Posted by: Major Dan (markj89@charter.net) on Wed Feb 6 05:37:05 2002

I've recently been struggling with how to explain to my son how to correctly get the barrel of the bat on the same plane as the incoming pitch. He tends to drop his hands, and when I ask him about it, he says it is to get the bat on plane with the pitch. His logic is that the bat head must come up from below the ball in order to meet the ball as its coming down. While it feels and looks wrong to me, I'm not so experienced/knowledgable that I can logically describe or explain a better way for him to visualize the swing to take out the loop and to keep his hands higher during the swing - if indeed it is necessary. In a way I can't fault his logic. He's bringing the bat head down from a position above his shoulders, to his waist or below, in a manner that insures his bat is rising on the same plane the ball is coming down from the pitcher. In order to do so, it would seem logical that his hands drop, and that the bat "loop". I'm trusting that those of you (including Jack) who've been so able to describe some of the more complex attributes of the "ideal" swing using the written word can help me with this.

Its good that your son is thinking and trying to figure things out. He would benefit greatly from having his batspeed measured. Feedback would let him experiment with other (better) ways to get the swing in the plane of the pitch. Consider the Setpro SPRTXA batspeed measurement machines. They have helped me considerably.