Posted by: T Olson (timolson@home.net) on Mon Apr 24 10:21:50 2000

I wanted to propose an idea and see what you folks think.

My son has tremendous rotational power that we worked all winter on.

The problem is--in live situations he is just not hitting the ball as hard. He gets some very weak hits sometimes. He and I have noticed though that the weak ones are more often than not outside pitches.

He keeps his hands in a very tight circle around the body. His rear elbow stays in close to his side. His quick hip and shoulder rotation result in his chest often facing forward at the point of contact.

What I think might be happening is that in order to go for outside pitches--his rotational style has to break down (or so he believes). At that point he reaches our more and the hands come out of the circular path.

Problem is--if he keeps his hands in more--he often connects an outside pitch in a less than desirable location on the bat (on the end).

The obvious solution is to tell the kid to wait longer and hit the ball deeper in the zone. Problem is he's aggressive and that is easier said than done. Something to work on this winter.

I have noticed that he handles inside pitches very well though and isn't afraid to stand in there.

As a test, the other day I had him stand very close to the plate (feet about 11 inches away). He did much better hitting hard to the opposite field and the inside pitches (even some occasional handle hits were harder than he previously handled outside pitches (a net gain).

Question Jack or whoever--do you think rotational style by it's nature may require somewhat closer proximity to the plate to be most effective on outside pitches--especially kids?

Bear in mind that kids have the same size plate as adults but smaller bodies and shorter bats. Does this argue for having kids with tight rotational swings stand in a little closer?

Tim