Posted by: Outlaw (joeteg@gmail.com) on Wed Jul 7 10:11:59 2010

I think you only have a problem with opening up the front shoulder if you don't stay connected or drop the hands before starting the swing allowing the rear elbow to leak to the belly button, or a combination of both. What I mean by staying connected is keeping the front arm angle the same through the swing until contact. With a good rotational swing, the front shoulder rotates around the body through contact. I understand what you are saying, my older sons coach tells him to keep his shoulder in there. He also tells him to throw his hands at the ball and swing down on it. All those things we have all heard before that really make no sense. My son is one of the smallest on a 14 year old team (5'8"/ 125lbs), within top 2 in hitting on the team and swings a -3 bat with power to all fields on all pitches. The mechanics of the rotational swing were the key for him. Last year he would top the ball a lot and hit mostly to the opposite field. What a difference a few changes can make. He just says "yes Coach" when his coach says something like that and works his rotational technique and rips the ball. He understands more about a swing then most coaches do due to the amount of material I have forced at him over the years. This site really triggered the changes we made. If you don't have Jacks DVD's, they are a great investment.

> Thanks. More videos in my post below jacks.
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> I just have a hard time contemplating teaching him to pull his shoulder given how much I've stressed not letting it open up. Your boys have in trouble with that part?
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> > It is hard to tell from the videos, but it looks like he is pushing his hands forward in a linear fashion instead of creating a circular hand path. I would suggest, keep the hands and elbows stationary until lead shoulder begins to pull. At which time he flips his top hand to the catcher (THT) as the front shoulder continues to pull around the body. This not only creates much more bat speed, it also drops the bat head in the plane of the pitch naturally. Pull with the front shoulder, flip the back hand and hit the ball. I cannot tell the sequencing of his hips with the rest of his body, but if you get the CHP down you can work on the other things. This is what has helped my boys the most both in power and connecting with the ball.
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> > > Not dragging with rear elbow getting leading hands, but bat just never out front. 5 day tournament, all ground outs except 2..flare out to right side, shallow liner to left side. One hit. THis from a kid who in Feb was hitting all gaps and batted roughly .800 in that tourney. Started first two weeks of spring season similar fashion. Then slump (bat drag), then two weeks out of it, then back in it with open stance since Bryce Harper did it that way and fixed that, then fixed his weight over front foot, now this. It's like wack-a-mole with him.
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> > > Anyway, any help would be appreciated.
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> > > http://i47.tinypic.com/23ts01v.gif
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> > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgvEgWOh98I (foul)
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> > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSi0gYn3ZtI (Fielders Choice)