Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Apr 4 12:52:24 2007

>>> Thanks for setting everything straight Jack, and I will be sure to avoid the fence drill when trying to correct my son's problem...but are there any drills that WOULD help my son with his swing plane or is it just trial and error? I know that the great hitters have a slight uppercut with the path of the ball...but maybe telling him to swing down more would even things out (he already has too much of an uppercut)? I think I will just force him to hit grounders off of a tee using good mechanics for right now, unless you would be so kind as to describe a good drill for his problem. <<<

Hi Sam

Your concern for your son’s swing plane is well founded. A good hitter is a batter who consistently hits the ball hard. To hit the ball hard requires mechanics that generates bat speed. To make consistent contact requires mechanics that produces a swing plane that keeps the path of the bat in the path of the incoming ball for as long as possible – If the batter’s timing is a little early, or late, he will still make solid contact.

When great hitters go into a batting slump, it is usually not because their mechanics is no longer generating good bat speed. It is because they have developed flaws in their swing plane that caused the bat’s trajectory to wave above, and or below, the ball’s trajectory. Their swing plane appears more like a sine wave than a smooth path to the ball. This produces inconsistent hard contact and leads to batting slumps.

Sam, the key to producing a productive swing plane is: --- The bat and hands must be in the plane of the lead-arm as rotation is initiated and stay in-line with the arm to contact.. --- I can point out the above rule with a frame-by-frame analysis of this Griffey Clip --http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/griffey_ken1.mpeg --.

I chose the Griffey clip because unlike Bonds and some other good hitters, he does not cock the bat forward and use pre-launch torque to sweep the bat behind their head into the swing plane. You will note that during his pre-launch movements, Griffey keeps the bat in-line (in the swing plane) with his lead-arm.

Frame forward and note that as he launches the swing, his hands are at his back-shoulder and the hands and bat are in-line with his lead-arm. Also note that they stay in-line with the arm all the way to contact..– That is a productive swing plane that bottoms-out and is on an up-slope to match the downward path of the incoming ball.

When a batter initiates his swing with the hands or bat (or both) not in the plane of the lead-arm, flaws will result that produces inconsistent contact. – These flaws often appear with batters who cock the bat forward and do not sweep it cleanly into the swing plane. That is a major cause of batting slumps in MLB hitters as well as those learning to apply pre-launch torque.

Note; I have a good number of young hitters send in tapes of their swings for analysis that show them initiating their swings with their bats well above or below (most often below) the swing plane.

Jack Mankin