Posted by: mpf (mford@uab.edu) on Sat Apr 30 10:08:01 2005

I am curious about peoples experiences with either lining up the PIP joints of the hand (middle knuckles) vs. lining up MTP joints of one hand with PIP joints of the other hand (I assuming the bat is held in the fingers either way).

I think in lining up the PIP joints the bat is more likely to be held in the fingers when you are thinking about younger kids. I was taught this back in HS "it promotes a quick bat." However, very hard to get the back elbow up or be comfortable with the back elbow up with the PIPs lined up. Furthermore, at contact your top hand will be in more (probably full) extension, therefore, very difficult to prevent the top end from rolling over the bottom too early (quick movement in a flexion direction pushing the bottom hand into extension), result - pulled weak grounders. My 5 y/o son naturally holds the bat this way and to hit solid line drives he really needs to drop his back shoulder (moving from the launch position) and "hold on." This puts the top hand in more neutral position . . . he does it 50%, but then rolls it over the other 50% . . . I got him to change his grip MTP matching PIP and he will hit more weak pop-ups versus weak grounders . . . I am guessing the there is a happy medium with lining up the knuckles.

I would be interested in any thoughts, I will be shooting for a happy medium, unless some shows or tells me otherwise

thanks for your input