bat lag... how to prevent?

[rubriva]

My 12 yr old son has a typical bat lag problem. His back elbow comes through the zone before his hands causing a whole host of issues... loss of power, late on pitches, topping the ball etc....

Other than telling him to rotate more with his hips and let the shoulders / hands follow naturally what can I do to help him get out of this habit? what drills would you recommend?

Thanks,

[TG Coach]

Tee work, tee work, tee work .... swing until he has a correct swing down. He's not going to change what has been ingrained in his mind overnight. It's most likely going to take time.

[Chris O'Leary]

My 12 yr old son has a typical bat lag problem. His back elbow comes through the zone before his hands causing a whole host of issues... loss of power, late on pitches, topping the ball etc....

Other than telling him to rotate more with his hips and let the shoulders / hands follow naturally what can I do to help him get out of this habit? what drills would you recommend?

Just to clarify, bat LAG is normal.

What you are describing sounds like bat DRAG, which can cause problems as kids get older.

[LAball]

Tee work, tee work, tee work .... swing until he has a correct swing down. He's not going to change what has been ingrained in his mind overnight. It's most likely going to take time.

I like hit a stick to do repetitive swings.

[straightleg]

Off of a tee, hits some balls. See if he is straighten out his lead arm to soon, causing a casting out swing.

I use a 12-14 oz tee ball bat and do one arm drills with my daughter of of a tee.

Front arm lead with the elbow

[Mark H]

I suggest you look into Englishbey's stuff. He deals with this problem very effectively.

[callyjr]

I stick a hand towel in between the back elbow and the body and make the kids do the short 3 drill of Epsteins. I will post video in a few when I switch computers.

Cally

[rubriva]

Just to clarify, bat LAG is normal.

What you are describing sounds like bat DRAG, which can cause problems as kids get older.

Thanks for the clarification.

[Chris O'Leary]

Thanks for the clarification.

Read this...

- Bat Drag

[rubriva]

I stick a hand towel in between the back elbow and the body and make the kids do the short 3 drill of Epsteins. I will post video in a few when I switch computers.

Cally

wow this sounds like it would work..thanks.. I almost purchased Epstein's program.... but then again I almost purchase the Hudgens, Englishbey's, Mankin, Nyman etc... with all the bashing that goes on on this site it's tough to pull the trigger on anyone of them... I guess the best thing to do is purchase all of them and just make my own judgement but that would be pretty expensive.

I'll let you know how it goes with the towel.

[GFK]

wow this sounds like it would work..thanks.. I almost purchased Epstein's program.... but then again I almost purchase the Hudgens, Englishbey's, Mankin, Nyman etc... with all the bashing that goes on on this site it's tough to pull the trigger on anyone of them... I guess the best thing to do is purchase all of them and just make my own judgement but that would be pretty expensive.

I'll let you know how it goes with the towel.

I am not sure about Hudgens, but I know for fact that Englishbey, Mankin, and Nyman have public access websites that give a taste of what they believe and teach. I suggest you give their sites a critical look and pick one. If you want my suggestions, PM me.

On the bashing, you need to learn to filter it out. A major attribute to develop will be your ability to "separate the wheat from the chaff."

[Jake Patterson]

with all the bashing that goes on on this site it's tough to pull the trigger on anyone of them...

Baseball E-learning is like anything else we do in life. We get from it what we put into it. There are those here who have very valuable input and the main hitting guys aren't that far from each other when comparing them against the average youth coach who knows little.

Faceless communication has it's problems, one being we are unable to judge the personal reactions of the person we speak with. This sometime leads to cantankerous discussion, but if you seek the answer you will find it here.

[Mark H]

Read this...

- Bat Drag

Nice job Chris.

[Mark H]

wow this sounds like it would work.. .

Maybe. Especially on the in pitch. Low and away not so much. Problem as I see it is bat drag is a perfectly rational solution (in his world) to a kid trying to develop a lot of bat speed because he likes to see the ball go far when he hits it. Take away this without showing him where to get that energy back without taking 7 frames to do it and it's like taking a bone away from a dog without giving him a steak. Your efforts are not going to be well received. The first still in Chris's bat drag exposition was praised by Epstein as a great swing. Several of the other stills show the front knee fanning open without hip rotation or momentum from the back side which I also view as Epsteinian. I know some of the Epstein guys on here have recognized the problems and modified their methods to improve on these things. I'd still recommend Right View ahead of Epstein and Englishbey ahead of any I've seen.

[rubriva]

I stick a hand towel in between the back elbow and the body and make the kids do the short 3 drill of Epsteins. I will post video in a few when I switch computers.

Cally

Callyjr.. can you post the drill that you mentioned above...I checked out Epsteins website and got even more confused.

He has a picture of a kid swinging the bat with what looks to me like bat drag yet he praises the location of his back elbow.


Here is the picture with Epsteins comments as follows: "Pictured above is a Dominican youngster scanned from Parade Magazine (7/22/07). Notice the perfect arm relationship and the correct slotting of the rear elbow. Where did he learn this? I sincerely doubt he learned this through instruction. He most likely learned it from watching the major league hitters from his country. Why don't we do this?
"