Bat Speed -- Baseball Hitting Forum

Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Thu Sep 14 21:24:52 2006

>>> i look at a guy like Alfonzo Soriano and when he swings, his hands stay so close to his body and literally go straight towards the pitcher. his hands dont go out one bit. what are all the types of drills and tips to work on to help achieve this beautiful swing? what are drills to work on keeping the hands close to the body and go straight to the pitcher and avoid going out away from the body? <<<

Hi Big Mike

Welcome to the site. – I will show a couple clips of Soriano and some clips of drills that should help you develop the straight hand-path you hope to achieve. However, the clips of Soriano I have will not be of much help to you. Both of these clips show his hands taking a circular path. Therefore you obviously must have been viewing one of his swings that I have not seen.

Maybe with these following clips of Soriano, I can point out why his hands took a circular path and what you will need to do to straighten it out (go straight from A to B) -- http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/sorianoside.mpeg -- & --
http://imageevent.com/siggy/hitting/pro?p=27&n=1&m=12&c=4&l=0&w=4&s=0&z=9

Note that in both of his swings, his lead-arm remained at the same angle (almost straight) from initiation of rotation to contact. Keeping the arm at a fixed angle will always force the hands into a circular path. For you to produce an “A to B” path, you will need to start with your lead-arm well flexed (or “boxed”) and then extend (straighten) the arm to contact.

Here are a couple of clips of drills that show the “A to B” hand-path you will produce from extending your boxed lead-arm to contact. - http://www.quickhands.net/pics.html & http://firstpickclub.com/video/fencedrill.mpg . Practicing these drills can really help you achieve your goal.

I will use this overhead clip of Rose --http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/Rose.mpeg –- to illustrate what can happen to your swing when you keep the lead-arm at a fixed angle. So remember, “Box and Extend” that arm to straighten those hands. Otherwise, you could wind up looking like Soriano and Rose.

Jack Mankin

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Re: Re: Soriano: GREAT SWING Jone [ Sat Sep 16 18:53:19 2006 ]

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> >>> i look at a guy like Alfonzo Soriano and when he swings, his hands stay so close to his body and literally go straight towards the pitcher. his hands dont go out one bit. what are all the types of drills and tips to work on to help achieve this beautiful swing? what are drills to work on keeping the hands close to the body and go straight to the pitcher and avoid going out away from the body? <<<
> 
> Hi Big Mike
> 
> Welcome to the site. – I will show a couple clips of Soriano and some clips of drills that should help you develop the straight hand-path you hope to achieve. However, the clips of Soriano I have will not be of much help to you. Both of these clips show his hands taking a circular path. Therefore you obviously must have been viewing one of his swings that I have not seen.  
> 
> Maybe with these following clips of Soriano, I can point out why his hands took a circular path and what you will need to do to straighten it out (go straight from A to B) --  http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/sorianoside.mpeg -- & --
> http://imageevent.com/siggy/hitting/pro?p=27&n=1&m=12&c=4&l=0&w=4&s=0&z=9  
> 
> Note that in both of his swings, his lead-arm remained at the same angle (almost straight) from initiation of rotation to contact. Keeping the arm at a fixed angle will always force the hands into a circular path. For you to produce an “A to B” path, you will need to start with your lead-arm well flexed (or “boxed”) and then extend (straighten) the arm to contact. 
> 
> Here are a couple of clips of drills that show the “A to B” hand-path you will produce from extending your boxed lead-arm to contact. - http://www.quickhands.net/pics.html & http://firstpickclub.com/video/fencedrill.mpg . Practicing these drills can really help you achieve your goal. 
> 
> I will use this overhead clip of Rose --http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/Rose.mpeg –- to illustrate what can happen to your swing when you keep the lead-arm at a fixed angle. So remember, “Box and Extend” that arm to straighten those hands. Otherwise, you could wind up looking like Soriano and Rose. 
> 
> Jack Mankin

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