Posted by: rql () on Mon Aug 27 15:00:42 2001

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> > I hit today with your sons grounder to 2nd problem in mind what I found was interesting but I may not get it all in here now.!st I thought of my swing when I would go up the middle and away and hit plenty of sharp liners and grounders right over 2nd.Now the tee was set up middle of plate and just in front of it.What I saw was that my bat was perpendicular and the knob if it had a laser in it would shoot out towards a 1st base fungo circle or across in front of my front leg without touching it.This is how I kept the barrel back,and
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> > my shoulders were pointed toward ss or a little nearer 2nd base.What
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> > had happened was I was casting my lead arm and it was not connected to the lead shoulder.This created a more chop of a swing with the bat seeming to be still coming down through the ball at contact thus hitting low liners and grounders and my axis had drifted forward a little.The power is not there because the bottom hand is only getting to half torque then it has to keep the barrel back.Now when I wanted to pull this pitch with the same swing I did the same but used a little more top hand toward the end and more rear shoulder but had blocked off the front shoulder quite a bit.When the top hand began to torque the barrel out front itcould only do so a little because it was fighting the Bottom hand which could not torque any more.What I had was the barrel getting out front a little more the knob angle going back just a little but a laser would still not hit my lead leg.This was causing the angle to often go to 2nd but more important the little accelaration of the top hand was actually leveling out the swing here right before contact.For me I was on it solid with the lead arm down but the leveling oit actually changed the plane out so I was catching the top half of the ball where if I had kept going down and through my plane would be more center.Over and over this occured like I could'nt do anything but that,either inside out it to center or ground it to 2nd.I also tried 1 hand swings and it was interesting that once I got use to it the same happened grounders up middle okay but knob direction the same ,Only when I used my good rotation and kept the lead arm connected to shoulder could I get a full bottom hand torque range and the knob pointing at my lead thigh or hip could i hit it well and then I got some to carry maybe 225 feet much better than the other way.
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> > >>More: Only when I thought of having short arms and keeping the shoulder connected to the lead elbow did I begin to hit well.I believe he may need a que to keep the lead elbow near his body,my lead bicep touches my chest when connected to shoulder correctly,here the more turn of the shoulder brings the hands in more and what I think is meant bystaying inside the ball.It also allows me full range on my lower wrist for torque and changes the angle to hit many balls in the hole.However a big thing I believe is if the lead elbow is connected to the shoulder then you must turn the shoulder,when you do so it goes up and the rear shoulder drops and the bat gets down level and back up earlier before contact allowing not only more batspeed but shots that go in the air a long ways,the other way The lower arm is dominating pulling the plane down longer and when the top hand tries to recover ir merely levels out and often causing top of the ball contact with only half bottom hand torque which creates weak grounders to 2nd.
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> thanks for the info, rql.....i think the cue of "my lead bicep touches my chest" sounds like something i want to look into, but i would like to get some clarification.......are you talking about when the hands go back/inward turn the biceps touch the chest?......and for how long?.....for example , through launch position?.....before i try it i just want to make sure i am visualizing the concept correcty...........respectfully, grc.....

>>>GRC,actually I am refering to the swing,when I am inside outing a ball or trying to take it up the middle by pushing it my lead hand arm and elbow goes forward,[linear] away from chest and shoulder.This keeps the barrel back longer because the bottom hand is only torquing half way so the knob does'nt come back toward the front hip.When my lead bicep comes to the chest it stays connected to my shoulder better,and I get the feel of short stubby arms,because the rear elbow is down toward my ribs and my lead elbow is close to my chest.It allows the bottom of my bottom hand to torque the knob all the way back toward my hip,thus total range of bottom hand torque.In Jack's teachings this I see consistent,on the outside pitch though the elbows would cast out more and earlier still keeping chp.If your sons lead elbow and bicep is getting away from the chest he is getting linear and can do fine up the middle away,but when he tries to pull the elbow going linear is then fighting the rear shoulder and top hand and he only gets the barrel a little out front and it begins to level out right here not coming up yet.It is here I think the barrel is on a course downward to hit middle of ball but it changes to level and throws the plane off just enough to top the ballthus the grounder to 2nd.