In working with some high school age hitters over the weekend, we were focusing on how to be quick and powerful into and through the hitting zone. When we broke out the video camera and slowed the speed down on playback I showed the kids they were not being as fluid and relaxed in their swings as they could be.
The main reason for this is young hitters get the wrong impression as to how the arms/hands are supposed to work in a swing. Most hitters when firing the arms/hands forward into the hitting zone will tense up. This is all wrong and leads to a slow and cumbersome swing.
Once the arms/hands move back into the loaded position, it’s the rotation of the upper body that brings the arms/hands into the zone. The arms arms only become involved in the swing at contact as they will extend towards the pitch.
What I see with most young hitters is that they try hard to pull their hands into the contact position instead of letting the rotation of their upper body do the work.
The best way to see if this is happening with your hitter is to video record him and play the swing back in slow motion (there are a ton of cheap flash drive type cameras that will do this now). This way you can see if in fact the body is working in rotation to get the arms/hands into position, or if the arms/hands are doing all the work.
It’s a night and day difference, here, you can see what I mean with this swing by Ivan Rodriguez.
Pay attention to tomorrow’s email as we’re nearly giving the Hitting Mechanics DVD at a very low price.
