Posted by: Rich (Holland608@cs.com) on Sat Mar 13 20:51:14 2004

I have a question on how to get the "roll over" out of my swing. I have been told i have great power, but i create tremendous "top spin" on the ball which makes it die instead of carry and i dont know how to get out of it..does anybody have any suggestions?

Hey Andrew,

Here's a way that is guaranteed to stop wrist roll over before contact.

Get 40 bucks and go down to your local sporting goods store and buy heavy punching bag. one big enough to cover the strike zone and made out of canvas.

Hang it on the wall or on a post, somewhere that when you hit it with your bat it will remain stationary.

Put a homeplate in front of the bag so when you stride, you hit the bag so it coinsides with hitting a ball on the same plane as your front knee.

Now get in your stance and stride but don't swing. now put the handle of your bat against the your top hand's shoulder. this simulates the launch position(have front elbow up and front bicep connected to your chest and rear elbow where ever it feels comfortable).

Now rotate your hips which will rotate your torso which will rotate your shoulders. the shoulder rotation is what generates the movement of the hands and bat. as the hands are rotating around with the power from the shoulders, lower your hands and rotate the top hand to the palm up position. this will also rotate the bathead out into the plane of the pitch(helping create batspeed)

When you hit the bag freeze and check the following:
1) have your wrist rolled? if so try to rotate your shoulders further
thru the rotation(keep pulling the front shouler up and back sooner
in the launch)
2) are your hips fully rotated?
3) is your front leg stiff or nearly stiff?
4) is your rear elbow in the slot?
5) is your front elbow up(elbow to end of bat creates a straight
line,bicep still connected to chest)?

Do this a thousand times... till it all checks out. then go to a
"T" and take video to see if you can do it off a "T". if you can the go to soft toss(from straight in front)and see if every thing transfers. then machine, then live... good luck, Rich
P.S. when you start out do every thing in slow motion till you feel you're getting it. then slowly speed it up but not untill you get it slow. very very important as it will speed up the muscle memory.