Posted by: llcoach () on Tue May 20 09:29:28 2008

If he's dropping his hands at/before swing initiation, the high tee drill works really well. Basically how the drill works is you set a tee on a bucket/platform so that the ball is basically at letter height. If the player drops his hands at all, he will hit underneath the ball and make contact with the tee. Once he gets the feel of keeping his hands up and in the swing plane, start lowering the tee gradually(a couple of inches at a time) until you get to at least mid-thigh height. If you see regression(ie: he starts dropping the hands as you lower the tee), raise it back up until he can take at least 15-20 swings correctly without dropping his hands.

> > My 7-year old son's pee wee league hits off a pitching machine with a speed of about 45 mph. His stance looks fine and his hand/eye coordination is good, but in his last game he swung and missed badly on 6 pitches. He hits great when I pitch to him...yet on the pitching machine his contact is sporadic, at best. He's getting a bit discouraged so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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> Think I figured it out...his back elbow is collapsing upon swinging causing him to swing in a loop underneath the ball. Will try to keep his hands a bit higher and his elbow up a little so even if his elbow does fold in the loop won't be so pronounced.