ULL Ragin' Cajun Split Grip Batting Techique

[slugger3]

Have you, or any of your DDs, tried the ULL Cajuns split grip for batting?
How far apart are they splitting their hands?
It looks like an inch or two...I can't find any YouTube videos on it.
I've been trying it myself.
There is no doubt you can control the bat head/barrel better.
But it's hard to get used to "punching" your top hand through at the correct time. Especially after swinging the bat for 40 years without a gap between the hands.
You can feel the barrel move slower, compared to a standard grip, if you don't punch through at the correct time.
Anybody ever tried it?
Thanks

 

[YOCOACH]

This originally started as a drill for hitting. I still use it today for my girls to get the "feel" of the hands and bat head movement. My Dd uses it occasionally when she feels as if she lost the bat so to speak on several swings in a row. So far, she has had good success with it. She hasn't had HR's with this grip but has made solid contact a majority of the time in game situations.

 

[rdbass]

Search the hitting threads I believe there was a thread on 'split grip'.
It helps to learn the 'turn the barrel towards the ball'. Helps to understand what both hands have to do in a good swing.

But it's hard to get used to "punching" your top hand through at the correct time.

Pretty sure 'punching' your top hand through isn't what you want. JMHO.

 

[slugger3]

Search the hitting threads I believe there was a thread on 'split grip'.
It helps to learn the 'turn the barrel towards the ball'. Helps to understand what both hands have to do in a good swing.

Pretty sure 'punching' your top hand through isn't what you want. JMHO.

Yes rdbass, you are 100% correct. My terminology is incorrect.
.
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Thanks YOCOACH!
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I'll be the first to admit (again) my batting terminology is about 2nd grade level...so bear with me here...

Here's what I just tried in our basement cage...
I referred back to the grip a lot of us started to use in the mid 90's where your bottom hand on the bat handle would grip the bat with your pinky on the bottom of the bat knob. (We called it the DeMarini grip, because Ray DeMarini taught that in his bat demos/videos), nowadays I guess it's called the Overlap grip.
Since normally your hand would slide down to the bottom of the grip, now your hand would be down another 1" to 1 1/2" on the handle with allowed the bat head to snap more when you "turned the barrel towards the ball"

OK, so now I just used that old "Overlap grip" with the bottom hand where my pinky is below the bat knob, and then I used the ULL Cajun split grip...
It works great.
When you normally hold your bottom hand on the bottom of the bat grip, and then use the Cajun Split Grip the barrel turn feels slower if you don't time it correctly. But there is more bat head control.
Now with the pinky below the bat knob, the top hand in the split grip, is realistically back in the same spot as it would be if your hands were together in a normal grip. But with the split grip, the increased bat head control is there, but the barrel turn feels faster because of the lowered pinky.
It's easier for guys to use the Overlap Grip, since our hands are bigger and typically stronger.
Try slowly swinging the bat one handed, hold the bat handle with your lower hand with your pinky pushed down to the bottom (normal grip). You can feel where your wrist "stops" to an extent, and that limits the bat head travel.
But when use the Overlap Grip, you can feel the bat head move quite a bit farther outward , than with a "normal grip"

I know I didn't just re-invent the wheel here...

But try it...it works...my oldest DD just did...if Xeno's had a small bat knob like some men's slow pitch bats, it would be easier for women to do.

Just food for thought...

 

[Greenmonsters]

Yes rdbass, you are 100% correct. My terminology is incorrect.
.
.

Thanks YOCOACH!
.
.

I'll be the first to admit (again) my batting terminology is about 2nd grade level...so bear with me here...

