Posted by: John D (John@Dresslar.com) on Wed Nov 2 22:16:50 2005

> > My 7 yr. old son who plays machine pitch has recently developed the habit of bending or dipping his knees as the ball approaches and he takes his swing. This has resulted in a lot of infield pop ups. In his current stance, his knees are slightly bent and his legs are about shoulder width apart. I've thought about widening his stance and a few other things but wanted to get advice first.
> My brother-in-law does this in the middle of his golf swing and it causes real problems as the round goes on.
> How long and heavy of a bat is he using? Could he be compensating for a too-heavy bat somehow? I have my kids use 25/14s and 26/14s when they are 7.
>
> When does he dip relative to the movement of his hands and the rest of his body? Is it before or during his swing? Does he dip while his hands are extended or before?

I don't think you need to panic here and I don't think Chris' brother-in-law's golf problems are applicable to this issue.

A little dip is fine, as it plants the batter in a position for the bat to move the ball, and not the other way around. Most kids that age are too erect. So, I wouldn't think that his dipping in itself is causing the pop-ups.

Chris may have a very good point about the weight of the bat. What seems like 'dipping' may be an attempt to gather strength to move the bathead around. Try him with a lighter bat in practice and see if he feels more comfortable.

What may be a culprit here (causing the popups) is a common difficulty with youngsters, which is dropping the hands before the swing starts. For many, keeping your legs bent and your hands high is akin to patting your head and rubbing your belly. When the hands drop, the bathead starts too low and he has to drag the bat parallel to the ground to get it in contact position. He's not strong enough to elevate it, and hence can only hit the bottom of the ball.

Videotape some swings and see if the hands are still up when the front foot lands. If not, try some drills where he does little more than practice his front foot plant while keeping the hands in position. You can graduate from there to hitting a tire or a heavy bag like in the Final Arc.

In any case, any kind of contact in 7 year old ball is likely to get him on base. If he's hitting the ball, let him enjoy it and wait until he's 8 or, preferably, 9 before obsessing too much on technique.