Posted by: Outlaw (joeteg@gmail.com) on Thu Jul 8 14:13:00 2010

What has worked well for my boys is work on a heavy bag. We have one of those martial arts punching bags that is held by one person. We work both arms individually (with a light speed stick) and then together with the bat. We also use the light speed stick with the small wiffle balls and do soft toss. It is great for kids because it is so light and they can tell when they get something right.

Right now we are really working on the front heel drop to start the entire swing. That seems to really help the front hip go back as the back hip goes forward. Getting some good results there I think.

As far as topping the ball and not getting in the swing plane......we just really worked on starting the front shoulder, then really flipping that top hand over hard to create the bat speed and drop the head into the pitch plane. I then have them continue to rotate, swinging through the pitchers head/chest area. That seems to get the bat in the plane pretty consistently. Have your son swing a nice light bat and play with different degrees of flipping that top hand over as he pulls hard with his front shoulder. He should see a significant increase in bat speed and a better swing plane. Have him play around with it a bit, he will figure it out and be rocking the ball again in no time.

Oh, I always video almost every at-bat, and pitching session, of both my sons and go over it with them. I really don't have to tell my oldest anything. He sees what he is doing, gets disgusted at times, and makes adjustments on his own for the most part. My youngest, 11, is getting there but has some ground to cover yet.

Good Luck!



> Good to hear. My son, 11, about to be 12, usually one of the top performers on the team. He started good, and how I worked that was..
> 'yes the bat drops, but you don't drop THEN drive' (ie long swing)..it had good power, but doesn't catch up to good pitching. So I told him to drive while the bat drops. I think, except for tilt, he had a rotational type bat arch occuring. The coach commented he had the best swing on the team at beginning of spring. Problem was, he wanted even bigger hits...next thing you know I'm dealing with bat drag, then an open stance, then some kind of Bryce Harper front knee inward turn where the front heel did some 180 degree turn inward. I think my son is trying to get back and has worked his body and balance back to key points. Standard stance etc... He has just forgoten about the barrel...;-)
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> My son too is the shortest or one of the shortest on the team; however, he weighs more than many. I think if I could get rotational mechanics in his swing, he'd be pretty hard to beat at the plate. When he swings and misses, haley's comet is usually flying by or rear elbow is leading the hands (drag).
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> My son and I had a small talk. He told me he hated 'knob to the ball'. I told him to ignore everyone that says that.
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> I have Jack's EARLIEST DVD. 5 yrs ago maybe. Just trusting some of it. Also, as I now know more, I can see it better. My son can as well.
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> I think I just have to remind him that hands can go forward, but barrel drops and drives at initiation. He seems to have the reverse problem of drop and drive(8/9 yrs old). He has drive and drop...causing him to swing down on the ball and drive them in the ground..and be late with weak leverage (he's never getting to plane matching).
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> What drills do you use? I'm thinking an off season of 1)hitting heavy bag and 2)soft toss so hits go into the heavy bag. I know when I do that, I feel the front shoulder and I feel the initial push(THT?) towards the catcher. Thoughts? Got anymore?
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> Regards,
>
> > 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.
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> > > 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)