Posted by: The Hitting Guru () on Tue Apr 3 22:20:43 2007

> >>> I thought the fence drill was detrimental to good rotational mechanics? and how would this drill develop a better swing plane? <<<
>
> You are correct. Advising your son to practice the “fence drill” and “leading with the knob to the ball” will stall, and reverse, the progress made practicing sound rotational principles. Both drills promote keeping the bat-head dragging behind the hands well into the swing. By then, the bat does not attain good acceleration until after passing through the optimum contact zone.
>
> Below are clips of the concepts Guru is promoting.
>
> Clip of fence drill -- http://firstpickclub.com/video/fencedrill.mpg
>
> Knob to the ball -- http://www.quickhands.net/pics.html
>
> Jack Mankin
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Jack Mankin. Respectfully every man has a right to his opinion. As such I respect your opinion. But if you happened to catch/see the video of the White Sox game against the Cleveland Indians, Grady Sizemore left the yard on the second pitch of the game. And guess what? He used the fence drill with rotational mechanics for a homerun. And notice the location of the pitch which was an inside high fastball. As such it would have been difficult to hit that pitch with a normal swing. Why? Because on a high inside pitch the hitter has to first commit to swinging at that pitch (2) Get the level of the bat high enough to hit a pitch that he likely determines late that he will actually swing at it because it is high as well as inside. Thus the best choice is the fence drill because it eliminates part of the swing and helps the hitter get short to the ball. The hitter is still able to generate power because he is using more of the upperbody to thrust to bat to and through the ball.