Posted by: The Hitting Guru () on Fri Jun 16 18:38:24 2006

> My 12 year old son has been hitting a lot of "dinky " ground balls for a few weeks now, and always seems to be "topping " the ball and not getting the good part of the bat on the ball. What is the easiest advice I can give him to help him understand and start hitting line drives again.
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> Thanks
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The easiest advice would be to try to hit the bottom half of the ball. Or tell him to to relax and stride toward the pitcher. Lastly tell him to make sure he keeps his hands back before striding into the pitch. (If the hitter's hands stay back, he can still hit the ball solidly even if he is fooled or off balance. Roberto Clemente and Vladimir Guerrero were perhaps the best at this.) Good luck.