Posted by: John D (John@Dresslar.com) on Thu Oct 20 00:38:20 2005

> I have been working with my son to change his swing from a linear mechanic to a rotational mechanic. One thing I have noticed is that his bat drops out (down) of the swing plane when the bat is in the lag position. As he starts to rotate, the bat lowers correctly into the swing plane but as he continues to rotate (his chest is facing the pitcher and bat is in the lag postion) the bat lowers out of the swing plane. I would appreciate any comments on what may be causing this to happen and how to correct it.

Dave, it's not clear what you mean by "dropping out of the swing plane"; do you mean the bat head drops so low that he has to lift it up to meet the ball? On just low pitches? (On low pitches, the bat head normally will be well below the hands, so the angle of the bat will not be perfectly perpendicular to the swing plane.)

An important question is the age of your son. If he's under ten, it's sounds like he has a problem encountered by lots of youngsters at that age, where the bathead drops right after launch to the kid's waist, and they have to yank the bat head forward. Usually, this comes from some combination of (1) weak hands, (2) lack of aggressiveness, and (3) starting the hands forward either before the stride foot hits the ground (and so they have to slow their swing to wait for the ball), or too late, losing in either instance any connection/centrifugal boost between the torso rotation and the hands. Another possibility is that he's starting the snap of his wrists too late. Sometimes youngsters get so focused on just making contact that they don't take all the aggressive steps needed to keep the bat moving fast enought.

I'd take video and play it back slowly and see if any of the above faults are present. (I'd particularly look to see if the hands are dropping before the foot strike.) Correct them as necessary by drills. If it's a problem with tentative/late hands, you might try having him hit a slightly deflated old basketball off a tee or a highway traffic cone. That forces the kid to finish off his swing aggressively.

The emphasis on lining up the knocking knuckles could be a minor culprit, as it tends to force the rear elbow down, which in turn allows the bathead to droop back toward the catcher. Try this -- let him align the top knocking knuckle with the bottom punching knuckle to allow the back elbow to stay up. BUT, the top hand should be loose while in the launch position. As the bat comes around to the contact position, the hand naturally will rotate slightly so that the knocking knuckles are lined up; adrenaline likely will cause the top hand to tighten its grip sufficiently at contact.

> I do not think he is swinging a bat that is too heavy for him. However, his grip may be too firm and he cocks his lower wrist. The "knocker" knuckles look to be lined up o.k. as he grips the bat. Other things I have thought about include the possibility of dropping/rotating the back shoulder too much or not working the led elbow up enough.
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> Thanks