Role of the front shoulder vs. Role of back shoulder in hitting.

[inde53546]

A recent post about swinging around the body got me thinking about somethng I hear ofter from another parent whose son does the same. He often tells his son and kids he coaches to drive the front elbow forward like you want to elbow somebody. That to me seems like powering the swing with the front shoulder which it seems his son tries to do and his front shoulder flies open. in thinking about this and I am no expert... feel like the front shoulder/elbow has little to do with powering the swing and I compare it to punching someone, maybe a bad comparison but if i wanted to punch something my left shoulder (i'm right handed) would have little to do with the driving force of the punch, it would have far more to do with the hips/butt/legs etc but far more to with the back/right shoulder than front/left? am I way off here? I understand staying connected etc and in boxing staying short/compact is powerful. So in essence my question is what role does the front shoulder/elbow play in powering the swing? A girl on my my team has this same issue BAD cant hit anything outside everything is off the end of the bat and zero power.

Hope this makes some sense?

P.S I don't get offended easily so feel free to be critical of my question and by all means have a "healthy debate" I'll pick through the weeds as needed.

 

[CJ D]

This is what Howard Dobson teaches, but not in the way you are describing it so much. Allow the shoulder to be used as the joint it is, in that the elbow can move independent from the shoulders. Because an elbow can go forward, doesn't mean the shoulder has to fly open.

Saying that I say this...he has worked with both of my daughters. Because he teaches this doesn't mean that in the ideal world he would see the swing as being the "box" that you hear some folks describe. But it is an exaggeration in tee work and front toss to correct issues of hitting around the ball, to force them to hit the inside half and through the ball, which you will hear him say as nauseum during lessons.

 

[Stand an]

Take your hitting stance and pound a nail into a wall with just your front arm. At first you only use your arm from the elbow down because you don't want to miss. Once you get used to it you will notice that the shoulder flexes to bring the elbow upward to create more force. And finally when you want to create even more force you begin to rotate your shoulder in unison with these two other actions.

Most people bat with their dominant arm top hand. If you don't train the non dominant arm to do what it needs to do it will usually just lay across the chest and get in the way of the top hand arm trying to do it's job.