Posted by: George () on Fri Apr 6 12:13:59 2001

>>> My son,17, has been struggling with hitting line drives this year. At first I thought it was the heavier -3 bat required in HS. He's developed a good rotational swing but is hitting mostly hard grounders. Yesterday I asked him to use only shoulder rotation and arms and he was able to hit line drive after line drive. I'm aware that he lost power but I was amazed at how much bat head control he gained. When we included his hip rotation again I saw the problems return. What's hppening? timing? rolling wrists? over swinging? <<<
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> > > Hi George
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> > > Your son’s problem seems to exemplify the concern I have with batters using a light weight bat. The lighter bats allow the batter to attain good bat speed while using less efficient mechanics. Or in other words, they can use the smaller muscle groups in the hands and arms to accelerate the bat-head. -- Suppose you were to swing a 4 or 5 oz piece of plastic pipe. You could gain all the speed you would need just using the wrist of one hand and flipping it through. That would only use the back-side with a small amount of shoulder rotation.
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> > > The same is basically true with using a very light bat. Good speed can be gained by turning and extending the arms. The energy mainly comes from the back-side and the extending of the back arm. The lead-side and arm can sort of go along for the ride. But this type of mechanic just can not produce the energy needed to overcome the inertia offered by a heavier bat.
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> > > So, when your son swung the bat by just using shoulder rotation, he probably used the lead and back-side more evenly. But, when the hips were introduced, old muscle memories were brought back into play. With most mechanics taught today, popping the hips also means thrusting the back-arm forward with little thought of the lead-arm.
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> > > Jack Mankin
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> > >Thanks for your insights into this problem. A thought arose around hip rotation that might sound a little unusual. Imagine a string with a weight tied to its end or a sling with a rock in it. As the sling is twirled(rotated) and the rock accelerates the string end with the rock begins to rise up. As the speed of the rotation increases so does the centrifugal force which in turn causes the rock to lift upward almost at a 90 degree angel to the arm doing the twirling. Jack - can this also happen to the bat head when hip/shoulder rotation is maximized? What I'm getting at is, can my son's bat head speed be lifting it up a little by the time it contacts the ball thus impacting the top portion of the ball which is causing the hard grounders? Is this too strange to imagine? Again thanks for the help.
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> George -
> If I can add my 2 cents....
> I have seen lots of kids whose swings throw the bat out early (cast) when the hips start to turn. Without looking at a clip, one can't say if that applies here, however...
> On lower pitches, this early casting tends to slow the bat, let the ball get deeper and consequently hit the ball on the ground. Typically a higher pitch will see a late swing and opposite field direction. But with more rotational/better developed swings, I've started to see ground ball vs. line drive errors on semi-late swings due to a more minor level of casting.
> Everything Jack said in his last post applies to this.
> This fix I've been trying is to get the hitter to really commit to getting the hips started and turning through BEFORE they start turning the shoulders and swinging the bat (rotational swing 101 ).
> It is clear from your original post that the issue lies with the transfer mechanics - shoulders are fine until the hips have to transfer their energy to the shoulder turn. The fix is in proper sequencing of hips/legs actions with transfer mechanics through the torso to the shoulder turn.
> Hope this isn't too esoteric or confusing.
Dan - your comments make a lot of sense! The minor casting you refer to is evident when my son(right handed) slightly wraps around the ball and hits grounders to the 3rd base side. We've had some success with this casting problem by placing the bat on the shoulder and driving the bat knob toward the ball so that the hands move only after hip/shoulder rotation occur. This generally inhibits the casting by removing early hand movement. I thought that I saw the entire female Olympic softball team hitting off the shoulder. Also noticed A-Rod tapping his shoulder with the bat but that might have more to do with preparatory wrist torque motion.
Is it possible that there is also minor looping going on just before contact? Do you know of any good drills to enforce lead arm extension? Thanks for the detailed help!