Posted by: swb (a.k.a. Scott B) (batspeed@integritycorp.com) on Mon May 6 00:04:45 2002

Hi Mark,

Without seeing your swing, it'd be tough to tell what your doing wrong (if anything).

However, the fact that you feel your finishing your swing on your back foot would be a tell-tail sign that you're using an "uppercut" swing. Coaches frequently focus on upper body drills to fix the "shoulder" problem, but I agree with other on this site, that in a good swing, the shoulder may drop as the hips, and then shoulders rotate. The shoulder dropping is a symptom of another problem.

I agree with others (including Charlie Lau, Jr., who posted here a week ago) that lower body mechanics causes an "uppercut" problem. If you're finishing with your back foot "loaded", and/or your rear leg dropping (i.e. "collapsing"), you'll have at least two problems:

1) You won't be realizing maximum hip rotation, because there must be weight on your forward foot to drive your front hip backwards (while your back leg drives your back hip forward).

2) You will have problems lining your swing path up with the arc of the ball, because your backward-leaning body weight will pull the bat off your intended swing path (usually upwards). It may also pull your head off line, as well (review your video's; is your head bopping up and down, or staying level to the ground through the swing?).

My kids have just been through this problem. They'd either be topping the ball and grounding out, or undercutting and popping it up. We tried a couple of things:

- Moved the tee more forward, to force them to extend their swing forward.

- Rotational drills (bat behind the back, etc.), focusing on balanced weight transfer (maybe 50/50, or 60/40% weight front-to-back).

- Tee drills focusing on stopping forward motion, starting hip rotation, and ensuring lead arm extension (no slack), before the bottom hand moves forward.

- Stepping into the plate slightly with the timing stride.

- Hitting off the tee at home plate, so they get better feedback after each swing (i.e. topspin, back spin, line drive or flare, etc.).

No one drill has solved the problem, but focusing on whats going on in lower body rotation, rather than the shoulder or arms, has helped. Jack's research states:

"Rotating around a stationary axis (neck and spine) is a "ground-up" movement where the knees, hips and shoulders all rotate in unison. One does not lead the other. The lead knee and leg rotate and straighten to drive the front hip in an arc back toward the catcher at the same rate the back leg rotates the back hip around toward the pitcher. Both hips rotating evenly are what allow the axis to remain stationary." (http://www.batspeed.com/research04.html)

If this rotation is balanced, with the knees, hips, and shoulders working together properly, the kids seem to nail the ball with an "effortless" swing. When they rotate improperly (i.e. sliding forward while they swing the bat), or overswing using more upper body mechanics than lower body rotation, they look like they're working way too hard, and seem to miss-hit the ball most of the time.

Regards.. Scott