Posted by: Jim C (jhconklinjr@comcast.net) on Thu Mar 31 19:51:26 2005

Hi Tom:

Your idea about pulling the top hand to the shoulder is not bad. If by 'slack' you mean 'bend', then you never really want his front arm to be without slack early in the swing. But he needs to get the feel of holding a certain amount of tension in his front elbow so it doesn't drag open. When the rear elbow gets ahead of the hands, some people call it "dragging" or "bat drag" - like you are trying to pull the bat through. Review the "shoulder shrug" that Jack illustrates - especially the rear shoulder - pinch the rear shoulder blade a little to load. Look for the bent front elbow to be postioned above the belly button and to only go forward and around from there.