quote:Originally posted by dPayton:
RJM - My bad - when I say wrapped - I mean at the end of the swing, not during the wristc0ck at the beginning. The guy at RBI wanted my son to end with his hands higher than shoulder height.
Then D I believe the guy at RBI is telling him wrong. The bat should not end up higher than his front shoulder. It should end up hitting him in the upper part of the back horizontal to the ground (you will sometimes notice MLB players with pine tar across that spot of their back). This keeps the swing plane from being an uppercut and having too small of hitting surface through the swing.
I do not agree with the bent front leg but could possibly see a slight bend as long as the front foot is locked in place. I think the moving back of the hands and the tap can be, but don't have to be, at the same time. I have seen success both ways. I think it is a personal preference. You just don't want to try to time getting the foot down and starting the swing. Batters need to get their foot down and keep it down.
Dennis Jordan at East Cobb is the best hitting instructor I have ever seen and he teaches the front elbow should drive down along your side which puts the bat hitting you in the upper part of the arm and vertically across the upper back. If you have seen or played his 15U Astros teams it is hard to argue with his methods.
If you are going to look at MLB players you need to look at players that hit the same style as your son (Power HR hitters, gap to gap hitters, slap hitters, etc) to see how their swings are. Each of these is different.
Maybe there are some pieces that are correct about both instructions. Finding a way to incorporate the best pieces is the challenge.