uppercut swing...

[SCflashes]

Can Westwind or someone explain the split hand grip drill he mentioned in his post? Thanks.

 

[rdbass]

To give the hitter more of a feel for the functionality of each hand.
While learning to operate both hands at the same time, fortunately there are 2 things we can do to help our hitters better use both hands while hitting:


1.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.

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2.Practice Apart – While it’s true that we use our hands together to hit, each hand has a different role to play in the swing. The front arm/bottom hand (the hand at the bottom of the grip and the arm closest to the pitcher) has the responsibility of getting the hands from behind the hitter in their stance to in front of the hitter for contact. While the back arm/top hand (the hand at the top on the grip and the arm farthest from the pitcher) has the responsibility of driving the barrel into and through the ball at contact. While these might be very general descriptions, they are the essence of what each hand does during the swing. So in order to perfect these very different roles, it’s best to practice each hand separately by doing 1 hand drills. These drills can involve a regular bat that the player simply chokes up on, or a smaller bat that’s easier to hold with one hand. It’s also common for these 1 hand drills to not involve a bat at all but some type of teaching device like a Frisbee, a fido stick, a pad or a tennis ball.
By: Cindy Bristow

 

[rdbass]

http://ezinearticles.com/?Improve-Your-Baseball-Swing-by-Learning-How-to-Throw-the-Bat&id=6661496

This should get you started.

 

[coach james]

Good tips. I have a routine the girls follow every batting practice... after a warm up we go right to the tee and do one hand drills with a tee ball bat. Bottom hand like a Frisbee and top hand hand skips a rock with heavy focus on staying on plane and keeping a short path. Ill try the spilt grip idea once they go into tee work with a full sized bat. As far as my uppercutting player... she played about 6 years of slow pitch (so, she tends to cast out and over rotate her shoulders) I've got her taking a short path and staying square through the linear phase, but once she heel plants and starts rotating... the back shoulder dips extremely sharp, and uppercuts... she doesn't do this on one hand drills... so maybe the split grip drill along side the double tee, we'll get her fixed up. Thanks for all the input. James

 

[SCflashes]

In Coach Bristow' post, I assume the Frisbee would be used with the bottom hand. Which hand would the fido stick, pad, and tennis ball be used for?

 

[Chris O'Leary]

I like setting up two Tees. One in front of the other and about a foot apart. I have the front Tee set up for them to hit off of. The rear T is set so that the top of the ball is even with the bottom of the front ball.

The object is to hit the front ball and not hit the rear ball. If they hit the rear ball, they are dropping their hands and uppercutting.

FYI, this is a terrible drill that will not produce the high-level swing.

 

[RayR]

bottom hand does not act like a frisbee....it rolls into a back hand through contact....this action decelerates the front arm naturally and allows the top hand to throw past....leading to extension after contact

Bottom hand acting like a frisbee causes the front elbow to wing up and out dropping the hands and thus barrel in the process....and will lead to pulling off the ball....

Good tips. I have a routine the girls follow every batting practice... after a warm up we go right to the tee and do one hand drills with a tee ball bat. Bottom hand like a Frisbee and top hand hand skips a rock with heavy focus on staying on plane and keeping a short path. Ill try the spilt grip idea once they go into tee work with a full sized bat. As far as my uppercutting player... she played about 6 years of slow pitch (so, she tends to cast out and over rotate her shoulders) I've got her taking a short path and staying square through the linear phase, but once she heel plants and starts rotating... the back shoulder dips extremely sharp, and uppercuts... she doesn't do this on one hand drills... so maybe the split grip drill along side the double tee, we'll get her fixed up. Thanks for all the input. James

 

[HYP]

FYI, this is a terrible drill that will not produce the high-level swing.

Please explain why. Don't just say it won't produce the high-level swing. That does nothing for someone. You saying what you just said is to try to give inference that you know what a high-level swing looks like.

 

[CycloneSoftball22]

FYI, this is a terrible drill that will not produce the high-level swing.

Would you care to elaborate so that folks might get some benefit from your posts?

 

[iMlearning]

Would you care to elaborate so that folks might get some benefit from your posts?

Let me take a stab at this. The drill would be better if the the back tee were dropped a little to allow for a slight uppercut.