Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Thu Sep 27 01:10:12 2001

>>> Often what is called 'pulling the head out' is really a recognition and misdiagnosis of the shoulders opening too early. Seeing a hitter miss an outside pitch as the bat swings toward third base (right handed) and the head ends up looking somewhere above and foul of the foul pole, can lead one to think the head has pulled out early.
In fact the entire upper body is well ahead of itself. Thus the 'keep the front shoulder in' cue.
And that is really a sequencing error - shoulders ahead of hips.
This may apply in this particular case, maybe not. <<<

Hi Major Dan

On the outside pitch you described, I see the problem a little differently. I see the hands being extended out away from the batter’s body with very little shoulder rotation. On a good swing at an outside pitch, the batter allows the hand-path to be accelerated from shoulder rotation and the bat’s reaction to top-hand-torque -- not by keeping the shoulders back while extending the hands with the arms.

Jack Mankin