Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Feb 3 12:56:27 2010

Jack's Statement
> Placing balls on two tees to promote "extend through the zone" is misleading at best if not counter productive. The ball is in contact with the ball for less than 1/1000 second. During that time, the bat moves forward about 5/8 inch

I have a couple comments on this statement. Drills are not all done to achieve the highest batspeed of the bat some are done to accomplish other important areas like keeping the bat on plane with the ball. When two balls are placed about 2 feet apart with the back ball lower then the front ball (to simulate the downward angle of the pitch) then when performed correctly the player can see if they are on plane with the ball. You must extend your arms to do this and you must not roll over the wrists because this takes your bat off plane.

Since it is impossible to time your swing so that your contact point is always exactly at the right place during every swing it also helps to give the batter a larger contact zone (beacuse they stay on plane longer).

Doing this drill for outside low pitches is a great way of teaching a player not to pull off too soon from the ball and to increase the contact length of the swing. The low outside pitch is where a pitcher is taught to get most players out and the hitter who learns to hit this pitch the best usually is the most successful (Read an article about Pujlos hitting outside pitches only for the first two months of training) but this is a whole other topic.

To say that this is counter productive is a very negative statement that is misleading to use your terms. You even say that the bat must be on plane with the ball so if you do a drill that simulates this would this not be a good drill. I agree that the bat is only in contact with the ball for 1/1000 of a sec but at what point of your swing does that 1/1000 of a sec occur? If when the pitcher releases the ball you can predict exactly where the ball is going to be at the exact time that I am going to get my bat to that spot within the 5/8th of an inch of bat path hitting would not require the bat to be on plane with the ball. That is the reason why the shorter length of time that the bat stays on plane with the ball the harder it is to time the swing to bat ball collison and the less time the player makes contact with the ball.

If you think that these statements are wrong please comment. <<<

Hi Dave

Basically, I have no problem with the drill you describe to promote a productive swing plane - when set up properly. In the drill you describe, the first tee is lower than the second. This would lead to an up-slope in the zone to closely match the path of the incoming ball. However, the drills Kevin and I were discussing had the first tee higher or level with the second tee. These would not promote a high level swing plane.

Now let use discuss your second point. You state, "You must extend your arms to do this." This is where we disagree. As this clip - Bat's Trajectory & Plate overage - shows, with sound rotational mechanics, the arms need not extend to accelerate the bat through the contact zone. Also, note in the "Swing Down on the Ball??" clip, how little (if any) their back-elbows extend in the contact zone. It is the continuation of their rotation rather than "extend through the zone" that brings the bat through the zone. They are well past the zone before the arms extend.

Earlier in the post, I said I could agree with the drill "when set up properly." When set up properly, the tees should be positioned so that the batter is able to rotate the bat through both balls while keeping the back-elbow back at his side (as the video clips show). However, this is not what I normally find. In far to many cases, the tees are positioned to far forward. This causes the batter to lean forward or bring his back-arm to near full extension to reach the second ball.

These are the reasons I stated, "Placing balls on two tees to promote "extend through the zone" is misleading at best if not counter productive."

Jack Mankin