Posted by: Teacherman () on Thu Jun 5 13:05:31 2003

My son is a high school player with a very strong upper body. His hands are very fast and he makes contact over 90% of the time. The problem I have seen in his swing is that the head of the bat is way behind his hands through the contact zone most of the time regardless of pitch location which leads to mostly ground ball outs. To compensate he has to hit the ball way out in front for the bat head to get through. What are the possible causes of this and are there any drills he can try?
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> > He is poorly connected. The barrel has to move at shoulder turn, not just the handle. In fact, the barrel won't come around until the forward movement of the hands stops. Therefore, he has to find a location for the hands that he can swing the bat from without pulling them forward with the arms. My guess is his arms are very active in his swing and this needs to be corrected.
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> > Concentrate on not moving the hands except for their movement related to shoulder turn. This will take very good rotation. Also, check the angle of his rear forearm in relation to the ground. Many hitters start with this forearm diagonal or even vertical to the ground. In this postion the barrel will not come around. The rear forearm must get horizontal. This provides a lever to work against for the "pulling of the lead shoulder back to the catcher" to be effective.
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> I think what you are pointing out may be in the right direction. His arms are very active during the swing but I am not sure how to coach correcting this. His rear forearm position is good. A confusing statement that I have seen several times on this site is "pulling of the lead shoulder back to the catcher". I don't understand this in real terms and cannot translate to something actionable for my son but it seems to be key to good rotation. Thanks for your response.

Lead shoulder pulling back to the catcher is important as it creates a "pull" or torque on the barrel, through the lead arm and hand. If connected properly, this pull helps bring the barrel around. The lead shoulder pulling or rotating back is done as the rear shoulder rotates forward. If rotating properly, these should be normal parts of torso rotation. However, many hitters do not feel their abs or oblique muscles working when they swing. If they don't, they aren't rotating properly. I believe the swing starts in the center (bellybutton and hip area). You must rotate around the center and if you do, the lead shoulder will pull back toward the catcher.