Posted by: Torque (roscoethewestie@comcast.net) on Sat Aug 29 20:40:04 2009

> My friend has a problem of jumping up or what I call jumping out of his boots during his swing. Instead of squishing the bug and the right knee finishing near 90 degrees (right handed), he jumps up and extends the knees or pushes up. This causes him to hit on top of the ball and hit the ball straight in the ground. I've tried to tell him some things to fix this but they aren't helping him. Does anyone have any drills or a fix to correct this?

I'll take a shot at it. Have him throw baseballs or softballs up in the air and hit them. Tell him to remember what it feels like and repeat it off the pitch. It is hard to lunge upward when you are throwing a ball up in the air and hitting it.

He also needs to work on watching the ball well and letting it get to him. It is unusual to see someone lunge forward at the ball. Pitch him way inside in batting practice and tell them to hit the ball no matter how far inside. If you lunge forward/upward on a way inside pitch you are going to get hit with the ball. Mentally we aren't wired to lunge into objects that are coming at us. He needs to remember what it is like not to lunge at an extreme inside pitch. Don't throw too hard though. Maybe try hitting tennis balls.

These are the only two things I can think of but he is going to have to remember what it feels like so it works when he goes to hit the pitch.