Barrel dropping creating bat drag

[Whitetaildeer13]

I am looking for any Drills or suggestions to help a couple of 9 yr. old players with their swing mechanics. They are dropping the barrel of their bat at launch position to the point where the end of the bat is pointing to the catcher. This forces them to lead with their elbow and create bat drag. This is much more noticeable on live pitching vs. hitting on a tee. Thanks for your help.

 

[BigSkyHi]

This instructor has numerous YouTube videos on working with young ones.

 

[DRDRODD]

I am looking for any Drills or suggestions to help a couple of 9 yr. old players with their swing mechanics. They are dropping the barrel of their bat at launch position to the point where the end of the bat is pointing to the catcher. This forces them to lead with their elbow and create bat drag. This is much more noticeable on live pitching vs. hitting on a tee. Thanks for your help.

The link below is a decent thread to review from a few years back.


What are you doing to fix DBSF

What are you doing to fix DBSF

Please list some of your proven fixes.

www.discussfastpitch.com

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[efastball]

Typical causes of bat drag in kids:
1) Opening hips during stride (vs closing) (when you open, the back elbow drops)
2) Striding to toe touch and the rear forearm is not flat/level. (mainly caused by #1)

So, the drill is to close the hips 45 deg as you stride

 

[Cornbread]

2 Tee Drill: one tee in front of the other with about one softball of space between them. Front tee about a ball and a half higher than back tee. Front foot starts in the middle of the two tees. Player takes normal swings hitting the front ball. If the barrel drops they will hit the lower back ball, immediate feedback.

 

[efastball]

2 Tee Drill:

Please no. Trying to fix one fatal flaw (bat drag) by introducing a new fatal flaw (chopping down)

 

[Cornbread]

Please no. Trying to fix one fatal flaw (bat drag) by introducing a new fatal flaw (chopping down)

I disagree. As the coach you must make it clear that we aren’t chopping down at the ball. Be we also aren’t dumping the barrel and hitting the back ball. This drill will teach the hitter to keep the hands tighter to the body and higher during rotation. It’s all relative to the coach. I would rather be “swinging down” than dumping the barrel. I’ve used this drill a bunch for barrel dumpers. It works. Teaches a shorter, tighter swing.

 

[julray]

Sometimes kids DBSF because that's the only way they can figure out how to get to a ball that's lower than the shoulders. Nobody taught them to DBSF, so they figure it out for themselves. There are many good points and advise listed above.. however if a hitter understands posture then eliminates the necessity to DBSF because it puts the hitter in position to get to the ball without leveling the barrel out behind. I know we are dealing with a 9 year old, so drills my help instead of trying to explain about posture

 

[BigSkyHi]

For kids only?

 

[Bobby Shirer]

Here's two cents.
It's not an elbow or bat plane issue. The issue is the legs. I like @julray 's box drill but it teaches the player to stay on their back leg.
The problem is that the hitter isn't driving the swing with their legs. Specifically the front leg. After the stride, they need to push hard against the front leg to launch the swing. So hard that they push themselves back toward the catcher.
This will fix the racing elbow and the swing plane issues and add distance to their hits.
Don't teach them the 2 tee chop down and don't try to teach them to get their hands in front of the elbow, aka knob to the ball (good luck with that and the disaster that comes with it)