Posted by: Torque (roscoethewestie@comcast.net) on Mon Apr 13 19:27:50 2009

> Hey everybody. I have gotten to where I can swing pretty smooth and hit about 30ft from the fence. I really want to hit a home run and whenever I try to swing with more power everything messes up, I'll pull it foul and it feels like I'm hitting a bowling ball and it doesn't go very far.
>
> Now I'm 6'0" almost 200 lbs and I'm pretty strong for my size so I should be able to hit it over the fence. But I'm at a loss for how to add any more power to my swing without messing up my mechanics.
> So assuming my mechanics are correct when I swing smoothly. What do I need to do to add that extra "Umph" to my swing to get it over the fence.
>
> When I swing, how tense should my arms be in order to keep the rear shoulder in the "slot" position? Should they be realativeley loose? Or realativeley rigid?
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated
> ,JBO

You should be relatively loose when you swing. I will time my swings with a swing speed radar sometimes when I'm hitting off the tee. Maybe due to my age, but it takes between 15 to 22 swings before I reach significant bat speed and I attribute this to loosening up. I have taken a muscle relaxer for my back before and will hit much harder. Again, loose muscles. Leverage is the key component but someone with core flexibility and core looseness is going to hit further than someone with limited flexibility and range of motion. My preference is strong legs and hips (particularly the rear hip, very loose core (abdomen, lower back, chest), strong lead shoulder, loose biceps, strong hands.

If you tighten your chest and both arms too much the swing falls apart. Mentally, sometimes I'll see a pitch I really like and get too excited about it and muscle up the swing thinking I'm going to add a little extra power and really crush it. Somehow this usually fails when I try to add too much. Arod says he only swings 90 to 95% power. This seems to be a good power range to hit in. I notice I really get my power when I focus on getting leverage on the back elbow L slot and focus on core rotation speed. Also, I'll neglect watching the ball and not hit as hard sometimes. If I hit and get sloppy watching the ball and just swing I notice my results aren't nearly as effective.

Also, you can do wrist rolls with one of those sticks you roll up with a rope and weight on the end, one legged squats, twist situps, standing twists, opening closing hands in 5 gallon bucket filled with rice. Over under swing training 3 times a week for 5 to 6 weeks also improves bat speed but you have to swing rotationally with focus on turning hard with your core. If I had to choose 2 it would be wrist rolls and rotational over under swing training (very light bat/broom handle cut to size, game bat and very heavy bat). If I had to choose 3 I would add one legged squats (no weight and parallel to chair).