Posted by: Roger Moore (rmoore@doe.state.nj.us) on Fri Jul 6 08:38:22 2001

Since I haven't been following Little League baseball much over the last few years, I'm not sure why kids with relaxed elbows are popping up more than kids with high back elbows - unless maybe their strides are too long. Even with relaxed elbows, the long strides may be causing their back shoulders to drop too much, or maybe their timing is so far off, given the long strides, that they wind up hitting underneath the ball. I do know that at the high school and college level, high back elbows, for hitters with normal bat speed, cause more problems for them than for hitters with relaxed elbows. Those with high back elbows have longer swings and, unless they have extremely fast hands, have to start sooner to attack the ball. For most of them, it doesn't work out too well. We try to get our high school/American Legion kids to have a relatively wide base, relaxed hands and elbows and short strides. This allows them to wait longer and apply maximum rotational torque with better timing. Those that make the adjustment generally experience higher on-base/hitting success rates. There are so many variables involved in this process that it is difficult to generalize too much. But if the game I saw last night, a 1-0 game between college age kids using wooden bats, is any indication, the incorporation of a relaxed elbow is a must. The only hitter that made any kind of decent contact was one with a low back elbow. Anyway, that is my "take" on the issue. Thanks, Roger Moore