Posted by: RedDog (gwils@brdwlaw.com) on Tue Nov 24 07:10:29 2009

>My son converted to the rotational mechanics about two years ago. He is a junior in high school. One of the most difficult concepts for him to understand and apply was this theory of THT. First of all he was using linear techniques for years prior to the change to rotational and during those years we schooled him in the idea of hitting with a "strong top hand". Because of this, when we went to the rotational swing he would push the top hand out (into a strong position) and allow it to come forward before he initiated the rotation of the hips and shoulders. This caused him to have "plane" issues and caused him to disconnect which meant that his front arm would only be taking up slack from the rear arm rather than providing power in the swing. Today, he applies the top hand in a more efficient manner but in games it still can cause problems. We think the secret to this move was to tell him to keep both hands quiet and behind his body (towards the catcher). Don't hit with the hands. When he lowers the right elbow to his back side and smoothly pulls back with the top hand, this drops his hands into what we call the "Slot" and puts the bat on plane. His front arm/elbow serves as the rudder adjusting to the ball and pitch location. Once in this position, if he stops all forward movement once the front foot hits the ground and rotates, the swing comes together. My recommendation is to quiet the hands in the rotational swing and use the back and leg muscles to bring the bat to contact. Don't be afraid to drop the barrel of the bat and get it into a good position before you initiate contact. A drill that we use to simulate this position is to start in this position and hit balls off of the tee or start in this position and hit into the heavy bag. We do this everytime we hit and now he can start there and hit front toss and live pitching. This gives him the rotational feeling and helps him find the slot. I also ask him to swing in slow motion and pull the barrel of the bat into the hitting zone in sync with his shoulders. Strong front arm and tight in the front arm pit and rotate as fast as you can. It takes many repitions to put this concept into muscle memory, but once you accomplish this the rotational swing is simple, powerful and extremely effective. We have not mastered the rotational swing but we are advancing in the right direction and we get great comments on his swing.