Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Fri Jun 17 11:14:45 2005

>>> My Daughter is 8 and playing fast pitch softball, the coaches are pitching to them. She is a hard hitter, but lately she was been hitting a lot of foul balls to the 1st base side, she is right handed. I think she is swinging late, should I tell her to start her swing when pitch is released from pitcher. Is there any drills to do. I played softball so I do practice with her a lot. <<<

Hi Jody

Welcome to the site. -- When a batter is continually hitting foul balls to the right side it means the bat-head is trailing too far behind the hands at contact. This is due more to their swing mechanics than timing. The mechanics taught by most girls' softball coaches has the batter quickly extending the hands toward the ball. This linear theory relies on a whipping action that is supposed to occur as the hands near full extension.

However, a whipping action of the bat-head (pendulum or flailing effect) only occurs when the hands are accelerated in a circular path (like swinging a ball on a string). With a straight hand-path, the bat-head just trails behind the hands and the batter must then try to bring the bat-head around by driving their top-hand past their bottom-hand (torque). This type of mechanics requires strong arms to attain even moderate bat-head acceleration, and that is why batters using these mechanics have limited power (especially to the opposite field) even with very light bats.

Jody, I would suggest your daughter would better attain her potential practicing rotational transfer principles. Rotational mechanics use the larger muscles in her legs and torso to fling the hands into a circular path. She would then be swinging the bat-head around instead of trying to muscle it with her arms.

Jack Mankin