Posted by: Rich () on Sun Aug 15 08:40:23 2004

I just started reading this site yesterday (ordered the video last night) so I'm pretty far behind the curve. A number of concepts here fly in the face of previous 'wisdom'.
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> Anyway... My 10-year-old goes to a cage once or twice a week. Goes back and forth from 65-45 mph cages.
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> I'm not really a big fan of cages, because I think they can really impart bad muscle memory. His front foot consistently moves outward away from the plate. The recovery time between swings isn't quite long enough somehow. And there is a tendancy to follow the path of the ball with greater and greater anticipation until one starts to pull the head up.
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> On this site, 'pulling the head off' is refuted to a degree. But my son swings over the top of virtually every pitch he misses. This is consistent with lifting the head. Everything else follows, just enough to swing over the top.
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> This is conventional wisdom anyway. What's the thinking here, especially adding the detail of swinging over most missed pitches?
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> Also, he likes to go into the 70mph cage for a challenge. Should he?
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> Extra credit. For some reason, he has stopped taking a back-swing this year. His hands start in a reasonable position, but then only go forward from there. He is strong enough to get away with it much of the time, but it makes an outside pitch impossible to handle. How to get him back to drawing the hands back before attacking? Is this approach to hitting a compensation for something? If so, what?
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> thx,
> Mark
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> Hey Mark,
If his season is over i wouldn't go to a cage till next spring... i'd burn in some muscle memory on the heavy bag then go to the "T" and see if everything that he learned on the bag transfered to the "T". if you get good results on the T and you have access to an indoor cage do some soft toss. i would film the soft toss to see what you've got. if something doesn't transfer go back and work on it till it does. do this all winter and the next time you go machine or live it should be automatic...

As far as swinging over the ball sounds like his bat is coming thru the strike zone horizontal to the ground. he needs to keep his bat on the same plane as his lead upper arm and lead forearm thru the whole swing. his lead elbow should remain up thru the swing after the swing is launched.
here's a visual that might help both of you to understand "keeping the bat on plane"

Visualize having a piece of wood laying on your desk, say a 2x2. from the right side measure in 12 inches and saw it in half. now put a hinge on it so that it swings horizontal to the ground. this is the elbow joint of the lead arm. now measure from the elbow joint to the left 12 more inches and saw it in half and put a hinge. this is the wrist joint and the wood to the left is the bat. so now you have the upper arm, the forearm and the bat all connected with hinges. lift this device up off the desk and angle it any way you want and the bat has to stay on the same PLANE as the upper arm and the forearm. there is no binding so the bat can travel at it's optimum speed.

The key is keeping the front elbow up as the hands are lowered into the swing and the trajectory of the incoming pitch. with your new device lower the hands and see where the elbow has to be in order to stay on PLANE. interesting, eh?

The tilt of the spine will also help in getting the bat in a slight upward arc toward the downward arc of the incoming ball.

Hope this helps, regards, Rich

P.S. You need to be in plane at launch. pull the hands back to the rear shoulder as you coil into launch. check the plane at launch on every swing. it is absolutely critical. h