Drill I use

[hiddengem]

This is a drill I use to combat the "out and around swing". I set a sturdy yellow T(one that won't break if hit) on the middle 3rd of the plate and have the kids address the plate as they normally would.

Now, I front toss them a ball inside of the T. If they take their normal Out, Around and Down swing they will hit the T everytime. If they use the correct posture (some tilt with their rear end out a bit)get their back elbow tucked in and their front elbow going up a, their bat will get on the right plane and swing inside of the T.

So I set up this "live" fence drill for MSandman
http://firstpickclub.com/video/handsinside.mpg

[wogdoggy]

looks like his front foot fails to rotate causing him to get a lil linear push in his swing once his leg bars...thats all i see thats possibly wrong...if i had to nit pick on the kid thats what i would conclude.your thoughts?

[hiddengem]

looks like his front foot fails to rotate causing him to get a lil linear push in his swing once his leg bars...thats all i see thats possibly wrong...if i had to nit pick on the kid thats what i would conclude.your thoughts?

Pay more attention to the purpose of the drill. I'm taking some dry hacks at about 30%. I was focusing on how the drill will get a kid away from a down and around swing to being correctly inside the ball.

[wogdoggy]

devoloping the inside outside swing? I guess in theory this is the same drill as the fence drill except the tee is used and you giving yourself more room than your bellybutton.sorry gem you look real young with your hat turned backwards

[hiddengem]

devoloping the inside outside swing? I guess in theory this is the same drill as the fence drill except the tee is used and you giving yourself more room than your bellybutton.sorry gem you look real young with your hat turned backwards

No worries, I feel like I'm 29 going on 21.

This drill is basically a "live" version of the fence drill where you can actually swing at a live pitch while having to take the correct inside out swing and not hit the T. Talk about instant feeback.

[Jake Patterson]

...except the tee is used and you giving yourself more room than your bellybutton

Not by much ...if you freeze the first few frames where he is standing as straight up as he gets to get a reference measurement and then measure the distance from his belly button to the tee he seems pretty close. I froze and measured and got a distance of about 36", that's assuming he's 6' tall. Not sure what size bat he's swinging.

[hiddengem]

Not by much ...if you freeze the first few frames where he is standing as straight up as he gets to get a reference measurement and then measure the distance from his belly button to the tee he seems pretty close. I froze and measured and got a distance of about 36", that's assuming he's 6' tall. Not sure what size bat he's swinging.

I'm 6'0 swinging a 34 inch bat, and I'm standing where I normally would stand in the box.

[Ursa Major]

HG, because you are so much further away than the artificially tight distances of the fence drill, it seems that the benefits to be achieved are different. A disconnected swing or one with less rotation can get through, as yours, alas, is, as shown in this capture of the moment of "contact". (Sorry; don't say I didn't warn you... )

But, as you emphasize, "I was focusing on how the drill will get a kid away from a down and around swing to being correctly inside the ball." What do you mean by down and around? Where the kid drops his back shoulder and his hands before rotation and tries to sweep the bat head through?

I guess if you look at it as an adjunct to soft toss or tee hitting, rather than as a specific drill, it makes sense. A kid who is hitting a pitch down the middle too close to the hands is for whatver reason extending his arms too soon. Just stick a high tee just off the plate the way you do, so the kid understands that part of the reason his tee/soft toss hits aren't going very far is because he's hitting it with the wrong part of the bat, and he'll hopefully return to his training to overcome the premature extension problem. The risk is that the kid will cheat on his posture (straighten up) to avoid the outside tee, and the cheating can be subtler and will be tougher to detect because he's farther from the tee than a batter normally would be in the fence drill.

Has anyone used the fence drill or something like this while having kids actually hit off a tee? (Don't see how you can do soft toss with a fence unless the kid is standing next to a fence that ends a few feet in front of him and the "pitcher" kneels just around the end of the fence and tosses the ball around the corner.)

[tadlock11]

Sweet, that's exactly my youngest sons problem. We'll have to go see if this drill can help him out. Right now he could probably be a great fisherman

[tadlock11]

Just to clarify, my little boy hits a lot of balls of the handle of the bat - I guess that would be his "casting".

[hiddengem]

HG, because you are so much further away than the artificially tight distances of the fence drill, it seems that the benefits to be achieved are different. A disconnected swing or one with less rotation can get through, as yours, alas, is, as shown in this capture of the moment of "contact". (Sorry; don't say I didn't warn you... )

But, as you emphasize, "I was focusing on how the drill will get a kid away from a down and around swing to being correctly inside the ball." What do you mean by down and around? Where the kid drops his back shoulder and his hands before rotation and tries to sweep the bat head through?

I guess if you look at it as an adjunct to soft toss or tee hitting, rather than as a specific drill, it makes sense. A kid who is hitting a pitch down the middle too close to the hands is for whatver reason extending his arms too soon. Just stick a high tee just off the plate the way you do, so the kid understands that part of the reason his tee/soft toss hits aren't going very far is because he's hitting it with the wrong part of the bat, and he'll hopefully return to his training to overcome the premature extension problem. The risk is that the kid will cheat on his posture (straighten up) to avoid the outside tee, and the cheating can be subtler and will be tougher to detect because he's farther from the tee than a batter normally would be in the fence drill.

Has anyone used the fence drill or something like this while having kids actually hit off a tee? (Don't see how you can do soft toss with a fence unless the kid is standing next to a fence that ends a few feet in front of him and the "pitcher" kneels just around the end of the fence and tosses the ball around the corner.)

Ok Ok, Im trying to get the kids away from this type of swing by doing this drill.

[hiddengem]

To this one.

[hiddengem]

Just to clarify, my little boy hits a lot of balls of the handle of the bat - I guess that would be his "casting".

Yea, he probably needs to keep his hands closer to his body while rotating, and tilt his spine rather than stretch his arms to hit different pitches. How old is your son?

[Ohfor]

I believe staying inside the ball is almost automatic when you understand the proper load/unload of the body.

Automatic may be too strong. You have to learn to connect the bat to the body so that it unloads properly. But, I think your right on by showing the two swing plane animations; trying to get them to be the second instead of the first.

But, I don't think the T will teach them that.

My opinion.

I would start with one arm lead arm swings, having them hit front toss. Why one arm lead arm? Because without really good aggressive body rotation, from the center, with proper load/unload principles, the bat will not "raise" to the swing plane properly. They may try to "manhandle" the bat to get it to the swing plane. But, IMHO, what they need to learn is to swing the bat with the body. A one-piece swing from the center.



Crawl inside Pujols swing and try to "feel" what he feels. Forget about the individual body parts and what they are doing for a minute. Feel what he feels. Imagine you are his anus. What does it feel like from that position. And, I'm not being funny. Or perverted. (that's as close to ones center that you can get). Do with yours, what he does with his. A full body, one piece swing. Whip the body. Whip the ass around and watch the bat raise into the plane. When I say raise, I'm referring to one arm lead arm swings.

[tadlock11]

Yea, he probably needs to keep his hands closer to his body while rotating, and tilt his spine rather than stretch his arms to hit different pitches. How old is your son?

My little one is 7 (at least playing as one per new LL age cut-off). For sure he takes the swing plane indicated by the green shade in the post above. Whenever I can get some of the clips of him we took yesterday, it is nearly an identicle path as the one above. We put him on a T and tried the "bat behind the back" drill and he was so upright he kept missing over the ball. It was just so cute to see him trying to hit it. Finally got him to bend at the waist just to make contact off the T.