Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sun Jun 4 18:01:30 2006

>>> my 9 year old son is opening up his front shoulder to soon, is there any good drills to help him keep it closed intill he hits the ball, thanks <<<

Hi Jack

Not having seen your son’s swing, I am not sure when his shoulder starts to open. However, I am firmly convinced that the rule, "Keep your shoulder in there," has been a major deterrent to the development of good hitters. It leads to slower generation of bat speed and, along with creating other biomechanical problems, it can cause the wrists to roll prematurely

The "keep your shoulder in there" rule certainly has merit during the stride and balance procedure a batter takes in preparation for the swing. Any premature opening of the shoulders before the initiation of the swing will result in a loss of power. It is also a valid argument for coaches to be concerned with a hitter "bailing out," which leads to many problems. But the solution is not to have the batter keep his shoulders closed during the initiation of the swing. The batter then must rely mainly on the arms.

Generating higher bat speeds requires the energies developed by the large muscles in the legs, hips and back to be transferred up and out to the bat. That transfer can only take place by the rotation of the entire torso including the shoulders. The arms-wrists-hands-bat segment is connected to the shoulders – not the hips.

Jack Mankin