Posted by: Teacherman () on Thu Apr 24 06:14:42 2003

HOw do you fully get rid of the slack in the arms so that every rotational movement moves the hands as discussed by teacherman in the BHT discussion. What are some things that can help me accopmlish this?

The answer to this question is the most elusive thing in hitting. It is different from player to player and very difficult to put into words. Trial and error is the only way I know of to find it. And that is difficult because you hardly know what you're looking for. You understand the concept but you don't know the "feel".

Often times when I teach I work with extremes and then back off. For example, if I see a guy who just can't match the plane (consistent downward swing path), I'll tell him to take a ridiculous uppercut and then we'll work down from there. They often times have set "limits" in their swings which are incorrect. But, they are so engrained that they won't exceed those limits. I have them exceed the limit and then bring them back into reality.

Eliminating slack has to do with the position of the arms and hands in the swing so that the rotation brings the barrel to the ball as soon as it starts. I have them put extra tension in their arms (very stiff arms) to eliminate arm movement and then rotate in order for them to feel good connection. This tension eventually has to be worked out but they first need to understand the feel. I have gone to the point of strapping the arms to the torso so they can't move and actually hit in the cage this way. All one has is rotation in that scenario and believe it or not you can still hit the ball pretty well that way. You are way too limited to make adjustments to location but you can learn the feel. The goal is to get them to learn the feel and then they have to develop their swing in such a way as to allow the "no slack" feel without all the props and tension.

Epstein teaches kids to hold the bat against their Deltoid while rotating. Put pressure on the deltoid with the bat and rotate from there. As you swing the forces will pull the barrel off the Deltoid and you can hit pretty well from this position also. This drill may be more toward feeling proper rotation than eliminating slack but it has some merit to eliminating slack.

Paul Nyman of SETPRO teaches "scapula loading" to stretch the muscles so that the slack is eliminated. Almost all mlb hitters do this. Again, its easy to say and relatively easy to understand but getting the right feel only comes with trial and error.

Like I said, a very elusive topic. You can see it when its right and when its wrong but explaining it is difficult.