Posted by: Mister X () on Tue Jun 3 12:25:43 2003

My 9 yr old son has what I and most other coaches consider a very quick swing. The problem is he waits too long and seems to always hit the ball right over the plate and sometimes toward the back of it. This results in a lot of ground ball outs to the right side. Is ther any drills that I can work with him to get thim to hit the ball a little more to the front?


Hitting the ball right above the plate doesn't tell us much. Depending on where you stand in the batter's box determines where you should make contact with the ball in relation to the plate. A more important question is where is he making contact with the ball in relation to his body? Ideal contact should be made at about the front knee.

If your son has a quick swing, and he still is "late", he is waiting too long to swing just like you said. This could be because of two things:
1) his contact point is too far back
2) he is slow in making the decision to swing. In other words, he could be having trouble deciding if the pitch is a ball or strike, and waits too long to make sure it is a strike.

If #2 is the case, here is something that may help. When you son goes to up to the plate, his metal approach should be "swing unless it's a ball" NOT "don't swing unless it's a strike". Those two phrases mean the same thing, but you have to be ready to swing the instant the pitcher releases the ball and then hold up if it's a ball. Your setup an preswing movements should be exactly the same no matter what the pitch is. Be ready to swing at every pitch, get to the "point of no return" on every pitch, and either swing or hold up based on the location.