What Is The Wrist Angle Position At Point Of Contact?

[ThundersDad]

Hey Howard or SBFAMILY, When does a right handed hitter release the angle of the right hand? My DD is not releasing her right wrist angle on the swing to contact drill. In other words she is not throwing the hammer head at the nail or releasing her wrist. She is having trouble hitting back up the middle or to the left side. In this drill the bat end is still angled back, shouldn't it be square to the ball at her front foot ? Everyone is saying that she is late on her swing, I just don't think that she is late. Can you help please? Thanks, ThundersDad.

 

[tom.guerry]

In the HLBB swing as described by Ted Williams, the top hand wrist is ideally "unbroken" (still "set"/dorsiflexed) and definitely not rolling (pronating) at contact.

To provide additional room for release/aceleration and to avoid DEceleration of the bathead before contact, the top hand wrist can lose its "set"/"break" by palmar flexing and ADducting, but still not pronating (rolling) before contact.

A similar "release action" is desirable in golf and what needs to be avoided in golf is "flipping" of the wrists (loss of top/rear wrist dorsiflexion/"set" and "uncocking" of lead/bottom wrist by dorsiflexion instead of ADduction explained here as the desired "impact position" of hands:

YouTube - lynnblakegolf's Channel

 

[ThundersDad]

I understand that the hands should be palm up and palm down at contact , just trying to make sure if she should make a conscious effort to release the angle in her right hand at contact or should it be happening on it's own. If a ball is coming down the middle of the plate belt high right on the power line should her bat be ninety degrees across the power line or square to hit right back up the middle ? If her right wrist angle is holding the bat barrel back at contact then what needs to happen to get square on the ball ? I just know that when I drive a nail with a hammer as Howard suggest ( I think) that you release the hammer head at contact to keep from pushing the nail. In other words should the bat barrel when she stops it in the swing to contact drill be crossing the path of the ball forming a ninety degree angle with ball path and bat barrel path ? With her right hand palm facing up should the angle in her right wrist be, angled back ( pinched back towards the right side of forearm ) or released ? Try it , this changes where the bat end is pointed from across front foot to pointing at the back foot, the difference in a hit up the middle or a foul down the first base line, just by working your wrists back and fortth. Could someone please give advice on this ?

 

[Chris O'Leary]

I understand that the hands should be palm up and palm down at contact , just trying to make sure if she should make a conscious effort to release the angle in her right hand at contact or should it be happening on it's own. If a ball is coming down the middle of the plate belt high right on the power line should her bat be ninety degrees across the power line or square to hit right back up the middle ? If her right wrist angle is holding the bat barrel back at contact then what needs to happen to get square on the ball ? I just know that when I drive a nail with a hammer as Howard suggest ( I think) that you release the hammer head at contact to keep from pushing the nail. In other words should the bat barrel when she stops it in the swing to contact drill be crossing the path of the ball forming a ninety degree angle with ball path and bat barrel path ? With her right hand palm facing up should the angle in her right wrist be, angled back ( pinched back towards the right side of forearm ) or released ? Try it , this changes where the bat end is pointed from across front foot to pointing at the back foot, the difference in a hit up the middle or a foul down the first base line, just by working your wrists back and fortth. Could someone please give advice on this ?

On a really good swing, the barrel and front arm will be in line.

 

[3DD'sDAD]

If I understand Howard's teaching correctly. and to agree with COL's direction in the picture he posted, the timing of the hinged wrist release should be immediately before or at contact. The "whip" created by the arm straightening and the wrists straightening at the same time further accelerates the bat at or immediately before POC thereby creating more power. No ADducting or pronating here, just simple kinesiology. The chaining of the muscles, the large muscles beginning the swing and continuing the swing with the smaller (triceps and forearm) or faster twitch muscles, creating "whip" to square the bat at POC is fairly simple, but difficult to perform at the correct time. Howard's "matrix" drill may help. The hammer drill will definitely help, but not necesssarily with the timing of wrist release or unhinging (if that is a word). This is simply my understanding of the swing that works with our girls as taught by some on this board. Not technical here, but hopefully easier to understand.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