Here's what I just tried in our basement cage...
I referred back to the grip a lot of us started to use in the mid 90's where your bottom hand on the bat handle would grip the bat with your pinky on the bottom of the bat knob. (We called it the DeMarini grip)
Since normally your hand would slide down to the bottom of the grip, now your hand would be down another 1" to 1 1/2" on the handle with allowed the bat head to snap more when you "turned the barrel towards the ball"

OK, so now I just used that old "DeMarini grip" with the bottom hand where my pinky is below the bat knob, and then I used the ULL Cajun split grip...
It works great.
When you normally hold your bottom hand on the bottom of the bat grip, and then use the Cajun Split Grip the barrel turn feels slower if you don't time it correctly. But there is more bat head control.
Now with the pinky below the bat knob, the top hand in the split grip, is realistically back in the same spot as it would be if your hands were together in a normal grip. But with the split grip, the increased bat head control is there, but the barrel turn feels faster because of the lowered pinky.
It's easier for guys to use the DeMarini Grip, since our hands are bigger and typically stronger.
Try slowly swinging the bat one handed, hold the bat handle with your lower hand with your pinky pushed down to the bottom (normal grip). You can feel where your wrist "stops" to an extent, and that limits the bat head travel.
But when use the DeMarini Grip, you can feel the bat head move quite a bit farther outward , than with a "normal grip"

I know I didn't just re-invent the wheel here...

But try it...it works...my oldest DD just did...if Xeno's had a small bat knob like some men's slow pitch bats, it would be easier for women to do.

Just food for thought...

Isn't dropping a pinky just a slow pitch power move? Don't know anyone that does it in baseball or don't know about fastpitch.

FWIW - Find a pre-2014 Anderson Rocketech if you want a bomb-dropper with a small knob, but note that it won't swing anything like a Xeno (or any other currently popular FP bat)

 

[slugger3]

Greenmonsters...you are right.
When I played fast pitch from about '85 to '95, it was squish the bug, and rotate as fast as you could...not much thought put into power it seemed....
Changing to slow pitch, was eye opening. Weight transfer, where you would take as large as a 4-5' step into the ball or even multiple steps....
And anything to get more bat speed. Which included hanging the pinky over the knob, with the Overlap Grip.
The way we looked at it was, it "lengthened" the distance from your lower hand (the hand on the knob of the bat), to the end of the bat.
Because you lowered your pinky over the knob, with the Overlap Grip.
I just measured the difference on a 34" bat.
With the standard style grip where the pinky is butted up to the knob, it's 29 1/4" from the top of my left hand to the end of the bat.
With the hanging pinky grip, or Overlap Grip, the distance increases to 30 5/8".
For a right handed batter who releases their right hand after rotating the barrel into the ball, or as I call it punching the hand through, the distance between the hand and the end of the bat increased by ~ 1 1/2" by hanging the pinky over the knob

Isn't that the same as having a bat that is ~ 1 1/2" longer?
Since your hands attach to the barrel ~ 1 1/2" lower on the handle?

And when used with the ULL Cajun split grip, you can jack your top hand up on the handle for a little better control if you need it. And as I've seen by doing it this week, the ULL split grip works for better bat head control.

In essence you are doing the opposite of choking UP on the bat.

You are choking DOWN on the bat.

Thanks for the heads up on the Anderson bat!
I appreciate it!

 

[29dad]

My dd uses a split grip but unfortunately I'm not a hitting guru so I can't explain why it works for her. She was never "taught" the split grip. Just something she experimented with several years ago and she's never gone back to conventional. I tell her that I think it looks goofy and she rolls her eyes and says, "whatever."

 

[slugger3]

My dd uses a split grip but unfortunately I'm not a hitting guru so I can't explain why it works for her. She was never "taught" the split grip. Just something she experimented with several years ago and she's never gone back to conventional. I tell her that I think it looks goofy and she rolls her eyes and says, "whatever."

That's great that it works for her!
I ordered a $7 bat knob taper for my DD's Xeno to see if the Overlap Grip/UL-L plit grip works for her, as it does for me. If not...oh well...
I've been hitting balls off and on all day long, with those grips and it's weird how well you can control the bat head with that split grip.
It literally never crossed my mind to try the split grip, until I saw UL-L use it.

 

[redhotcoach]

My kid does. The split varies. Up to her. I don't tell her to split. She likes it. It has been as much as 3 inches, and on the hits my wife is sending me right now, I can't even spot the split.
It's about using your hands and your hands having tasks and feeling the hands having separate tasks.

 

[Mike-Coach Q]

Dr. Chris Yeager talks about using a split grip in one of his drills. He wants the batter to throw the barrel at the ball. I'm not sure he advocates hitting like that. I have a kid on my team that often times will hit with a split grip but I don't really think she is trying to be top hand dominate with her swing.