Posted by: The Hitting Guru () on Tue Apr 3 22:42:40 2007

> > > hey everybody,
> > > my 14 year old son had been practicing rotational mechanics for around a year now, but he still had problems with his swing plane. looking at him from the front, he initiates the bathead into the plane of the lead arm fine, but as he continues to rotate the bathead falls out of plane of the lead arm (you can see the bathead below the lead elbow on tape). this unually results in too much of an uppercut swing and very bad contact, when he makes contact at all. are there any drills tips or cues that will help him create a better swing plane?
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Have hime practice th fence drill. That drill will help him clear his hands quicker and help him develop a more natural upswing (by leading with the knob to the ball.
>
> I thought the fence drill was detrimental to good rotational mechanics? and how would this drill develop a better swing plane?

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The fence drill is not detrimental to good rotational hitting. And do not be mislead into believing so. The fence drill also helps the hitter keep the inside pitch fair.

Observe the first video illustration Jack uses. You can see for your self that the fence drill (in the illustration) does not compromise a solid fluid swing.

Of course the fence drill is a drill so in a game it would not be necessary to be that close to the plate as in the video illustration. But it is good to develop the confidence that the hitter could hit an inside pitch off the plate fair.

The swing plane is also helped because the hitter is able to take a more direct route to the ball. Thus the bat head does not need to dip in order to come up as is seen in many hitting slumps. The fence drill is a quick fix to enable the hitter to get back to putting the ball in play and get quick to the ball.

Also the fence drill helps get the hips going which is more critical for power than batspeed. EX. Ken Griffey always had good batspeed, but was not pulling the ball when he came up nearly as much as he did later on in his career. He had to learn to pull the ball at the big league level. But he still generated enough power early on to hit the ball out by using the power in his lower body.