Hit It Here

Question from Ron:

My 12 year old son was taught the swing down to the ball method and when he was not progressing as I thought he should, I began to do some research on hitting styles. I came across a site on youtube that has many mlb players on video tape. After watching Matthew’s swing on video tape vs theirs, I decided the swing mechanics he was being taught needed to be changed. That is when I learned about Mike’s approach and rotational hitting.

I’m looking for help in two areas

1 – I’m struggling how to explain and get him to feel how the bat barrel goes from the load position to being on plane quickly, connected and on time. He will often flatten out the bat behind his shoulder and I’m pretty sure that is not right.

2 – The down to the ball swing path has his left arm going down or leveling off at impact. He is having trouble getting the feel of his left elbow/bicep rising in the swing.

Answer from Coach Todd:

Ron, good to hear from you. You are right on with your observations of what your son was being taught compared to what the best hitters in the world actually do. Any coach who tells a player to swing down onto the ball is obviously ignorant of what the best hitters in the world do. I don’t care what level of coaching he/she is at. Even some big league hitting coaches are ignorant on this point. This is bad and in error advice. Kudos to you for your research, noticing the difference, and desire to do what’s right for your son.

If he is flattening the bat out behind his shoulder, that tells me he is probably letting his back elbow swing out and point towards the pitcher(or his back elbow gets ahead of his hands). This usually has the bat lay back and almost “wrap around” the back. This makes for a long swing and is often called “dragging the bat”.

The best way I can think to explain this to you here is that the bat should get on plane with the ball when it is parallel to the path of the ball, not before. The hands should stay ahead of the back elbow from the start. The bat gets on plane by the front elbow turning up quickly. Less on higher pitches and more on lower pitches.

To help him get a feel for how the front arm should work, have him put his (fielding) glove on. Have him stand in his batting stance with his lead arm at a 90 degree angle pointed back at the catcher and holding his glove in such a way that he would be showing the inside of it to the umpire. Stand out in front of him with some balls and have him to turn catch them “back handed” with his front elbow pointing up and the tip of his glove pointing toward the ground. Then toss him the ball and have him catch it. Then reset and do it again. And again. And again. Repitition is the mother of skill. Stress to him to “feel” how his front arm is working in this drill and that is how it should work in the swing to get the bat on plane. Then have him switch to holding a bat from his batters stance and go to that same position as he was when he was positioning to catch the ball and to feel how it works with the bat in his hands. Finally, with the bat soft toss him from the front and have him just turn to that position and “catch” the ball on the fat part of the bat.

Good luck!