Posted by: RQL (rqlbball23@aol.com) on Wed Aug 16 19:32:41 2000

AFTER WATCHING MY SONS SWING IN SLOW MOTION I'VE NOTICED THAT AS HIS STRIDE IS ALMOST FINISHED THAT HIS HANDS ARE COMING FORWARD A LITTLE AND THAT THE BARRELL OF HIS BAT IS POINTING BACK TOWARD THE CATCHER INSTEAD OF TOWARD THE PITCHER, I KNOW THIS IS KILLING HIS POWER AND HIS BAT SPEED, PLEASE JACK OR ANYONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO GET HIM TO STOP THIS, HE DIDNT BELIEVE HE DID IT UNTIL HE SAW IT ON TAPE, HE ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT HE WAS KEEPING HIS HANDS BACK, HE HOLDS THE BAT IN A VERTICAL POSITION A LITTLE BELOW THE SHOULDER, SHOULD HE MAYBE HOLD THE BAT WITH THE BATHEAD ANGLING A LITTLE FORWARD BEFORE HE STARTS HIS STRIDE, PLEASE JACK OR ANYONE ELSE GIVE ME SOME ADVICE, SOME DRILLS TO GET HIM TO STOP THIS. Im a rookie at this but just a thought to make sure im clear on what you mean by barrel of bat pointing towards pitcher if you mean the end of bat like how sheffield holds it, and if you mean when the barrel is facingthe catcher your suggesting his bat is flattened out already then look at his back elbow and see how high it starts out.When held high it sometimes starts dropping early with the stride causing the bat head to flatten out early or maybe he is striding to hard to late and his hands are playing catch up.If you get the mechanics figured out try tee and soft toss but make him use his mind to tell his body to keep his hands back. I think you must train the mind to make the body do what you want it to,goodluck