Practical Hitting Drills Progression & Checklist

[rdbass]

Like RHC said in another post (which I like) 'turn the barrel' to the ball.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Pull the barrel around with the top hand .....

 

[tjintx]

Watch the hands working the barrel from the start AND know that the angles between the wrists and the barrel are being maintained(kept) well into launch. Hold the bat with your top hand such that your forearm and the bat make a 90 degree angle. now put your bottom hand on the handle such that it also creates a 90 angle between the bottom hand forearm and the barrel.
Now what do you have to do to maintain those angles and turn the barrel to the ball? Look at the clip above. Pay close attention to the top hand wrist and elbow as they work to get the barrel where it needs to be.

As a note.... Trying to do this without the hips clearing won't work well.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Watch the hands working the barrel from the start AND know that the angles between the wrists and the barrel are being maintained(kept) well into launch. Hold the bat with your top hand such that your forearm and the bat make a 90 degree angle. now put your bottom hand on the handle such that it also creates a 90 angle between the bottom hand forearm and the barrel.
Now what do you have to do to maintain those angles and turn the barrel to the ball? Look at the clip above. Pay close attention to the top hand wrist and elbow as they work to get the barrel where it needs to be.

As a note.... Trying to do this without the hips clearing won't work well.

If I give the bottom hand the role of finding the ball, and simply use the top hand to pull the barrel around, then I find zero need to think in terms of maintaining a triangle … it simply happens … it is a result.

So to answer your question (bolded above) … what I do is simply use my bottom hand to find the ball and use my top hand to pull the barrel around.

Turn the barrel … and the angles that you speak of being maintained … will ‘be’ (as in referring to a ‘result’) maintained.

 

[go4um]

"If I give the bottom hand the roll of finding the ball, and simply use the top hand to pull the barrel around, then I find zero need to think in terms of maintaining a triangle … it simply happens … it is a result."

Amen.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Which goes back to the common palm-up/palm-down verbiage.

Some may wish to reconsider that a bit.

Consider replacing ‘palm-up’ with ‘swivel the top hand’ …. And replacing ‘palm-down’ with a ‘bottom hand flat wrist’.

 

[FP26]

Well done. Can a few turn the barrel guys chime in. Is his diagram of turn the barrel accurate? Im yet to be clear on "turn the barrel"

Like you, it was a struggle for me to figure this out. I found numerous threads with tons of great information, but it wasn't until I saw one gif of someone swinging with a homemade "perfect connection" device that it seemed to make more sense to me. Now, when I go back and read those other threads, I think I understand it better. At least I think I do Sorry, but I can't seem to find that thread right now.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Is palm-up really the goal?

Does it matter how the top hand palm gets to palm-up? It should.

Both of the hitters below get “palm-up”. One gets to palm-up quite quickly … a common goal … the other gets to palm-up via a path of top hand swivel.

This here ……

Versus this here ……

Turn the barrel.

Turn the barrel to palm-up … swivel the top hand to palm-up ... pull the barrel around to palm-up.

 

[Doug Romrell]

"...swivel the top hand to palm-up..." And, you can't be lollygagging around or lethargic with that top hand when you do it.

 

[knightsb]

Which goes back to the common palm-up/palm-down verbiage.

Some may wish to reconsider that a bit.

Consider replacing ‘palm-up’ with ‘swivel the top hand’ …. And replacing ‘palm-down’ with a ‘bottom hand flat wrist’.

FFS, do you think using the split grip and focusing on the hand action you describe would help someone to get the feel?

Split the Difference – One thing you can do with any hitters that are struggling with this whole concept of using both hands together is to split their grip on the bat. It’s something that Michael Lotief, at University of Louisiana Lafayette has his hitters do in order to speed up and strengthen their swing, and he’s had tremendous success doing it. By having the hitter’s split their hands even ½ an inch apart on the bat it helps the hands act separately from each other, something the hands are much more used to doing. Players aren’t used to holding the bat this way so it will feel “weird” at first. But have your players try it for a practice and see if they can overcome the weirdness of it and start using their hands better and increase their bat speed.