Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry) on Tue Jun 19 11:44:01 2001

grc-
The fence drill,as are most drills,is a double edged sword.It can be used to promote bottom hand torque/hooking the hand path/keeping the hands in/maintaining a circular handpath/avoiding casting/premature extension/learning to stay inside the inside pitch/turning on the inside pitch/making history on the inside of the plate,etc.etc-all good things for the inside pitch.However,if you don't know what you want and don't recognize what you want,you may get/force dragging the bat and linear mechanics because most kids will try to solve the mechanical problem by dragging the bat instead of keeping the hands in without lunging.

The risk reward ratio for this drill is not favorable unless the coach knows what to look for.I am sure Epstein uses it productively.Most coaches will not and students will suffer.