Posted by: Scott (snickas10@msn.com) on Fri Apr 29 09:57:20 2005

Get on top of ball? What advice is this for rotational mechanics? Getting on top of the ball loses major power due to the fact that your rear elbow will get away from the body, and the circular hand path will be lost. Plus, you now begin to roll the top hand and lose palm up/palm down with your top and bottom hands. Not to mention the barrel begins to lead the hands. Hitters should hit just below center of the ball. The lower the pitch is the more angle the bat must have and the more the rear shoulder will angle down. The higher the pitch is the less of an angle the shoulders and bat will be because the ball is already up for you to hit just below center. When looking at pictures (go to mlb.com photo gallery) notice when the lower the ball is the more bat and shoulder angle. The higher the ball the less angle and more leveling of the bat and shoulder. Also when looking at the pictures notice how the bat and shoulders are pretty much parallel to each other, how the rear elbow is in with the top hand palm up and bottom hand palm down, and the barrel is behind the hands.




> Well, it is hard for some to get into the baseball when the pitch is high. But, that is the pitch ALL hitters should like, because not much effort is required to hit it hard. Not much rotation either. Just stay on top of the ball and your upper body strength should naturally produce a hard hit ball. That is why pitchers are consistently told to keep the ball down (hence the more and more recent development of sinkers and cutters as typical). "ALL HANDS FIRST", on a high pitch will produce alot of line drives and home runs, as long as the pitch isn't above the shoulders and you're quick enough to get on top of the ball. Get on top! That should help.
> > This may have been discussed before but I have just started my son on the rotational swing mechanics with a circular hand path which has already helped tremendously. He used to be extreme linear with almost a chop on the top of the ball and was doing well with that but now the line drives are hard as thunder when he hits. My only problem I am having is understanding how to teach him to hit the high pitch when hes got two strikes on him . I dont see it in any of the pictures of pro swings....every pitch you see them hit in the paper and on the net is a belt high middle fastball or something belt high or below. How is it possible with these mechanics to hit the high pitch ??? Hope I do not sound argumenative but I just dont get it. I would think that to hit the high pitch you would have to use some linear mechanics a little. Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated :-)
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> > Thanks,
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> > Jeff M.