Posted by: Dave (nytino20@aol.com) on Sun Apr 26 19:58:15 2009

> > I have a problem. When I take a swing my swing plane just doesn't seem right. It seems as if I am doglegging the bat. I really think it has something to do with my top hand/bottom hand. I think I am too top hand dominant. Does anybody know what I mean when by this?? This is really puzzling me and I can't seem to understand why when big leaguers take dry cuts their swing plane is nice and level and mine is more wavy. It's like the bat head is up in relation to my hands. Hope yall understand what I mean.
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> Your wrists are probably rolling prematurely. If you look at still pictures of good major league hitters their palm (rear arm) is almost always facing the sky at contact with the ball. A premature wrist roll causes the bat plane to lift up very slighty and result in an uneven swing plane and less consistent contact. Good hitting is about consistency and good hitters have developed a consistent swing plane among many other things. One of the reasons they are able to keep the palm facing the sky is because they have good core rotational flexibility. They don't have to roll the wrist to get the bat head around at contact. They simply rotate their core very quickly. If I had to develop power in a hitter it would consist of core flexibility and strength, strong hands and forearms, and one legged squats without weights. If you watch a Chase Utley workout you'll see a bunch of core workouts. Also, you can watch where hard hitters get injured to find out what is important to hard hitting. The most common injury to hard hitters is obliques so anything you can do to increase power and flexibility here will make you a better hitter and result in a better swing plane.

Awesome stuff man. Just awesome. Thank you so much for explaining this. I know how I can strengthen my core but how can I make it more flexible??