Posted by: John (John_Priest2@msn.com) on Sat Feb 11 19:39:31 2006

I have been training baseball players for the past 6 years. I have been using a different grip than most coaches and have had great sucess. The grip I used growing up was the traditional grip of lining up the knuckles and keep the bat out of you palms.

In college I changed my grip to what I use and teach and use today. The bottom hand holds the bat like you would if using a hammer (firm and in you palm). The top hand is held in the finger tips with you wrist bent so the palm of you hand faces the pitcher. The top hand should be loose. This grip should be held chest high in front of you shoulder.

The angle of the bat should be about 1 to 2 inches above your shoulder about were the seam of your sleve is. The front elbow down in your side and the back elbow up and higher than the front. With this grip it is very important that when you pivot you pivot with both your back hip and your shoulder going toward the pitcher and not using your hands or ams. Once the pivoy is done you create a punching and squeezing motion with your top hand. I teach my students to get good extension with their hands and to not roll the top hand over the bottom utill you get full extention. With this technique I have been able to get my students unbelieveable bat speed and power.

The swing will be much shorter and will elp you stay inside the ball. This swing is mostly taught in minor and the professional leagues and have not met any high school coaches that teach this technique.