Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sun Apr 9 18:18:50 2006

>>> I have been working with my son on the final arc drills. I have the Heavy bag and I do just like the video.

My boy gets to the bag and does his drills very well. The toss to the bag and everything.

Now the The hard part or missed part in the video... what happens after you remove the bag?

When I remove the bag alot of the technique is lost when he tries to hit. He gets frustrated because the bag is missing and he does not know what to do after impact... If this is just a case of keep doing the technique and the rest will follow that is ok we will just work the bag to death. I will keep working with him and the bag but any hints would be welcome. <<<

Hi Wringle

What you describe is a common problem. It occur whether working with a tee or the bag. Both allow the batter to work on improving their swing mechanics. However, with some hitters, the mechanics developed with bag or tea are not the mechanics that is triggered when swinging at an incoming ball. That is why we emphasized in the video the importance of using soft toss and short toss to help make the transition.

I discussed this with a few other instructors and we all came to the conclusion. Although maintaining the rotational mechanics developed while working with bag to the cage hitting was a problem, we found much slower progress trying to correct mechanics in the cage alone. I will place below a post on this topic.

Jack Mankin
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Re: Re: Re: Re: the ultimate batting tee - cont

Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sun Oct 3 13:10:57 2004

>>> Batting Tee Man

Yeah, sure you do. Batting tees are nonsense. Garbage. Hitting is a resonder skill. You have to have an initiator, or you aren't hitting. The swing that masters hitting off a batting tee while bear no resemblance to the game swing. It's called specificity of training. Batting tees are worse than not swinging at all. <<<

Hi Melvin

I do not think that practicing with a tee (or heavy bag) is nonsense or garbage. I would agree that the swing mechanics a batter acquires while working with a tee can be very different from his game mechanics as I point out in the post below. A hitter may develop two completely different sets of swing mechanics. One set of mechanics is triggered from seeing a moving ball and the other from a ball setting still on a tee. Having different mechanical swing programs triggered by, or responding to, what the eyes see can obviously present a problem. However, it also has a benefit.

With many batters, the swing program initiated from seeing a pitched ball is so strong that it is very difficult to make substantive changes to these core mechanics . For this reason, I have found that linear hitters usually adapt to rotational batting principles much quicker while working with a heavy bag, rather than in the cage. Much time is then required to retain (or burn-in) these new mechanics while progressing from the bag through soft-toss to live pitching. --- A confirmation from frame-by-frame video analysis at each stage is most helpful.

Jack Mankin
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Re: How to stop a player from reaching for a pitch
Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com on Tue Sep 28 11:56:33 2004

>>> I have a 10 yr old player with very good all around hitting mechanics. Unfortunately, over the past 2 weeks he has developed a bad habit when he is at the plate in that he is reaching for the ball during his swing. I have worked with him recently off the Tee and his mechanics are great, but when he gets in a game or practice he begins lunging/reaching for the ball during his swing. Is there any drill/product out there that can help us out?
Thanks in advance. <<<

Hi Rich

The change in your son’s mechanics from the Tee to live pitching is quite common. I have also found that many hitters exhibit very different swing mechanics in the box from the swing they use working with the Tee or Heavy Bag. Seeing a live ball triggers swing mechanics they are most accustom to which overrides the Tee work. It can take many hours of work to burn-in a different set of mechanics. --- See if he can maintain his Tee (or Heavy Bag) form with soft-toss before progressing up to live pitching.

Lunging is a product of relying too heavily on bringing the back-side forward to swing the bat. Bringing the back-side forward is natural with all hitters. Therefore, I have the student concentrate on rotating the lead-shoulder back toward the catcher by contact. I have found no problem with the student lunging forward when concentrating on rotating the lead-shoulder back to the 105 degree position (15 degrees passed facing the pitcher). This requires extending the lead-leg to drive the lead-side back rather than moving forward onto the lead-leg.

Jack Mankin