Posted by: Coach S. () on Tue Jan 1 18:38:21 2008

Chris,

Familiar scenario you are describing when trying to learn effecient rotational hitting. Please check a couple of things here. First make sure as he rotates through the ball that his top hand is not rolling over...in other words he should maintain the "palm up / palm down" through contact. If he thinks he is going to be late on a pitch, a youngster might try to catch up by rolling his top hand over and cutting across the ball, resulting in the types of hits you describe.

The other thing to check is if his axis of rotation is like a revolving door, or like a swinging gate. The revolving door would mean he is just spinning and the bat is along for the ride cutting across the ball. Many youngsters turn rotational hitting into this. In order to correct this, there needs to be a weight shift onto the front leg, then the axis of rotations is head - spine - through the front leg. The back side rotates around this forward shifted axis = swinging gate & NOT a revolving door.

Hope this helps...write back if not clear. If you notice many elite hitters, their back foot almost comes off the ground at contact, this is because the axis is shifted forward and the "gate is swinging" open.

Coach

> My son is 11 and is a good ball player, however, he's having a lot of trouble with slicing the ball, i.e., hitting pop-ups mostly.
>
> For practice, we do a lot of tee work and soft toss hitting into a net - he hits very solid during these drills. Then, when I pitch to him, he rarely gets good line-drive contact. For example, out of 20 pitches he may hit 12 or more blooper pop-ups just beyond 2nd base, then hit 8 hard grounders to short stop.
>
> He has good bat speed, timing, and overall mechanics (his grip is correct, he loads correctly, rotates his hips correctly, and finishes high). Sometimes though, he has a tendency of keeping his hands/arms in a little too tight through his rotation, that is, I believe he doesn't get enough extension (or 'hit through' the ball) - we are working on this, as well as keeping his head still).
>
> In short, his swing looks pretty good, but slicing the ball continues to be a big problem. I just can't tell why it's happening (very frustrating). Perhaps the bat is coming through the hitting zone at too much of an angle? It's hard for me to tell what is causing the slice, so I'm not sure how to help him (a frustrating scenario). My next step may be to video tape his swing, and trouble-shoot it from there.
>
> Any suggestions would be great. Thanks much,
> Chris