Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Mon Nov 3 21:05:32 2003

Tom,
>
> I've always been interested in how the lead arm folds in the
baseball swing? Would you say that hands hitters fold there
lead arm differently then good rotational hitters. Years ago when
my Son was young I was very dissapointed with how he finished
the swing.....meaning it didn't look like mine. For a while I
surmized that in order to get to that position there must be
something going on in the swing that caused it, thus we spent
many hours addressing what I thought was a problem. Then
about a year ago I discovered that maybe his differences were
actually a strength, so I let him do what he felt was natural (even
though it appeared funny to me). Low and behold the kid went
off at the plate. Many great hitting instructors will look at follow
through as a sign of what occured earlier in the swing, I've done
that a lot more lately and now percieve that my Son had it right all
along. This really was my motivation for putting both our swings
up. I think my way could be incorrect, but I can do it his way...it's
just so foreign for at first. If you look at my swing watch how the
the lead arm folds, it's different than mine. Does this make
sense and do see any relevence in the follow through with how
the arms finish, particularly with the elbow fold? Look it how
deep the ball get's in on my Son and how more in front my hit is.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Coach C

Coach

These are all very nice swings.

I asssume you are talking about the difference between you and
the switch hitter son,is that right ?

I think the main thing that accounts for the difference you see is
that your son loads better and brings the bat to contact with full
torso turn.You crash into foot plant a little,If you look at your
positions at front heel drop,your torso has already started while
your sons is still back.Then you have to disconnect early with
more arm extension making contact more out front and a
somewhat low follow through with earlier roll,but not bad for an
old guy(hahaha).

Look at the clips at Nick's youthbaseball page and compare both
of you to the open side shots of righties.The pros keep the
hands/torso back even longer(more x-factor) and bat is cocked/
centered back more for them than your son.It's a spectrum.