Posted by: rql () on Sat Dec 16 19:59:47 2000

rql....i know we have covered this from different angles, but if you will bear with me i would like your thoughts on the following.......as you know my son throws right/hits left & consequently has a tendency to be "linear"...that is, he draws in his hands/arms too much....so on an inside pitch, for example he will have a tendency to contact the ball too close to home plate, whereas if he had the ideal circular hand path he would contact the ball about 6 inches farther out in front of home plate................
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> > > > >my question is this: suppose he were to practice 1000's of swings off tee/soft toss, making sure, of course that contact point was well out in front of plate......would you see this as a potential cure?......in other words, do you think that the linear swing is causing him to contact to close to the plate.....OR....could it be that it is the other way around, that him, for whatever reason having always contacted the inside pitch too close too the plate has resulted in the linear swing?......i hope my question makes sense.....respectfully, grc........ >>>>GRC,yes the tee is what did it for me but please be on the field where he can see where the ball goes and feel what he must do to get it there,keep it away from 2nd or over his head.I have an idea he will need to key in on the [barrel] to get it where he wants since this decides the angle and path of ball off the bat.There was always a nice smoothness to me ripping the ball right at the 2nd baseman and a little more getting out there to get it in the hole.Learn what it takes to get it there then look for it when 1st is holding the runner and 2nd comes in a little for the double play get the right pitch even crowd the plate a little more and its often a give me base hit and runner goes to 3rd if fast.I was always trying to hit the back of the ball at the pitcher so this created linear for me but gave me a good understanding of the angles of contact and where the ball goes.Does he hit mostly grounders or fly balls when he pulls or does he get jammed or does he mostly able to hit flares to opp. field for hits on the i.s. pitch.Make sure the soft toss is straight ahead and on field too,very important!!! p.s. he may need to key on pulling the lead shoulder back more since it may have stayed kind of closed more while inside outing the ball.Think pull think react inside some kind of cue that works ,Bagwell said he never had power till he started thinking power,he must be quicker than ever before to get out further than he ever has before,good luck.>
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> > >rql, that was fast!!!....your question. "Does he hit mostly grounders or fly balls when he pulls or does he get jammed or does he mostly able to hit flares to opp. field for hits on the i.s. pitch.".....answer: aprox. 20 % of the time flairs to left field, about 80 % of the time a ground ball to 1b or 2b and about 10 % of the time a line drive to right field (in the last ten years he has NOT ONCE flied or popped to the pull field).....so to me it's obvious (and has been confirmed by film) that by the time he lets the inside pitch get in on him he's contacting the ball when the bat is still on the downswing....he's got good reaction...it's not like he is overpowered, he just let's the ball get in on him too much & then takes a fence-drill type of swing.....we have been working on what we had previously discussed about strengthening the top arm in relation to the bottom, but i think we'll try this as well......p.s.........your comment "Think pull think react inside " is interesting because many players are advised to think outside & adjust to the inside pitch, the assumption being that it's harder to think pull/adjust to the outside pitch then vice versa......however, in the case of a hitter who throws right/hits left, i think maybe he would be better off thinking inside.........by the way, i sent an email to george brett about 6 months ago (he threw right/batted left, of course)....a week later he sent a hand-written note in the U.S.mail....his only & exact words were "think 2nd base, react to the inside pitch".....oh well, at least he took the time to respond......respectfully, grc.... >>>>>I will break this up so I don't keep getting bumped offline 1/2 way through.Think pull ,react inside is for his drill to feel what he needs to do to get there.He may also use this in a game when he is looking to pull a pitch only,[situation hitting]after he learns the change then incorporate it to memory he can look away react in as I did or 2nd base react in as brett said which may be better its tough to cover the whole plate at once but I was hard headed and thought I could hit any strike where it was pitched and had no weakness.>>>GRCwhat is this [down swing] at contact I thought we swing up at launch,are you seeing downward motion of barrel at contact.If so this is the problem and here's how I would try to understand it.I did the same,a good pitch for me before transition was belt high or a little higher and out over the plate to go up the middle or opp. field.Low pitch was tough because I tried to swing down or very level and the low one would only go in the dirt,grounder,so he may be thinking or set in his way of down through the ball ,but he hits it back more before he has come down to much,but as you make contact more out front and your thought is drive down through the ball you will be going down even more and hitting top of ball,thus the grounder mostly,he never gets under it.look at his shoulders at mid swing and see the dip of the back shoulder on a grounder pulled and compare to what we see at setpro.the top hand strengthening is only to prevent bottom from controling top more than you want,you still need to know what you want them to do in order to obtain the good swing.The mind is what's important in change,analize, adjust,think lift the ball get under it or something then as it comes, cue back a little to be in the happy zone for line drives and back spin power.