Posted by: Steve (stephen.laflamme@batspeed.com) on Thu Apr 22 20:00:31 2010

> > Jack,
> > I often read your absolutes as a checkup for my son's (9 yr old)
> mechanics and have a fairly good grasp of most of them. However,
> absolute #10 confuses me, in that you state that the further away from
> contact the bat head is when the shoulders stop rotating, the weaker
> the swing. it seems to be related to the heavy bag drill, correct?,
> where we want the energy of the bat all used up at contact. but
> wouldn't the shoulders keep rotating upon follow through? if I take
> dry swings and find the point where my shoulders stop rotating, they
> seem to point way too open to have the bat still in the zone. also,
> could you explain the heavy bag drill as it relates to this concept?
> any videos to show the concept in the archives?
>
> Steve,
>
> Perhaps I can clarify a bit as to how I understand Jack's principles.
> First, think about a very extreme situation, in which the hitter has
> completely rotated his shoulders to form and angle perpendicular to
> the flight of the ball, or square with the pitcher, and left his hands
> on his shoulders and bat head pointing at the catcher. At that point,
> the hitter would have to swing using his arms only.
>
> What I think Jack's absolute #10 states is that if the bat is at ANY
> point before contact with the ball and the shoulders have fully
> rotated to be approximately square with the pitcher and the lead
> shoulder has relaxed, the swing only gets weaker as it approaches that
> contact point.
>
> Another way to state this is that if the lead arm is not at the 105
> degree point relative to the vector of the pitch (which intrinsically
> assumes that the shoulders are properly rotated) at the moment of
> contact, the swing is less powerful.
>
> Also in other words, timing is everything. Just make sure your son's
> bat head is not lagging behind, and that his contact with the pitch
> occurs AS his chest comes to point right at the pitcher.
>
> Hope I've helped to clarify,
>
> Bryce

Bryce,
Thanks for the reply, and that makes a lot of sense and is easier to understand when it's stated like that. I'm really glad you mention bat lag, as one cue that helps him hit the ball harder is "focus on getting your front shoulder back to the catcher." However, sometimes it seems like he does almost too quicky, and he will let the bat lag behind too much. It seems a good way to fix that is having him concentrate on making sure he gets a good inward shoulder turn as he starts to load up. What are your thoughts about correcting some bat lag? I really like the "shoulder cue" instead of the "hip cue" because it does more to eliminate the possibility of throwing his hands at the ball, which a lot of younger hitters are still prone to do. Thanks again for the reply,
Steve