Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed May 6 11:13:29 2009

>>> My sons back elbow seems to get away from his body. His swing looks ok except everything is too far in front. I watched the analysis dvd and there was a kid that had the same issue and the narrator mentioned it could be fixed with a drill.

How do I get my sone to keep his elbow to his side? <<<

Hi Joe

The reason most hitters have their hands to far extended at contact is due to what I call, "Being to back-side dominate." In other words, they rely too much on the drive of the back-arm and are not making efficient use of their lead-side. I find that driving the back-arm forward tends to straightens out the hand-path which causes the bat-head to trail behind the hands instead of arcing around toward contact. This results in the back-arm approaching full extension by the time the bat reaches the contact zone.

I would suggest your son practice drills that encourage him to keep his top-hand back and allow his lead-side to become more involved in his swing. He should find that this would keep the bat's angular acceleration more in sync with body rotation allowing his elbow to remain back at his side (in the "L" position) at contact. -- The video clip below illustrates some of these points.

Rose - Keys to CHP

Jack Mankin