Point of Contact

[Swing2Hit]

I am working with a group of young men, many of whom have not had much training. In order to show them what they are doing in an effort to create a "feel" during our discussions, I videoed a number of them. The majority of them are trying to hit the ball well out front of the plate. Their arms are shooting right through their power position and out front. Usually at that point in the video their shoulders are wide open and arms nearly extended giving them a very small window for contact. Do you have any suggestions on what we can do to reverse this bad habit? This not only minimizes there contact zone but it also takes away their ability to adjust by committing them too early.

[songtitle]

Every so often, have them practice the swing in 2 phases - stride to toe touch, then toe touch to contact

[Onebigwhitevan]

Hitting out in front of the plate is bad? If they are shoulder open see if they are mostly hip open. Do they get to full extension? Point bat at pitcher before roll over? Probably trying to hard to swing fast. Some quick cues without video.

[Swing2Hit]

Hitting out in front of the plate is bad? If they are shoulder open see if they are mostly hip open. Do they get to full extension? Point bat at pitcher before roll over? Probably trying to hard to swing fast. Some quick cues without video.

The majority of them do open the hips but not quite as early as the shoulders. Often times they are extended or near extended with bat one frame before rolling. They are making contact as the bat is making the turn around the last corner. Outside pithces and off speed stuff kills them. I know that they need to stay back more but need some ideas how to make that happen with some drills or cues.

[Onebigwhitevan]

They need to start thinking of lower and upper as separate moves done in succession. Not one spin with all happening at same time. I work with my son on stepping but keeping front shoulder down and in. Count to two then finish. It is helping. Still tends to rise up on balls of his feet and then bends over plate on slow stuff. Getting hands to stay high and tight can also add to the feel of holding upper body. Good luck. It younger ages I use to soft toss a ball higher than their head and make them keep body still while watching ball until it is in good position on way down. Holding their swing till the last moment. This gave them a true feel of how fast their swing is. They were surprised how long they needed not to move and wait to hit ball well. They always fear the ball will get by them.

[tradosaurus]

Happy gilmore drill and film them.
Also have the toss up ball and hit them to the outfield and film them. They will most likely execute proper batting mechanics doing this without even knowing or understanding it at first. Film them.
Practice.

[StanTheMan]

Perhaps have them work on where you want the knob end of the handle to be during the initial stages of the swing? With some very young players I occasionally "make them point" the knob at a spot just in front of the plate for longer than what they might think is right or feels right. This helps delay the hands slightly and may keep them from committing too early.

[azmatsfan]

It all depends on why they are hitting the ball out in front. Is it a timing issue? Are their hands moving forward in relation to their rear shoulder before their hips rotate?

[JF/NEOH]

If I understand your dillemma correctly, try using a heavey bag (old army duffel bag packed tight with towels) with a swift stick or the like. I use this with all my players, having them hit the bag at 4 different points in the swing.

1-POC #1 (this is where the bat is square to the incoming pitch, arms are not fully extended.
2-POC #2 (this is where the bat is square to the incoming pitch, arms are fully extended)
3-POINT (this is where the hitter is pointing the bat slightly left of the pitcher, RHanded batter), raised up to the 2:00ish position when looking form the opposite batter's box.
4-FINISH (my son & I call this an abbreviated finish, RHanded hitter is pointing the bat way up into the sky, past where the 3rd base coach would be, zero rollover.

Obviously, there is a lot more to the above cocerning how the player got to the spot & where the body positions are at the spot.

Plus, we do a ton of isolating upper vs lower body in this manner. One way that is really helpful is what we have come to call "exagerated".....lower body fires a good split second or so b4 upper body launches.....meaning exagerate "hips lead the hands".

I must stress, all must be done with proper mechnanics. Using the bag will ingrain the movements. Make sure they are ingraing the proper mechanics.

[Swing2Hit]

It is mainly a mechanical thing more so than timing. The majority of them have always been told to hit the ball out front and that is exactly what they are trying to do. They very seldom hit the ball in any sort of connected state. We invested in a heavy bag for the guys to hit and they understand where their swing is most powerful but are having a difficult time doing that when in the field. Maybe I am dwelling on this too much but it sure does seem to be a damaging issue. I would think that we want to strike the ball as close to our most powerful position as possible rather than at early extension. How do we teach getting to that position and doing so with enough barrel force. In another thread there was a lot of talk about the swing starting farther back and around rather than straight down to it. I think a lot of these guys are more straight to it. This makes sense in my head but maybe I am off base.

[jbooth]

I am working with a group of young men, many of whom have not had much training. In order to show them what they are doing in an effort to create a "feel" during our discussions, I videoed a number of them. The majority of them are trying to hit the ball well out front of the plate. Their arms are shooting right through their power position and out front. Usually at that point in the video their shoulders are wide open and arms nearly extended giving them a very small window for contact. Do you have any suggestions on what we can do to reverse this bad habit? This not only minimizes there contact zone but it also takes away their ability to adjust by committing them too early.

Without video it's hard to say accurately, but there is an old saying, "keep your hands back." Which means that you keep the hands back at the rear shoulder/armpit area as long as you can, and throw the barrel from there. Your hands WILL go forward, but they shouldn't be pushed or pulled forward consciously.

Put the shaft of the bat on the outside of the rear shoulder and have them swing and work on keeping the bat touching the shoulder until after the shoulders start to turn.

[tradosaurus]

If I understand your dillemma correctly, try using a heavey bag (old army duffel bag packed tight with towels) with a swift stick or the like. I use this with all my players, having them hit the bag at 4 different points in the swing.

1-POC #1 (this is where the bat is square to the incoming pitch, arms are not fully extended.
2-POC #2 (this is where the bat is square to the incoming pitch, arms are fully extended)
3-POINT (this is where the hitter is pointing the bat slightly left of the pitcher, RHanded batter), raised up to the 2:00ish position when looking form the opposite batter's box.
4-FINISH (my son & I call this an abbreviated finish, RHanded hitter is pointing the bat way up into the sky, past where the 3rd base coach would be, zero rollover.

Obviously, there is a lot more to the above cocerning how the player got to the spot & where the body positions are at the spot.

Plus, we do a ton of isolating upper vs lower body in this manner. One way that is really helpful is what we have come to call "exagerated".....lower body fires a good split second or so b4 upper body launches.....meaning exagerate "hips lead the hands".

I must stress, all must be done with proper mechnanics. Using the bag will ingrain the movements. Make sure they are ingraing the proper mechanics.

Too complicated.

[dominik]

Too complicated.

I agree.