Posted by: tolson () on Wed Jun 5 13:37:08 2002

I wanted to repost some of Scott B's post from last month (pertaining to Mark's back shoulder drop) because I think it captures some key issues I've been dealing with.

"""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. """"

"""""I agree with others (including Charlie Lau, Jr., who posted here a week ago) that lower body mechanics causes an "uppercut" problem."""""


""""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"""""""""

I agree completely with Scott's definition of the problem and it's adverse impacts, but have a somewhat different take on the underlying causes and how to fix the problem. I certainly welcome any other views or comments.

The problem as stated appears to be that batter has an uppercut because batter has never moved enough weight off the back foot--gotten back to a balanced position on the stride with a slight bend in the front leg. Regardless of whether weighshift or rotational mechanics are used--the leaned back position means the batter is not in a good position to drive through the ball or rotate.

Note: the lean back here is the the same thing as when a lean back is created during the swing. Also, the uppercut here is mechanically different from a swing arc that many batters have especially on low pitches.

The difference is very important and gets to what I think is the underlying causes of this type of uppercut.

Here are some related causes IMO:

1. The batter is routinely pitched high balls in practice. Many coaches don't throw hard enough or low enough. Tend to lob it and pitch from close up so balls don't drop into the zone as much.

2. Many times, batting practices turn into homerun derby. Kids hitting hard grounders and line drives don't get as much positive reinforcement as they should.

3. Coaches overuse the term "stay back" and don't realize the importance of landing on a bent front leg (for rotation) and weight shift. IMO there are worse things than slight lunging and one of those is never shifting weight.

4. Kids may also use the lazy way lifting the stride foot which may be worse when the lead foot is sitting in a hole. These kids may combine lifting the stride foot with the lean back--in other words they lift the stride foot by tilting the body back rather than lifting the foot independent of the body.

All these factors conspire to cause the hitter to lean back prior to the swing--the weight ends up on the outer side of the rear foot. While in easy practice pitching, the batter can overcome these problems--quality game pitching disrupts timing. This causes a tendency to stay back and reach out with the foot. Since the weight is still back--the lead foot can't be put down--without collapsing the back side.

The position is not conducive to anything good regardless of whether you believe in weightshift or rotational mechanics or a combination.

Fixes, as a quick fix--I believe cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 width="100%">