Posted by: Major Dan (markj89@charter.net) on Mon Mar 26 05:36:01 2001

jack, tom, et al.....my son plays jc baseball....in his stance, he is in somewhat of a coiled position....as his stride foot goes forward his hands go back to a point over the back foot and the shoulder turns back to a point where it is facing the shortstop (he hits left handed)....problem: at this instant of commitment to the pitch he does NOT HAVE THE TIME to turn the shoulder back in (perpendicular to the pitcher)...the ball is THERE and the only way he can contact the ball is quickly drawing in the arms (yes, there goes the circular hand path!!!)and barely but not squarely getting the bat on the ball.........if you can make sense of the problem, this is the question: when you have a 90 mph fastball headed your way, even if you strt your stride a little earlier, can you REALLY train your self to FIRST reposition the front shoulder BEFORE swinging?.....please don't tell me that it will happen automatically (repositioning the front shoulder)because it has not been happening....respectfully, grc.....

grc -
I just noticed in your other post that your son throws right, bats left and hits opposite field.
RQL and I had a number of discussions in threads last fall (here and at setpro I think) about this type of hitter.
The essense of it is: right side throwers are right side dominant. When they bat lefty, they are front side dominant, their back side doesn't play a large enough role. Consequently the bat is late. The front side pulls through, the back side is lazy. And they can't feel it because it is their non-dominant side.
My son is like that. We spent all fall doing one-handed top-hand swings, medicine ball drills, pulling balls off a Tee, etc. all to get the back side to feel what it is its supposed to do. By February, I noticed he was pulling the ball hard, sitting back on his back foot and putting everything up in the air! too much back side. We've got him back more in the middle - line drives up the middle now. but with both front and back half participating together.
This syndrome is common - 60-80% of righty/lefties are like this, but not all. Your son has the symptoms. I suspect the long swing is due to the front side needing a long time to get the bat going since the back side isn't helping enough.
I can explain more if this is not clear. But I do know how to fix this.