Posted by: dougdinger () on Mon Dec 5 01:08:17 2005

> > im stugglin when im swinging (rotationally), keeping my back elbow in close to my body to help keep my swing quick. i understand the concept but what are some drills to do or anything to help apply this concept when it comes to my normal swing?
>
> Place the bat AGAINST your rear shoulder, with your elbow close to your side. When you begin your upper-body counter-rotation (pre-swing), do so as a "unit," by not separating your hands from your body. This allows your hands, arms, and upper torso to retain the same relationship that you had in your stance. Then, slide your hands through the approach. Repeat this until you've mastered this movement. The elbow MUST slot at the launch position to stay inside the ball. This advice is credited to Mike Epstein's "rotational hitting." Try it out, it cerainly worked for me.

Along with rob's idea, when you come to the launch, stick out the thumb of your top hand, it should be able to touch your back shoulder. Practice swinging by dropping the back elbow into the slot and keeping that thumb touching the shoulder for as long as possible. Mr Mankin gets credit for this drill.
This drill is actually designed to help develop top-hand torue, but I think it could be used in this situation.
Another thing u can try is to take your stance with the back elbow already down at the side. Then when u stride, rather than bring the hands backward, simply lift the back elbow up cocking the bat upward as wel, then initiate the swing by reversing that same movement-bring the back elbow down to where it was in the stance.