If I understand Howard's teaching correctly. and to agree with COL's direction in the picture he posted, the timing of the hinged wrist release should be immediately before or at contact. The "whip" created by the arm straightening and the wrists straightening at the same time further accelerates the bat at or immediately before POC thereby creating more power. No ADducting or pronating here, just simple kinesiology. The chaining of the muscles, the large muscles beginning the swing and continuing the swing with the smaller (triceps and forearm) or faster twitch muscles, creating "whip" to square the bat at POC is fairly simple, but difficult to perform at the correct time. Howard's "matrix" drill may help. The hammer drill will definitely help, but not necesssarily with the timing of wrist release or unhinging (if that is a word). This is simply my understanding of the swing that works with our girls as taught by some on this board. Not technical here, but hopefully easier to understand.

Actually, it's a question of physics and not kinesiology.

On a good, 5-frame swing good hitters hold the hinge angle for the first 3 or so frames and then release the bat head in the 2 or so frames right before contact. That then causes the bat head to whip out into the path of the ball all on its own (due in large part to the curved hand path).

I say "release" because that is all that is necessary. There is no need to push anything if you do this right.

If you try to boost the power of the whip with the arms and the wrists then you are only going to slow the whip down because you will gum up a hinge that needs to swing freely.

The point of the hammer concept is the same. If you try to power the head of the hammer around with your wrist, you will soon have an achy wrist. What you have to do is learn to let the head of the hammer whip around your hand (due to properly timed and rapid accelerations and decelerations).

 

[SBFAMILY]

Do the mattrix drill. The release point is different based on an inside pitch or an outside pitch. On the inside pitch she will be releasing and hitting the ball out in front of the plate. I think the picture Chris posted shows that. On the outside pitch you release and hit the ball futher back over the plate. This is the pitch that you drive to the opposite field in most cases. Take Black tape and mark and X on her shirt where her belly button is located. During Mattrix watch where her belly button ends up. Look at the above picture that Chris posted. Kids tend to over rotate. So you rotate as needed to hit the pitch. Doing the Mattrix drill you will be able to see where she releases the bat and her belly button points. Make sure you have a ball on the T and she hits it in slow motion in the direction you are working on. Take it slow and develope muscle memory. .

 

[ThundersDad]

Thanks Chris and 3DD'SDad, I just caught my daughter in the swing to contact drill with that right wrist still cocked back and not released, and as a result making the bat lag way behind and pointing down the first base line or worse. Just trying to find an answer to why she is hitting so many balls to the right side of the field. I thought the hands had to release at impact or just before, just as you have to release your hands in golf to square the clubface at impact with the ball, or everything goes right (slice). Not palm up, palm down in golf of course, but the bat is longer so her hands must release in order to catch the barrel end up at contact. If I'm understanding it correctly you need that angle creating by the wrist to create that whipping effect for more power and not be just pushing the bat. Where should the belt buckle be pointing at that same place of contact ? Thanks SBFAMILY, you answered while I was typing. I think she may be over rotating also. But her hands were really tight in this drill holding the bat head way behind. Do we need to work on loosening up her grip on the bat ?

 

[SBFAMILY]

Read Howard's posts on grip. Without the proper grip you will fail at the hammer drill. Plus all the studies that Don and Sue did at UCLA at the lab show a 3 to 5 MPH improvement in Bat Speed using the new grip that they started teaching .

 

[ThundersDad]

Just reread what Chris last posted and that seems to be the problem, she is not releasing her wrist. Just like in golf, if I hit the ball with my hands (so to speak) and don't release them then the clubhead never gets back square at contact and the ball goes right. So do you guys think that maybe her grip is too tight? Where should we start on breaking this bad habit? SBFamily, how tight do you teach holding that grip?