Posted by: Alan () on Wed May 8 13:10:07 2002

I have a player who we have been teaching the rotational swing to this season who has a major problem pulling the ball foul. He can’t seem to wait on the pitch.
>
> Some background on the player…
> Last year he was a pure linear hitter.
> Slap hits.. Not much follow through and blazing speed. He had a really high average and on base percentage but no power. Only 3 doubles and one triple all year. He barely got the ball out of the infield, but he was able to leg those singles out.
> This year we moved to a larger field with longer bases (11 year old 70ft)
> And he wasn’t as successful beating out the throws on the same type of hit balls. His father saw the success my son was having with Batspeed.com so we agreed to try it on his son.
> Last year he used a 30-18 bat
> So his dad went out and bought him a 30-22
> He has no problem getting this bat around. He hits with power down the 3rd base line or really foul.
> He believes in what we are teaching him yet he is frustrated with all the foul balls.
> Usually after several foul balls he tends to revert back to linear and has had very little success with it.
>
> Bottom line:
>
> I need some tips and drills to help him wait on the ball, I need to teach him to have confidence in his newfound batspeed so he will believe that it is okay to wait longer on a pitch and still believe he can get around on it.
> Thanks
> SS Coach
>
Here is something simple it may or may not work, but could be worth a try. In Jack's tape he talks about the launch position where you rotate backwards right before the ball is pitched. Check to see how far, if any, he rotates backwards and increase it. Let me know if this simple adjustment helps.