Posted by: Coach Steven (steven@ars-inc.com) on Fri Mar 9 10:54:52 2007

Joe...with all due respect if your son is hitting 2 inches under the ball then there is a huge flaw in his swing. A level swing is one that mirrors the path of the ball...slight upper cut. This will equate to a center of the ball hit...if you swing down you hit the upper part of the ball and if you swing up from here you hit the lower part of the ball.

There are several things that can cause this drastic of an upper cut..poor posture comes to mind first. Make sure he is not standing too tall..a tilted posture (bend from the waist not so much the legs) puts the bat more times than not on the correct plane. Also try to keep as close to a 90 degree angle between the forearm and bicep on the top hand, this will make it very hard to upper cut if it is maintained. People talk about the power "V" that you see in good swings between the arms...this is AFTER contact. Take a look at good swing mechanics and you will the a 90 degree hinge angle that begins to unhinge at and through contact. If you are having a hard time picturing this take a look at this clip: http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/swings after the page loads scroll down and click on the first Soriano clip. You will see him tilted forward over the plate and the top hand (arm) maintain a good hinge angle that is released at and through contact.

Most huge upper cuts as you mentioned above are very arm dominant swings with a very long swing relative to what I am talking about. Hope this helps. If you have a swing clip please post it so we can take a look at it.


> My 10 year old son has a great swing. His form is perfect, his timing is perfect, but, he consistantly swings about 2 inches under the ball. Any advise on how to correct this would be greatly apreciated.
>
> Joe