swing help any advice appreciated

[baseballmechanic]

quick backround. i started playing in a rec league this summer after not playing since highschool 15 years ago. i was taught my whole life to swing down to create backspin on the ball, how times have changed. i joined this site a few weeks ago and cannot stop searching and reading old post. myself analyzing my swing i can see that my hands start to move before toe touch, bar out my lead arm, and have bat drag. i consider myself a novice at analyzing a swing. any advice on what to work on first and possible drills to work on would be great. anything to make my weekends more enjoyable. thanks in advance for any shared info. great site with great information.

http://youtu.be/zuwMQuWhg-A

[Baseball gLove]

You are all hands. Start thinking "no hands" until your hips open first. One of my favorites to pattern after is Pedroia.

[Baseball gLove]

You are also dropping your hands. You start your hips too late leading with your hands so you can't catch up to the ball. Start your hips earlier with your hands staying back by the shoulder and use your front elbow to help you from pulling off the ball too early. Even if you are going to "take", get those hips going earlier. Make sure your hands are driving up the middle and not pulling the ball.

[baseballmechanic]

thanks for the advice. when im practicing hitting off a tee and in the cages i tell myself to try and keep my hands at my rear shoulder, but it all goes out the window during games. thanks again

[Baseball gLove]

The worst that can happen if you implement new mechanics is that you strike out. You may also need to learn how to relax. The tighter you are, the more you muscle up, the slower you will swing. Load at release by separating: reach with your stride, hands go back by your shoulders. Start by driving your back knee forward, leading with your front elbow at the ball. This should start your hips and keep you from pulling off the ball and helps to set the plane of you swing. No Hands until your hips are square to the pitcher! Keep your hands by the shoulder top hand palm away from you. This will allow you more time to see the ball. In one of Trumbo's first at bats his hips were opened square to a pitcher on a pitch he took for a ball. Next pitch he did the same with his hips except he parked the ball in the left field seats.

My 12 year old is well trained in this. He was able to stay square on pitch he was early on and still had a lot of pop hitting a double off the fence instead of pulling/ rolling over on the ball. My older son sees pitchers throwing as hard as the mid 90's and he hits to all fields. Scouts had showed up to a few games for a specific pitcher. My son loved knowing that the fastball was coming and kind of helped ruin the day for the pitcher. Against one he just missed the line opposite field on what clearly would have been extra bases and then pulled the next pitch for a triple.

[Baseball gLove]

The best part of this approach is that even when you are taking a pitch you will know if you would have been on time, or if you need to start your hips earlier. If you find your self rushing to make contact, start earlier.

[CircleChange11]

So far, not one person has mentioned coil and/or stretch. Coil in the rear hip. Get more stretch by using the rear shoulder blade to pull the rear elbow back or toward the 3B dugout. Turn the barrel with the top hand and it all gets set in motion.

Just rotating the hips without the arm stretch is highly likely to result in simple spinning. It'll end up being just one more thing you have to "unlearn" before you learn the ideal swing.

In order to "uncoil" you must first "coil", in order to "unload", you must first "load". You can just twist your hips all day long, but I find it to be much better for dancing than hitting.

So when people tell him he's "all hands" or "hips before hands", unless you're telling him to coil and stretch, all you're really asking him to do is spin his hips, throwing the hands which is marginally better than what he's doing now.

i tell myself to try and keep my hands at my rear shoulder, but it all goes out the window during games.

That is very common. During drills, you're focused on mechanics and little things. In a game you're reading the pitcher, the pitch speed, pitch location, and deciding whether to swing or not, when to swing, where to swing, etc.

I think a strong case can be made that once you're in the box during a game, your body is going to do what it's been trained to do. It's one of the reasons I don;t like to bark at kids during games. If they could change it on command, they certainly would.

So, you have to train your body, in practice, to do what you want it to do in games. That takes thousands of proper swings.

[Baseball gLove]

I was the only person commenting so far. and I did mention "load" meaning a coil, and "drive" meaning get off the backside. Driving the back knee is not going to cause one to just spin either.

[Stampede]

It's very hard to make changes to a swing against live pitching. I have seen some success using the "deltoid drill" with kids that are armsy swingers and start their arms before their hips. You basically start with your bat against your deltoid muscle and keep the bat there until you turn the corner with your swing. Watch some video of George Brett's swing. He is similar. http://youtu.be/mtlvqNFvaIA

[Baseball gLove]

It's very hard to make changes to a swing against live pitching. I have seen some success using the "deltoid drill" with kids that are armsy swingers and start their arms before their hips. You basically start with your bat against your deltoid muscle and keep the bat there until you turn the corner with your swing. Watch some video of George Brett's swing. He is similar. http://youtu.be/mtlvqNFvaIA

I tried that 6 years ago. Didn't work. I had the most success with no hands until hips square to the pitcher.

