Posted by: Major Dan (markj89@charter.net) on Mon Sep 23 13:34:08 2002

My 13 year old son has been getting weekly private lessons at Grand Slam in this hitting technique. He has now has 3 lessons and practiced his swing every day. He is frustrated as he used to be a good hitter. In games he seems to almost always be swinging under the ball. He seems to drop the barrel of the bat more then he used to. It appears to me his swing is more like a golf club swing now. I don't know what to tell him. Any suggestions?
> >
> > As always, its hard to tell anything without a video clip. And we don't know how your son it before the lessons.
> > There are many similarities between a golf swing and a baseball swing, especially in the body movements, and some crucial differences as well.
> > 'more like a golf swing' may be a good thing. can't say for sure.
> >
> > In any case, changing technique is usually 1 step back for 2 steps forward. In the 3-6 week timespan, old muscle memory is leaving, the new one is not yet established, memorized or fluid. So in that in between time, the swing always seems to have gone backward. That is is temporary thing.
> > Barrel dropping could be bad, but I've also found that when batspeed increases, the barrel gets pulled out of the shoulder turn due to greater forces. It can be a symptom of greater rotating power but less control over where the bat is due to that greater force.
> > Work on keeping the hands in during the swing. As they come out early the barrel drops under the ball.
>
> Thanks, I will tell him your suggestion. His new swing does look more like Sammy Sosa and when he does connect it seems to be hit much harder - at least in the batting cage. He has another private lesson tomorrow so maybe his batting coach will see the problem too.

If you want, remember or write down the cues/suggestions/steps/checkpoints your son is doing in his new swing and post them here. You might get more insight into what is being taught.