Bat Drag (Sort of)

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Sep 22, 2013
48
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I have a right handed hitter that tends to allow her top hand to open up as she is initiating her attack to the ball during her swing sequence. In other words, after load and heel plant, as she begins to turn the barrel towards the ball, her top hand opens up (i.e., knuckles of her right hand move toward back of right forearm) and the bat flattens out. Basically, she is getting to palm up palm down at the time she is starting to initiate her downward path to the ball rather than at contact. Almost like a push with her top from underneath. She used to suffer from very bad bat drag and her hitting is improved. However, she still tends to be a bit long to the ball and this swing promotes weak fly balls or flares.

Any suggestions as to how to work on fixing this? Would a reverse top hand extension drill help?
 
Nov 2, 2015
192
16
I have a right handed hitter that tends to allow her top hand to open up as she is initiating her attack to the ball during her swing sequence. In other words, after load and heel plant, as she begins to turn the barrel towards the ball, her top hand opens up (i.e., knuckles of her right hand move toward back of right forearm) and the bat flattens out. Basically, she is getting to palm up palm down at the time she is starting to initiate her downward path to the ball rather than at contact. Almost like a push with her top from underneath. She used to suffer from very bad bat drag and her hitting is improved. However, she still tends to be a bit long to the ball and this swing promotes weak fly balls or flares.

Any suggestions as to how to work on fixing this? Would a reverse top hand extension drill help?

That sounds hard to do! So, basically, she's rolling her top wrist back before her swing starts?
 
Sep 22, 2013
48
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Yes, basically the top hand just collapses a bit and allows the barrel the drop back and level at the initiation of the attack to the ball.
 
Oct 10, 2011
3,117
0
I like the reverse top hand drill and recently started doing it with about a hand width gap between the hands. I saw it done that way by Tim Walton. If you film her with her normal swing, and then show her the video of her doing the reverse top hand drill, I think she would see a big difference. You could also do the Command drill, Noontime drill or other drills that can be found in a lot of the discussions on here if you do a search. I did a search on "hand pivot" and it brought up a lot of good discussions on bat drag, hand path, turning the barrel, etc...
 

rdbass

It wasn't me.
Jun 5, 2010
9,131
83
Not here.
tumblr_ok00buJclo1usf292o1_400.gif

More to worry about than what you are calling 'bat drag'. Bat is being 'drag' from the front side.
tumblr_ok015cP8OS1usf292o1_500.gif
 
Last edited:

TDS

Mar 11, 2010
2,926
113
Sit on a stool and try to duplicate the hands/bat/body movement. The movement needs to be dynamic (no stop/start).. Once the movement is burned in, do some tee work and front toss from the knees on a soft pad.

 
Nov 2, 2015
192
16
One suggestion is to have her swing from her shoulder. Basically, have her rest the bat on her shoulder/neck, and she has to start the swing from there. I'm not sure she'd be able to replicate that motion with the bat on her shoulder.

I'm not sure if this is what's causing the motion, but her shoulders are firing forward to start her swing. It seems that her hands are trying to compensate for that. With the shoulders firing forward, the only way to drop the bat head and not "chop" the ball is probably to roll the wrist like that.
 
Sep 22, 2013
48
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I like the idea of hitting with the bat resting on the shoulder. Turn the shoulders and break the wrists to arrive short to the ball. I think this would be a good drill to promote a better hand path. I am also going to try some work with the Insider Bat just to get the feel of some better hand path. I know folks have mixed reviews on that device but I do think it would be effective for these purposes. I'm committed to helping this hitter work on this over the winter so thanks for all the advice.
 

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