Posted by: Graylon (g_dunc@hotmail.com) on Tue Jan 1 20:41:50 2008

> 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


Chris,

I would video tape him and watch in slow mo or frame by frame if you can. The biggest thing I have seen that causes the pop up to the oppo field is bat drag. Watch to see if his shoulders rotate with the hips and if his hands start behind his back shoulder. This will cause him to drag the bat through the zone and not square the bat to the ball.

Graylon