This week we are going to discuss the direction you want to take your bat to the ball. Many people call this your “swing path”. Below is Riley McDonald, an 11 year old who plays in Diamondback Little League. We photographed him hitting during a private lesson last week. You can click on the photos to blow them up and get a better view.
For starters we want to make sure that we are taking the knob (bottom) of the bat to the ball. Notice in the second photo how Riley’s knob is in direct line with the ball. This ensures a short compact swing and increases the chances of hitting the ball with the bat barrel. You see where the knob goes, the barrel usually follows. The next thing that we want to see is the bat getting flat and into the hitting zone at an early stage (see 3rd photo).
Contact is our next stage and to ensure maximum power you want to make sure that you still have some flexion in the top hand elbow. Notice in the 4th photo how Riley’s right arm is flexed at the point of contact. Full arm extention at this point would equate to a long swing, which usually results in less barrel contact and power. Imagine a boxing match. When one boxer connects with a blow his elbow is bent and he drives through his opponent. The same goes for hitting.
After contact is extention. At this point the ball is off the bat and screaming towards a fielder that wants no part of it. You can see in the 5th photo how his arms are fully extended and the back foot & hips have rotated to maximize power. A great way to practice full swing extention is to hit off 2 tees at the same time. Place one tee in front of the other with both balls at the same height and position yourself to hit the ball on the back tee. When you swing the object is to hit both baseballs and even though the front ball may not go very far, you are hitting through it instead of giving up at contact. Remember to “swing through it, not to it”!
Our last phase is finishing the swing. We want to have your hands finish near shoulder height to ensure a good level swing. If your hands finish down by the middle of your back you have most likely not gotton full extention and rolled the top hand over the bottom one too early in the swing. Most of the time this will result in a weak ground ball to the pull side of the batter. Can anyone say 6-3 (SS to 1B) and grab some pine?
We hope you enjoyed this week’s topic and we encourage you to post your comments below. We would also like to thank Riley for being a great model. He is quite the player so please keep Diamondback Little League pitchers in your prayers tonight.
Billy you have done a very good job with all of the above and I think this should be shared by all of the other Little League’s and the schools.
Awesome Bill………..Good job on the website, looks like you are very busy.
Donnie