Posted by: Melvin () on Mon Jan 16 11:09:18 2006

> > My seven yr. old is in pitching machine and I'm noticing that at times he's dropping his hands as the ball approaches. Any drills or advice to help him out with this problem!
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> Frank. The question is, is his dropping of the hands a hitch or a triggering mechanism. Mel Ott (Hall of Fame) hitched his way to over 500 home runs. Ted Williams said a lot of great hitters hitched. But Charlie Lau said it best in that regardless of what a hitter does he has to be in the launch position soon enough in order to make solid contact.
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> If your son is not hitting, have him take his hands back rather than down. (See Teaching Mechanics of the Major League Swing II- Video) Pay particular attention to the section on radial deviation. This deals with the cocking of the wrists which facilitates torc.

Hi All

With regard to the last post, I have to give that a big "I don't think so."

It's far worse than you can imagine, dropping the hands.

Hitters drop their hands because they are trying to get their top hand into what they perceive to be a strong pushing position.

Problem, is pushing the top hand doesn't accelerate the barrel of the bat.

Only way to fix the real problem - a linear, hands to the ball swing -- is to develop a lead-arm dominant, rotational swing that uses torso rotation to accelerate the barrel.

As for the video mentioned, I suggest using the same money for Jack's materials.

With this hitting thing, you have to look a little deeper than the old cliches ("hitching," "trigger mechanism," "walk away from the hands") and use the old bean a little.

Melvin