Posted by: Jim (james.huang@honeywell.com) on Wed Sep 28 11:25:54 2005

Hi, I have a question on power hitting and the hands/bat position. I saw a video of Pujols hitting a homerun and it was quite clear that he brought his bat down below the ball to get on the same plane before contact (was a chest/stomach high fastball.) But I keep hearing how important it is to bring the hand in a straight, short and inside path to the ball to keep the swing as fast and compact as possible (and you may not be able to level you swing in time.) My question is, can you do both?

Like in Pujols' case, did he aim his hands to a point below the ball or did he aim his hands straight for the ball and just angle the bat with his hands so the bat head was below the ball. Some instructors mention just hit down at the ball and just before contact your bat will naturally square up to the ball (and timing is critical). They said don't angle the bat down because you lose speed. But getting the bat square at the last second instead of leveling off before seems dicey.

So I am really confused how to coach my son on this.

Thanks all! :)

P.S. My son has been taught rotational hitting.