Thread: Bat Drag

What is the best way to teach girls how to not be too long in their swings, or drag the bat through the zone?

Originally Posted by kenkrause

If they can maintain connection of the hands to the back shoulder it usually helps prevent bat drag. At least that's my experience.

Can you go into more detail on what the connection is?

Chris O'Leary has some really good articles that explain the concepts very well. Here is his definition of connection:

Rotational Hitting 101 by Chris O'Leary

Connection
The principle of connection states that a hitter's hands, rather than extending through and making the Power V at the point of contact, rotate with their back shoulder through the Point Of Contact. Their hands and arms do extend on a good swing, but only after the Point Of Contact. At the Point Of Contact, a good hitter's back elbow and back knee will be bent 90 or so degrees and in the Power L position.

Nice post cshilt.

Thanks for the good answers. Does anyone have the Chris O'Leary hitting dvd? Do you recommend it?

Bat drag is a very common problem in both youth softball and baseball. IMO it is one of the hardest issues to fix.

When the front heel plants, the shoulders should start rotating. Esptein says to pretend their is a tight cord attached from the front heel to the rear shoulder. If the shoulders begin to rotate a fraction of a second after the front heel drops and the rear elbow starts to slot, then there should be no bat drag.

However, based on my recent work with my daughter, I believe there is more to it than that. I now believe that if a hitter doesn't properly weight shift, the upper body gets thrown out of sync, resulting in bat drag.

I've been taking a lot of swings trying to understand what actually causes bat drag. If I shift my weight to my front foot and then swing, I can create bat drag. If I spin on my back foot and collaspe my backside, I can create bat drag. If I load my rear hip and then shift my weight as I swing, I have a really hard time trying to create bat drag.

After studying my daughters swing more on tape, it seems that sometimes she doesn't rotate her hips as she swings, but the rotation happens as a end result of her swing. Doesn't that cause her to lose power, when she does that?

Another thing that also causes this issue is a batters initial move. You have to get your swing started as the pitch is thrown. Many batters with bat lag will drop their hands as their first move and create bat lag. If you can have them focus on moving their hands slightly back versus down for their initial move, sometimes you can cure that move.

Bill

Originally Posted by Bill Bollinger

Another thing that also causes this issue is a batters initial move. You have to get your swing started as the pitch is thrown. Many batters with bat lag will drop their hands as their first move and create bat lag.

Bill

Yes, often combined with the front leg fanning open. This constitutes a system that has to be addressed as a system rather than as separate problems.