Posted by: () on Mon Oct 9 08:18:09 2000

I followed your thread of a few weeks ago with interest. My 12 year old son is a very good example of this as he hits predominantly to left and left-center and tends to hit grounders to the right side.
> > Can you give details and specifics of how you built up your left side strength and balanced your top hand action in your swing.
> > What exercises? Weights? You mentioned one-handed swings. What else?
> > We have already gone out and worked some on finding the contact point for hitting to the right side. This will be our winter project so I want to do it successfully.
> > Thanks.
> > M.D. LET ME 1ST ASK DOES YOUR SON HAVE A KNOB TO THE BALL MORE LINEAR MECHANICS.THIS CAN HAVE MUCH TO DO WITH IT.IF HIS HANDS COME FROM NEAR STANCE POSITION DOWN AT A STRAIGHT AIM TO THE BALL HE WILL OFTEN BE DRIVING THE BALL DOWNWARD INTO THE GROUND MORE IN THE PULL BECAUSE BAT IS TRAVELING FURTHER DOWN TO GET PITCH OUT FRONT.BUT THIS STYLE OFTEN ALLOWS ALOT OF CONTROL AND LINE DRIVES UP THE MIDDLE AND OPP.FIELD.THINK OF ALL THE LINE SHOTS HE DRIVES OFF THE PITCHERS MOUND THAT SHOOTS THROUGH FOR A SINGLE.NOW THESE SAME HITS RIGHT AT SECOND DONT GET THROUGH AND IF HE IS CONSISTENT OPP. AND MIDDLE HITTER HIS HIPS ARE NOT OPENING ENOUGH TO GET THE BAT CONTACT POINT OUT FRONT TO PULL IN THE HOLE AND THE AX SWING DOWN IS STOPPING ALOT OF BALLS FROM GOING UP OVER 2ND INTO THE GAP.HOW I FIXED THIS WAS I LEARNED ON MY OWN TO OPEN MORE ON A PITCH I WANTED TO PULL AND PUSH THAT REAR ELBOW DOWN NEAR THAT BACK HIP AS I ROTATED.NO MATTER HOW STRONG YOU GET THE BACK SIDE IF YOU DRIVE THAT SWING DOWNINTO THE TOP OF THAT BALL ITS GOING IN THE GROUND USUALLY AND IF YOU DONT TWIST THEM HIPS OPEN FAST YOU WILL NOT GET TO THE CONTACT POINT.I WOULD TAKE LOTS OF SWINGS ON A TIRE AGAINST A TREE IN THE YARD,SIMILAR TO JACKS BAG IDEA,AND INGRAINED THAT SWING AND CONTACT POINT AS WELL AS THE HAND PATH TO MUSCLE MEMORY.I DID ALOT OF 1 ARM SWINGS WITH TOP HAND AND LOTS MORE HAND AND WRIST EXERCISES WITH LEFT HAND.CURLS TENNIS BALLS SQUEEZES,ECT.TAKE TRICEP PUSHDOWN MACHINE AND TURN SIDEWAYS AND PULLON IT LIKE A SWING.USE GRIPPERS AND TRY TO HOLD IT LONGER WITH LEFT THAN RIGHT.BUT ITS MORE IMPORTANT TO LEARN YOUR FORM FOR PULLING THE BALL AND CONTACT POINTS TO HIT THE DIFFERENT PITCHES.USE A TEE!!! AND FIND CONTACT POINTS TO MAKE BALL GO WHERE YOU WANT AND HOW THE BODY MUST WORK TO GET THERE.THEN GO TO TIRE AND WORK ON POWER TO THOSE SPOTS AND HITTING THE TIRE AT THAT CONTACT POINT AND USE HEAVY BATS HERE.I WENT TO ALL FIELDS AT TIMES SO I HAD TO SAY LOOK AWAY AND REACT IN AND THE REACT IN WAS A QUICK OPENING OF HIPS AND GETTING THE BAT HEAD OUT THERE TO CONTACT.REMEMBER YOUR STRENGTHS AND DONT LOSE THEM WHILE YOU TRY TO TACKLE NEW HORIZONS

RQL -
>>"LET ME 1ST ASK DOES YOUR SON HAVE A KNOB TO THE BALL MORE LINEAR MECHANICS."
Long answer - Matt is somewhat of a hybrid. I have always stressed rotational mechanics from the legs. He doesn't stride, he starts wide. Paul Molitor was one of our models - No stride, quiet hands.
Matt starts and keeps his hands in close, bat in back of his head (slot position) before launch. I taught Matt to bring the top hand straight to contact - down and forward (the ax chop). But I have always seen a bit of a 'loop' in his hand path. He has always insisted that you have to have some arc to the hand path. After discovering this site and watching Mr. Mankin's Video, Matt now informs me that I should have listened to him, he has been doing the circular hand path all along - and he is right! So he is not trying to do linear mechanics with his hands.

However, I am now seeing other aspects of his swing. He doesn't use top hand torque - the bat comes out of the slot (barrel slightly forward position) to a neutral position, pauses, then gets launched, mostly from hip turn. I think you are correct that his bottom hand is dominating. His top hand and elbow aren't actively getting him to contact but are following. His hip turn is incomplete.
He can hit line drives from the third base line to through the box. But his hips don't turn through enough to create that contact to the right side. He doesn't let go of the bat with his top hand but the bat pulls up early when he pulls the ball and he swings over it. Is this due to the hips failing to complete their full turn?

"I LEARNED ON MY OWN TO OPEN MORE ON A PITCH I WANTED TO PULL AND PUSH THAT REAR ELBOW DOWN NEAR THAT BACK HIP AS I ROTATED."
I think this is what Matt needs to learn to do. A full hip rotation AND the feeling of how to get more top hand into his swing. The proper use of the top hand is what I am learning in these discussions and it is different than what I had always thought, but I see that it is what really happens.

One other thing that I saw this weekend - occasionally Matt will pop up outside pitches, usually foul of 3rd base. I could see very clearly that when this happens, his back side breaks down - the back shoulder drops, front shoulder rises. Of course this drops the bat head below the ball. I'm not sure yet how this relates to bottom hand dominance but it seems like it might be an exaggerated loss of all the things that are usually weak - he loses too much hips and the top hand and front shoulder take over completely. Any thoughts?

Thanks for your suggestions both on mechanics and back side strength building. We both better understand the direction we need to work in to add this dimension to his game.