Hitting a ball high in the zone hand & barrel position?

lhowser said:

Regarding the original question this is something i am really looking at because of the difficulty many young hitters have with the rise or high heat.

Currently I am having players focus on almost level (parallel to the ground) on this pitch. Hands slightly above the ball but more importantly turning the corner and and making sure the lead elbow/forarm stays above the ball the whole time. One TV commentator said go from high to higher which I know can work but my focus has been more of a level with not as high a finish as usual and a focus on front arm/elbow above ball. Thoughts?

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If you're swing plane is flatter to hit a high pitch, then the finish will be more around than up.

Like extension after the POC, I think the height of the finish is mostly a no teach [1] because it is largely the effect of all of the stuff upstream.

[1] Looking at the height of the finish can help diagnose dropping the hands, so ignoring it isn't an absolute.

Here's Pujols missing a home run by a couple of vertical feet on what is the closest baseball equivalent of a riseball.



Notice how, because the pitch is up, the finish is around rather than high.

I always have the hitters start the hands at least at the top of the strike zone not any lower, and I think a batting stance should be the same every time you enter the batters box, to me this will build a repeatable swing. Setting your hands at the top of the strike zone you now have a point, and realize that you should not swing at a pitch that is above the hands.

I teach barrel level to the ground on the high pitches and slightly below the hands not as much as middle or low pitches. The finish I teach is the same for the high zone as the middle and low zones. It’s elbow, knob, barrel, extension and finish.

We set a tee on a ball bucket and spend a lot of time hitting balls at the top of the zone, teaching good muscle memory for the high zone is essential I think. We go to a hitting cage that has an old machine that throws the ball all over the strike zone many of them high in the zone and is good practice for hitting balls in the high zones.

This how I teach it or have been teaching it.

Elbow above Hands, Hands above ball. You change the bat angle to attack the pitch. Rise ball your bat is almost level. Bustos does a very good demo on how to hit a rise ball in all her clinics.

My daughter attended a camp at the University of Alabama, just got back last week, I told her to ask on the pitches up in the zone if it was barrel above the hands and why. I saw a video from UA before she attended the camp and the video advised on the balls up in the zone barrel above the hands.

Everyone who posted in this thread including myself thought barrel below the hands. This is how the staff at UA replied to her question.

We teach barrel above the hands on the high pitches although many hitters use barrel below the hands and are successful. Hitters with barrel below the hands the front elbow flies up too high and produces too many pop ups. Hitters with barrel below the hands usually have poor finishes on pitches high in the zone, with barrel above the hands the finish is stronger and more consistent. They advised her to not get confused with balls low and middle barrel below the hands, balls at the top of the zone barrel above the hands This gives a higher rate of success to hit the high pitches successful.

I’m not advocating taking this approach I started thus thread and wanted to give the explanation my daughter was told at the UA camp.

PEPPERS said:

My daughter attended a camp at the University of Alabama, just got back last week, I told her to ask on the pitches up in the zone if it was barrel above the hands and why. I saw a video from UA before she attended the camp and the video advised on the balls up in the zone barrel above the hands.

Everyone who posted in this thread including myself thought barrel below the hands. This is how the staff at UA replied to her question.

We teach barrel above the hands on the high pitches although many hitters use barrel below the hands and are successful. Hitters with barrel below the hands the front elbow flies up too high and produces too many pop ups. Hitters with barrel below the hands usually have poor finishes on pitches high in the zone, with barrel above the hands the finish is stronger and more consistent. They advised her to not get confused with balls low and middle barrel below the hands, balls at the top of the zone barrel above the hands This gives a higher rate of success to hit the high pitches successful.

I’m not advocating taking this approach I started thus thread and wanted to give the explanation my daughter was told at the UA camp.

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Peppers ... if the Alabama coaches are teaching their hitters to swing at pitches high in the zone, with the barrel above their hands at 'contact', then they are failing miserably as coaches ... because that is not how their players swing at pitches high in the zone. If you have video contrary to this then I'd appreciate you sharing it.

UA Clarification

I have also purchased Patrick Murphy's "Murphy's Law" hitting DVDs, and I had the same question about his advice on hitting high pitches with hands below the barrel. I e-mailed him directly, and he responded (really super cool, even though I disagree with his assessment) that he goes back and forth with how to hit a good riseball because he sees so many good riseball pitchers in his schedule. He said he does have his hitters practice hitting high pitches with the barrel above the hands, but he doesn't work it too much, rather spending time on good pitch selection to avoid making that kind of a swing in the first place. While I agree with trying to come up with some way to defend against a good riseball, I have never seen a good hitter hit a high pitch with a tomahawk swing, including hitters from Alabama.

MountieSB said:

I have also purchased Patrick Murphy's "Murphy's Law" hitting DVDs, and I had the same question about his advice on hitting high pitches with hands below the barrel. I e-mailed him directly, and he responded (really super cool, even though I disagree with his assessment) that he goes back and forth with how to hit a good riseball because he sees so many good riseball pitchers in his schedule. He said he does have his hitters practice hitting high pitches with the barrel above the hands, but he doesn't work it too much, rather spending time on good pitch selection to avoid making that kind of a swing in the first place. While I agree with trying to come up with some way to defend against a good riseball, I have never seen a good hitter hit a high pitch with a tomahawk swing, including hitters from Alabama.

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I don’t like using a name on any forum, but seeing the Pats out of the bag so to speak. Coach Murphy is a very successful coach and seems to be a fanatic on hitting. He advised he attends hitting clinics to learn and if they go over anything he is already doing then it reinforces to him that he is doing things the correct way.

On UA web site there are a number of swings from his players I saw some that I thought the barrel was even with the hands on the high pitch, that is as close to a barrel above the hands swing I saw. My daughters coach was using that terminology barrel above the hands and I went looking for answers.

I usually try something like this myself, but a stroke last February has made it difficult to do some of this stuff. I don’t call a barrel above the hands swing a complete tomahawk swing , in my mind a tomahawk swing the barrel is much higher than the hands. My daughter asked the question at the camp, at my request, and you saw the answer she was given. I passed this along for members information not to try and persuade anyone on using this technique.

SBFAMILY said:

Elbow above Hands, Hands above ball. You change the bat angle to attack the pitch. Rise ball your bat is almost level. Bustos does a very good demo on how to hit a rise ball in all her clinics.

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My DD attended a Bustos Clinic but, she or I don't recall her going over hitting the rise ball can you go over what she demos?

PEPPERS said:

On UA web site there are a number of swings from his players I saw some that I thought the barrel was even with the hands on the high pitch, that is as close to a barrel above the hands swing I saw. My daughters coach was using that terminology barrel above the hands and I went looking for answers.

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Post a link to these video clips.