[omg]

No offense, but I'd forget most of the previous advice. You are getting way too technical and the advice is way too technical. You'll get sidetracked on baloney and go backwards.

Right now your swing plane is hardly in the zone. It's there briefly and then pulls out. You can probably only hit pitches that are in-if you can get around on it. Probably pull a fair amount foul-again on those ones you get around on.

You need to scrap your present style and forget about "down", "up", "hip rotation", etc. Right now your lower body action is not good-probably trying to follow some advice.

First thing you need to do is get on balance. In your stance, get your weight evenly balanced and comfortable. Knees slightly bent, on the balls of your feet-very comfortable and relaxed. Your balance is not that great to begin with. No offense-you haven't played in 15 years and now you're trying to hit live pitching-curves and stuff. Whatever you are trying to do now-sitting and spinning or whatever is not helping you.

Once you get that relaxed stance go to the cage and face some slow or medium pitching. Just take some real easy, loose swings and try to hit the ball up the middle. Just get the barrel of the bat on the ball and hit some easy grounders and line drives at the machine. Nice and relaxed and loose.

You should feel your legs reacting to your natural swing-don't force them. Just let them move naturally-don't spin them. What should happen is is your weight should shift from back leg to front-your back foot will come up so that it is perpendicular to the ground and it might even come completely off the ground and move a little. Don't try to make this happen-it will happen if you are balanced and relaxed.

Try this for awhile.

[Baseball gLove]

I have had the quickest results working on the bottom half. It's not brain surgery and if it works on 11's & 12's and any body looking stupid in the batting cages it should work for him. Canseco cheated his hips open after getting K'd in the PCL. I didn't realize until latter what he was doing. I thought he look awkward until the ball sailed over the fence.

[Stampede]

No offense, but your swing will not just fix itself just by relaxing and getting balanced in your stance. I'm sure you know that. It will take hundreds of swings to erase old muscle memory. Hey, no offense.

No offense, but I'd forget most of the previous advice. You are getting way too technical and the advice is way too technical. You'll get sidetracked on baloney and go backwards.

Right now your swing plane is hardly in the zone. It's there briefly and then pulls out. You can probably only hit pitches that are in-if you can get around on it. Probably pull a fair amount foul-again on those ones you get around on.

You need to scrap your present style and forget about "down", "up", "hip rotation", etc. Right now your lower body action is not good-probably trying to follow some advice.

First thing you need to do is get on balance. In your stance, get your weight evenly balanced and comfortable. Knees slightly bent, on the balls of your feet-very comfortable and relaxed. Your balance is not that great to begin with. No offense-you haven't played in 15 years and now you're trying to hit live pitching-curves and stuff. Whatever you are trying to do now-sitting and spinning or whatever is not helping you.

Once you get that relaxed stance go to the cage and face some slow or medium pitching. Just take some real easy, loose swings and try to hit the ball up the middle. Just get the barrel of the bat on the ball and hit some easy grounders and line drives at the machine. Nice and relaxed and loose.

You should feel your legs reacting to your natural swing-don't force them. Just let them move naturally-don't spin them. What should happen is is your weight should shift from back leg to front-your back foot will come up so that it is perpendicular to the ground and it might even come completely off the ground and move a little. Don't try to make this happen-it will happen if you are balanced and relaxed.

Try this for awhile.

[baseballmechanic]

thanks for all the comments and no offense was taken at all. i posted here to get some advice/opinions on things i can work on before i started to spend money on private instruction or buyings dvd's which i really didnt want to do. i guess i expected to much after not playing for so long. i gonna cont to work on keeping my hands back and trying not to let them get out to far from my body. im also searching older posts on coil,stretch,separtion. again thanks to everyone for taking time to help me out.

[pstein]

thanks for all the comments and no offense was taken at all. i posted here to get some advice/opinions on things i can work on before i started to spend money on private instruction or buyings dvd's which i really didnt want to do. i guess i expected to much after not playing for so long. i gonna cont to work on keeping my hands back and trying not to let them get out to far from my body. im also searching older posts on coil,stretch,separtion. again thanks to everyone for taking time to help me out.

What are you defining as "coil, stretch, and separation"?