Posted by: grc (grcrackel@yahoo.com) on Tue Jul 11 19:53:46 2000

Thanks for the help, my son does throw right and bat left , what should he do in this situation . ok...my son, who is 18 now also bats left and throws right and for years he has had thsi problem: he hits well, but most of his hits are line drives to left and left-center....almost everything he hits to the right side, though are ground balls to 1b or 2b...very few of his balls hit to the right side are line drives and very few of his ground balls are to the left side....also, here and there he will hit a texas-leaguer to left field and usually that is an inside pitch...and since he was 8 years old (i have been charting all of his balls he has hit) he has hit exactly 2 fly balls to the right side...... i have been to hitting instructors and this is the best that i have been able to get: it has to do with arm-dominence....my son's "strong" arm is the bottom arm...i have confirmed on video that he pulls his front arm in toooooooo close to the body, bends his front elbow waaaay tooo much and does not have a correct circular hand path...in other words, hands take a straight line to the ball.....and this is the result: by the time the hands "beat" the bathead to the ball (i.e., a SEVERE case of inside-outing the ball), in many cases for him to be able to contact the ball AT ALL he is contacting the ball when the bat is still headed downward (on inside pitches)...and he can't hit the ball farther out in front of the plate the way "conventional" hitters do without creating a severe and unworkable loop in his swing......and sometimes that same inside pitch, if he does manage to contact the ball when the bat has started heading up will result in an "inside-out" texas leaguer to left field, and sometimes a well-hit line drive to left field...............my son's solution???? well, little by little he has been making progress ...we have been working on not just making the left arm (top arm) "stronger" but more "coordinated"....kinda of like a right-hander learning how to write left-handed....the specific drills have been a lot of dry cuts and soft toss, top arm only............one word of caution: much of the advice you may get from ANYONE will not apply....i am positive it has to do with bottom-hand dominence.....i suggest that the first thing you do is put him on film (freeze frame) and confirm that he is drawing/bending his top arm in to his body and bending his front arm 45 degrees or more...in other words, does he have a severe case of "fencedrill" mechanics....if you confirm this, then try making that top arm "as strong and cordinated" as the bottom arm so that the bottom arm won't be dominating the swing so much........................one last thought....if you could find a pro instructor who himself threw right/batted left, you might be finding someone who really understands a problem that is really unique and not well-understood by very many instructors........and, however you resolve the problem, could you let me know??? thanks, grc.....