Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Thu May 5 16:53:37 2005

>>> I have a little leaguer (10 yr old) who has got in a bad habit of lunging during his swing. He hits the ball regularly, but most of these are just dinks in the infield. He has almost a downward swing and will not extend his back arm OUT and through the ball. It seems as though he has more of a "wrist swing" (slap) at the same time his chin and upper body lunge towards the ball. I've been working with him this season to try and break this habit (ball slap, left over from minor league) and can't seem to break it. It's ashame because he is a good ballplayer with good bat speed, but no power. Any help would be greatly appreciated.<<<

Hi Bill

To help your son break his tendency to lunge and tilt the axis forward, it is important to understand the origin of the problem. From doing many video analyses of young hitters with this problem, I have found it is normally associated with batters whose mechanics are too back-side dominate – especially, relying too heavily on the top-hand to swing the bat.

That is why they tend to rotate the backside around a more dormant lead-shoulder. In most cases, relying too much on the top-hand also results in the back-elbow swinging under the lead-arm and inward toward the bellybutton. This leaves the bat-head lagging behind shoulder rotation and they end up leaning forward by contact.

To solve these problems, they must learn a more balanced approach in their swing by getting the lead-side more involved in the swing. They must understand that getting the lead-shoulder to rotate rearward (to the 105-degree position) is just as important as the back-shoulder rotating forward. That is what generates rotation around a stationary axis.

Bill, I have found that my students normally lose their tendency to lunge forward while concentrating on using the extension of the lead-leg to rotate the lead-shoulder back toward the catcher. – Below is a drill from the Archives that helps teach the correct transfer mechanics and reinforce the use of the lead-side.

Jack Mankin
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Re: Back elbow - bellybutton

Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Apr 13 11:57:36 2005

>>> Hi Jack
You did a swing analysis for my 10 year old daughter Kassidy 2-3 months ago and it was great! Very detailed and personalized. The main problem she was having was her back elbow sliding toward her belly button instead of staying by her side. She's still having this problem which is causing the bat to "drag" through the contact point. Any drill ideas etc. on how to help her stop this.
Thanks <<<

Hi Terry

Thank you for the kind words. – There are two main cause and effects that occur with Kassidy’s problem (elbow sliding toward her belly button). (1) Relying too heavily on the backside to swing the bat. (2) Spine bends as the back-shoulder drops to allow the elbow to swing under and inward.

As I pointed out in the swing analysis, Kassidy needs to get the lead-side more involved in the swing. To accomplish this, have her address the heavy bag with her normal launch position – make sure the hands are up near the back-shoulder. Place a playing card between her chest and biceps of the lead-arm. The arm should be tight enough across the chest to keep the card from falling.

Once she has assumed the correct launch position, have her take her top-hand off the bat. The top-hand should remain up near but not touching the bat. She should practice using the rotation of the shoulders to swing the bat to contact (heavy bag) without the card falling using only the lead-arm. This means the bag should be placed far enough back (about even with the lead-knee) so that the bat is brought to contact before the arm sweeps away from the chest.

This drill will obviously reinforce the use of the lead-side in her swing. However, she may still retain the tendency to collapse the backside. For the back-shoulder to drop and bend the spine, the lead-hip must slide foreword (toward the pitcher). Impress upon her that the lead-hip must not slide forward, it should stay back and rotate around toward the catcher during the swing.

Once she is comfortable in correctly performing the one-arm drill, she can then place the top-hand on the bat. At first it should just relax and go along for the ride with the elbow staying back at the side. At this point of the swing, the main function of the top-hand is to provide a pivot point for the lead-side to pull the bat-head around (BHT) – the top-hand serves like an oarlock while oaring a paddle through the water.

Terry, if she can grasp the true function of the top-hand once the elbow lowers to the side, not only will her problem be solved, her bat speed will also increase

Jack Mankin