Quickening the Hands

[BaseballOC2]

What are some ways to quicken your hands to get in front of that inside fastball? Any drills? Or techniques?

[Ursa Major]

Don't.

Rarely will "quick hands" get the bathead around in time on an inside fastball, and, when you do (say, by starting early), you'll likely just pull the ball foul. Keep the hands in and turn the back shoulder into the ball (using the lower body as well, of course). That's most of the battle.

That's the short answer.

[Ursa Major]

Forgive my smarminess -- I was hungry and dinner was about to be served.

MarkH has a terrific read on a high tee drill which is probably one of the best drills for avoiding disconnection generally, and for hitting inside pitches in particular.

[crazyhawk]

Where can we see this article from Mark? Thanks

[Mark H]

If you really really know how to stroke the middle and outside pitch, you can tighten the radius late mostly with scap adduction and abduction, keep the way inside pitch fair even bellied up to the plate and hit it hard. Start working on this first and my experience is you screw up everything. Used to be a Piazza clip floating around that was a good example of this. It sure ain't this. http://imageevent.com/siggy/hitting/analysis?p=17&n=1&m=20&c=4&l=0&w=4&s=0&z=9 so it's not quick hands per se, it's how you connect the rotation of the body to the bat using the arms and hands.

[Mark H]

Where can we see this article from Mark? Thanks

I've used a high tee briefly to give a kid the feel of NOT pushing the hands down at the start of shoulder rotation which is one form of disconnection.

[fungo22]

What are some ways to quicken your hands to get in front of that inside fastball? Any drills? Or techniques?

Mark:

Don't you think that jacks at competetive levels will help develop quick hands?

[FiveFrameSwing]

Mark:

Don't you think that jacks at competetive levels will help develop quick hands?

When folks use the term "quick hands", are they suggesting early disconnection, or is it understood that the entire Kinetic sequence is maintained and are they instead speaking of speeding up the entire swing sequence, or perhaps speeding up a portion of the swing sequence starting with xxx?

[The Glovedoctor]

When I was in HS, I had a few buddies who went to the OSU camp and showed me this drill.

Stand facing a fence, about a foot (maybe two?) and slowly swing the bat. You will be surprised that you can actually get it around being that close to the fence (or a wall).

I don't know if this is a good drill, but....

[Mark H]

When folks use the term "quick hands", are they suggesting early disconnection, or is it understood that the entire Kinetic sequence is maintained and are they instead speaking of speeding up the entire swing sequence, or perhaps speeding up a portion of the swing sequence starting with xxx?

That's the question. I think the answer varies from person to person.