Hands straight to the ball?!

[Chris O'Leary]

how do you explain to young hitter the path their hands should take when swinging at a pitch? regardless of location - just in general a pitch down the middle?

I teach a curved hand path, with the hands rotating with the back shoulder for a pitch down the middle and adjusting in or out depending on location.

Some people call that "Rotating the hands to the ball," which in my experience is a pretty good cue.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

...elbows should stay down through the swing

Even on pitches way down in the strike zone?

 

[GOINGDEEP]

i find it hard to understand without seeing - so message boards are hard to use to help hitting... everyone has their own terms in describing things... anyone else feel that way?

Yea, it took me awhile to decipher the terms on here. But I think I have them down now, and also who knows what their talking about and who doesn't.

We keep ours pretty simple, "see ball...hit ball"....."see pitch....drive pitch". Seems to work fine and easy to understand.

 

[jd29]

I teach a curved hand path, with the hands rotating with the back shoulder for a pitch down the middle and adjusting in or out depending on location.

Some people call that "Rotating the hands to the ball," which in my experience is a pretty good cue.

i believe that the hands start the swing - and similar to you with hands and hip working together but with a straighter path with the hands = to keep them inside the ball - easier to adjust out than in for me

 

[jd29]

Even on pitches way down in the strike zone?

they should be below shoulder level - i'm sitting here swingin at air in my living room trying to figure out how you can swing with your front elbow going over your lead shoulder

if the pitch is down and in - only if your way late or trying to go the other way would your elbow fly up

down and in should be pulled down a foul line - hips rotate, hit ball out front

 

[jd29]

Yea, it took me awhile to decipher the terms on here. But I think I have them down now, and also who knows what their talking about and who doesn't.

We keep ours pretty simple, "see ball...hit ball"....."see pitch....drive pitch". Seems to work fine and easy to understand.

if you've ever seen Bob Morgan - used to coach baseball at Indiana or Rob Ellis - those guys keep it simple - very effective
if you've ever seen Gary Ward - there's a guy who makes it complicated - brilliant, but complicated
I'm like you - Keep it simple, teach the player to be there own coach - easier for them to make adjustments during an at bat that way

 

[Mark H]

Not familiar with your term "disconnection", guess I'm not smart enough to figure that out



i find it hard to understand without seeing - so message boards are hard to use to help hitting... everyone has their own terms in describing things... anyone else feel that way?

Quite right and that's why you not knowing the term is not a question of being smart. Connection in this context means efficiently connecting the rotating upper torso to the bat. Disconnection means anything else such as pushing the hands ahead, leaving them briefly behind, pushing them down out of the swing plane etc.

 

[Mark H]

in this video - the hitter is overexaggarating what i call hands to the ball - i've seen that while hitters warm up in the on deck circle and between pitches - when i say hands to the ball that is not what i'm talking about - again everyone has their own terminology and it's hard to understand when there isn't a common link...

Yes it is an exaggeration though this demonstration is a straight faced no kidding demonstration as they try to sell the gadget you see. Having said that, ANY push ahead of the hands early in the swing like this, even briefly, is a disconnection and inefficient. Don't confuse this with a late in the swing pulling of the hands across the chest/hooking the hand path decreasing the radius of the hand path accelerating the whip/uncocking of the wrists seen in some elite swings on inside locations. And yeah I know that's less than clear tortured prose but it's late.

 

[Mark H]

I teach a curved hand path, with the hands rotating with the back shoulder for a pitch down the middle and adjusting in or out depending on location.

Some people call that "Rotating the hands to the ball," which in my experience is a pretty good cue.

Yeah that's not bad verbiage. I'd encourage everyone to refer back frequently to the hitters on Siggy's site comparing what they are doing to what all of us on here are saying. Siggy's Hitting Clips - ImageEvent

 

[jd29]

Quite right and that's why you not knowing the term is not a question of being smart. Connection in this context means efficiently connecting the rotating upper torso to the bat. Disconnection means anything else such as pushing the hands ahead, leaving them briefly behind, pushing them down out of the swing plane etc.

okay - i'm on board with that term now - i see what you are saying - all the "pieces" have to unlock sequentially (Gary Ward speak)...