder rotation the arms may reach full extension before the bat reaches contact.

Another cause for the wrist to prematurely roll is from having the lead elbow pointing downward at the start of the swing. The lead elbow should be pointing into the plane of the swing through contact. If the lead elbow is pointing downward as you start your swing it will generally collapse down and into the batters side. This action causes the hands to roll and dip as the bat-head rises. The result is most often weak ground balls.

Troy, the "Keep your shoulder in there" rule is good advise during the stride and getting into a good launch position. But rotation of the shoulders is what should accelerate the hands as you initiate the swing. -- So practice keeping the hands back and allowing your bodies rotation to accelerate your hands. --- This should solve the "wrist roll" problem.

Jack Mankin