Posted by: Jimmy () on Wed Jan 10 20:55:13 2007

> When my son hits line drives, they tend to die in the outfield, apparently due to
backspin. His hardest hit balls tend to be hard grounders. Is there something in his
mechanics that needs to be corrected so the line drive travel farther?

Hi J&N,

The line drives that tend to die in the outfield actually have topspin on them much like a
forehand in tennis. The line drives that carry further are the ones with backspin. If your
son is creating too much topspin on the ball, he's probably taking too long of a path to
get to the ball. There could be a flaw in his set-up at the plate that causes the long path
or just a flaw in the actual delivery of the barrel (if his set-up is ok).

There are a couple of different kinds of long swings, the two most common are (1.) The
long swing where the barrel works under the ball too much which can cause topspin or
unproductive backspin (pop-ups) and (2.) The long swing where the barrel works around
the ball too much creating hard ground balls to the pull side only as well as dying line
drives to the pull side only. Your son may have either of the two.

Have him work on hitting the ball on the ground to the opposite field in practice then
gradually working line drives with backspin the to the middle of the field. Hitting the ball
on the ground to the opposite field to start his practice routine will help him with the
problem of getting around the ball too much and will help with the problem of working
under the ball too much (getting too flat too soon with the barrel in the swing path). Make
sure his point of contact still stays out in front of the plate when he works on this, not
letting the ball get too deep into the catcher. This will help teach the feeling of how to use
his hands correctly in the swing.

Eventually you son should be hitting line drives with backspin that carry into the gaps and
possibly over the wall.

Good luck! Jimmy