goMO
07-20-2006, 02:41 PM
My son is 15 and plays on our American Legion team (which I manage). He's always been a good hitter, high average, hits the other way, etc. etc.... Over the last two weeks, he's been hitting alot of lazy fly balls to the outfield. center, right center..
He's always been more of a "linear" hitter than "rotational" (I know its always a combination, but you know what I mean...), but has been making good strides the last year or two since I got introduced to Epstein and then made my way from BBE to HSBBW to here. I've talked with Steve Englishbey several times, and believe he's got alot to offer.
Especially considering my kid has always been a very "tall" hitter - he stands very straight up, back arched almost, in his stance. He does get into better position as he starts his swing, but doesn't have the posture that he should. Without posture, I don't see how you can maintain the box, and his falls apart into a disconnected and arms type of swing. I think he's doing some wrist underoll (like slicing a golf ball) which is causing alot of the popups.
What we worked on today (only for a half hour because we have a playoff game tonight) is the bottom of the swing. He has a tendency to lunge, which cuts off his rotation.
My advice was to land on the inside (big toe) of the front foot and keep the weight inside his body, as opposed to letting his middle cross over out from under his hips and then lose rotation and power. Once he did that, we worked on him initiated the swing from his core, middle, hips, etc. actually all of it. I told him to feel it in his quads, hammys, gluts, as well as his hips, abs, etc.
This seemed to work, as he was hitting into a net from the Jugs soft tosser that I just got him. He seemed more balanced, much improved bat quickness, and was hitting solid line drives into the middle of the net.
Being that we have a game tonight, I don't want to mess too much right now. So for tonight its "weight on the front toe and turn from the middle".
Let me know what you think...
He's always been more of a "linear" hitter than "rotational" (I know its always a combination, but you know what I mean...), but has been making good strides the last year or two since I got introduced to Epstein and then made my way from BBE to HSBBW to here. I've talked with Steve Englishbey several times, and believe he's got alot to offer.
Especially considering my kid has always been a very "tall" hitter - he stands very straight up, back arched almost, in his stance. He does get into better position as he starts his swing, but doesn't have the posture that he should. Without posture, I don't see how you can maintain the box, and his falls apart into a disconnected and arms type of swing. I think he's doing some wrist underoll (like slicing a golf ball) which is causing alot of the popups.
What we worked on today (only for a half hour because we have a playoff game tonight) is the bottom of the swing. He has a tendency to lunge, which cuts off his rotation.
My advice was to land on the inside (big toe) of the front foot and keep the weight inside his body, as opposed to letting his middle cross over out from under his hips and then lose rotation and power. Once he did that, we worked on him initiated the swing from his core, middle, hips, etc. actually all of it. I told him to feel it in his quads, hammys, gluts, as well as his hips, abs, etc.
This seemed to work, as he was hitting into a net from the Jugs soft tosser that I just got him. He seemed more balanced, much improved bat quickness, and was hitting solid line drives into the middle of the net.
Being that we have a game tonight, I don't want to mess too much right now. So for tonight its "weight on the front toe and turn from the middle".
Let me know what you think...