Posted by: mark (mark@pimadirect.com) on Sat Mar 20 07:32:57 2004

I have a couple of 12 year olds on our team who are fine hitters, yet both have the same bad habit of dipping their back shoulder to reach low or outside pitches. Any suggestions of drills to break this habit?
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> > > > > Mark You may want to look at their spine angle at address (more bend from the hip ) for low pitches. The problem with outside pitches is hitters try to hit the pitch to far out in front instead of letting the ball com to them more.
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> > > > So, are you saying they should focus on bending from the hip, verus from the knees?
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> > > http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/swings.html
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> > Whats the big deal if the pitch is low or outside you dip the shoulders, end of discussion.I play college ball, Division 1 scholarship player, scouts constantly marveling. Can antyone else say the same?
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> I almost can say the same. I'm not a scholarship player but i am a starter on a D-1 team, am I am heavily scouted (probably will go in first round or two). I don't know what level this Teacherman guy played, if he even played, but I can tell you that at my level dipping the shoulder a bit depending on type of pitch is a simple basic. I am surprised anyone, even if obviously they are not familiar with the intriciacies of the game would make such an astonishing claim that dipping the shoulders is bad. That's ok, there's claims that could be worse, like maybe it's better to contact the ball with the handle! But seriously, just some advice for the uninformed: yes, skilled hitters do dip their shoulders!

Congrats on your success guys. My issue here is that on an outside pitch these two 12 year olds dip their back shoulder significantly typically resulting in a weak pop up in fould territory to the right. This dip seems ot cause the arms and hands to become disconnected from the body and a reduction in bat speed. It makes sense that there be some level of dipping of the back shoulder, but in this case it seems severe. Any ideas?