quote:Originally posted by Golfman25:
Ok, I have been mulling this for two weeks now. A while back I attended a clinic with a hitting instructor who has a solid reputation in our area. Several of his students when on to very high levels. I agree with 95% of what he said.
But there was one section in which he spoke about "hitting down on the ball to create backspin." I cringed a little bit. The drill he used was a tee drill in which the player took a direct path to the ball and would hit it off the tee to the back of the tunnel. Importantly, he would not use his lower half -- just focus on the hands. I cringed some more.
10 minuites later he was talking about matching the swing plane to the pitch. I think it is impossible to do both -- swing down and match the planes.
So I have been trying to reconcile the two concepts. I watched videos of some of his students. They don't really swing down. Like most hitters, they adjust their axis which causes the swing plane to level out.
Anybody have any idea what he was talking about and how to reconcile the swing down for backspin with matching the plane of the pitch?
Now here is my dilema. These concepts will likely be adopted by my kid's team. I am not sure I want my kid "swinging down." I am good with everything else. I just don't see how the swing down concept and drill will benefit my kid. Any suggestions for what to do? Thanks in advance.
Good hitters start down, and then let the body turn the bat into the proper swing plane. That's what he was talking about with "matching the plane". In terms of "swing down for backspin", I have no idea what he could possibly be talking about. It's more of a mental thing.
I have a friend who believes that MLB hitters attempt to throw the bat straight down at the ball, but the tilt of the shoulders and the torso rotation cause the bat to move into the plane of the pitch.