Posted by: Dave P (pzone@telus.net) on Mon Jul 24 17:39:37 2006

> I remember reading something on this site about this swing flaw. HITTING THE BALL FOUL ALL THE TIME. There are two girls I coach that can kill the ball way foul. And that's it. They foul off a ton of pitches. And then have no power up the middle, or opposite field.
>
> Some people tell them to get a heavier bat, move up in the box, etc. But it has to be some kind of flaw to constantly hit balls very foul to left field.
>
> Their swing even changes to more of a push, or slap, if it's an outside pitch.

>
> Any help or a link to the article I read would be appreciated

Hi Carl

Most of the time that players who pull the ball foul with power it comes back to two things. One is that they do not open up their hips soon enough and they make a sweeping swing with their bat so that at contact the bat has rotated too far to keep it fair. This problem also causes another problem and that is that the player usually has over rotated their shoulders backwards before initiating the swing. The hands go away from the body and then are pulled in tight and this is what causes weak ground balls the other way (hitting too early in the swing) and really far foul balls when hit later in the swing.

The other problem can be that they step in the bucket (away from the plate) when they swing and thus pull off outside pitches and pull the inside ones way foul.

I find that the first problem is the most seen problem. A good way to tell if they are over rotating back prior to the swing is if they take swings in a mirror where the mirror is in the direction of the pitcher. If they can see their back elbow behind their back at any point in their preswing then they are turning too far.

Dave P

Good Luck