Bat Speed -- Baseball Hitting Forum

Posted by: Alan () on Fri Jun 7 15:15:32 2002

Hi, all. Who's tried both Jack's bag drills and the Epstein drills? We started with Jack's drills against an old (now fairly dilapidated) sea bag, but the kids didn't seem to get the concept. We moved to Epstein's drills, which seemed to help them more than trying to "arc" their swing toward the bag on a swivel chair.
>
> The kids’ swings are still a work in progress, though. Bat speed hasn’t picked up too much, though one (son) hasn’t put enough work into the drills yet to tell for certain. Daughter really likes Jack’s top-hand drills. Neither has cracked 50 mph consistently yet (they SMALL; i.e. 75 and 90 lbs, and just over 5’ tall).
>
> So, I wanted to get some practical references, tips, and pros/cons from the folks posting here, before I buy yet-one-more piece of gear (heavy bag) to store in my garage. (Who uses a garage for cars any more, anyway?)
>
> Thanks to all.. Scott
>
Scott, the mechanics of this swing are relatively simple and easy to understand. If your kids have the mechanics down, then working off a tee will work just fine.

Concerning batspeed the #1 most important part is top hand torque. When my daughters hit off the tee they always swing faster when they focus on getting the bat started. They focus on cocking the bat slightly towards the pitcher then really pulling back with the top hand. It is a simple and effective way to get the bat moving with as much speed as possible, so that by the time you get to the contact zone (and I think your still accelerating at that point) you maximize your speed.

The second most important area to work on is torque at contact.You now have the top hand driving the bat around towards the pitcher and to maximize torque you almost need the bottom hand to stop its froward movement to put the opposing force from the top hand. Now of course that is impossible to do, but you can take the bottom hand and pull it sideways across the front of your body. The combination of this and the top hand driving around and towards the pitcher gives you the torque at contact. This is a little harder to get the hitter to comprehend.

Work the first and get it down then add the second,don't try both at the same time, you should see improvement.

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> Hi, all.  Who's tried both Jack's bag drills and the Epstein drills?  We started with Jack's drills against an old (now fairly dilapidated) sea bag, but the kids didn't seem to get the concept.  We moved to Epstein's drills, which seemed to help them more than trying to "arc" their swing toward the bag on a swivel chair.
> > 
> > The kids’ swings are still a work in progress, though.  Bat speed hasn’t picked up too much, though one (son) hasn’t put enough work into the drills yet to tell for certain.  Daughter really likes Jack’s top-hand drills.  Neither has cracked 50 mph consistently yet (they SMALL; i.e. 75 and 90 lbs, and just over 5’ tall).
> > 
> > So, I wanted to get some practical references, tips, and pros/cons from the folks posting here, before I buy yet-one-more piece of gear (heavy bag) to store in my garage.  (Who uses a garage for cars any more, anyway?)
> > 
> > Thanks to all.. Scott
> > 
> Scott, the mechanics of this swing are relatively simple and easy to understand. If your kids have the mechanics down, then working off a tee will work just fine. 
> 
> Concerning batspeed the #1 most important part is top hand torque. When my daughters hit off the tee they always swing faster when they focus on getting the bat started. They focus on cocking the bat slightly towards the pitcher then really pulling back with the top hand. It is a simple and effective way to get the bat moving with as much speed as possible, so that by the time you get to the contact zone (and I think your still accelerating at that point) you maximize your speed.
> 
> The second most important area to work on is torque at contact.You now have the top hand driving the bat around towards the pitcher and to maximize torque you almost need the bottom hand to stop its froward movement to put the opposing force from the top hand. Now of course that is impossible to do, but you can take the bottom hand and pull it sideways across the front of your body. The combination of this and the top hand driving around and towards the pitcher gives you the torque at contact. This is a little harder to get the hitter to comprehend.
> 
> Work the first and get it down then add the second,don't try both at the same time, you should see improvement.

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