Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sun Apr 15 02:08:36 2007

(Charles)

Jack, can rolling over of the top hand too early cause loss of power and inconsistent contact?
>
> Then my next question, can gripping the bat too far out into the fingers (and aligning of door knocking knuckles) promote a premature rolling of the hands? My experience says yes. My 14 year old seems to be rolling the top hand over early. He also grips the bat extremely far into the fingers (aligning the door knuckles). When I grip it the same way and swing my right hand rolls rapidly in the swing. What do you think?
Charles,<
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(Skip)
> One of the truisms of hitting is that rolling over does in fact cause the problems you described.

But the proper grip to avoid it depends on your son's style of hitting.

If he initates his swing with the orthodox "linear" knob-to-the-ball approach, it's very important that he grips the bat with door-knocking knuckles aligned. This is to enhance quickness and batspeed, and avoid rollover prior to contact.

But if he initiates in the THT "rotational" method promoted by this site, he should not use the door-knocking grip, for at least the following reason: it's hard to generate THT using this grip. Instead, he should use a more conventional grip, but with the top hand loose enough that it can rotate around the bat to give him "flat hands" (palm-up, palm down) prior to contact through the full range of the contact zone, regardless of early/perfect/or late timing.

Hitting with "flat hands" is another way of saying "not rolling over" prior to contact.

I don't know why your own dry swings with the door knuckle grip are resulting in rollover. It's a mystery.
skip <
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Hi Skip & Charles

I think the key to why his wrists are pre-maturely rolling may not involve his grip as much as the position of his lead-elbow. An e-mail Charles sent me regarding his son’s swing stated the following: -- “My son grips the bat very far out into the fingers (aligning the door knuckles and forcing the elbows down at set up).” – Having the lead-elbow down during the swing can definitely cause the wrist to roll before contact. I will place below a post I wrote on this topic.

Jack Mankin
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Re: PLease help I hit the top of the ball and hit only grounders....

Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Jun 14 18:32:01 2000

>>>What am i doing wrong? i hit them hard but usually top it and send a desent hit to somewhere, good right? no not when they all go right to guys or we play on grass and it just dies. Any hints? if i hit it in line drives/elivated line drives it will be a lot better . Please help i have a game on thursday, NOTE this was at batting practice if that matters, in a cage and a machine once again if it matters. <<<

Hi Troy

Giving advice on someone’s swing that you have not seen can only be guesswork. But I will give you my best guess. --- Most often, results as you describe are caused from the wrist starting to roll over before contact. Premature rolling of the wrist has been the downfall of many hitters.

The rolling over of the wrist is a natural part of the swing when it occurs at the proper time. The wrist will naturally roll when both arms have reached full extension. With good shoulder rotation (belly button at the pitcher at contact) both arms will not reach full extension until long after the bat passes through the contact zone. But if the batter uses mainly his arms to accelerate the bat and has limited shoulder rotation the arms may reach full extension before the bat reaches contact.

Another cause for the wrist to prematurely roll is from having the lead elbow pointing downward at the start of the swing. The lead elbow should be pointing into the plane of the swing through contact. If the lead elbow is pointing downward as you start your swing it will generally collapse down and into the batters side. This action causes the hands to roll and dip as the bat-head rises. The result is most often weak ground balls.

Troy, the “Keep your shoulder in there” rule is good advise during the “stride” and getting into a good “launch position.” But rotation of the shoulders is what should accelerate the hands as you initiate the swing. – So practice keeping the hands back and allowing your bodies rotation to accelerate your hands. --- This should solve the “wrist roll” problem.

Jack Mankin