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so I'm off to a pretty good year this year but I'm having the same problem I have had for a couple years, in that I'm having trouble pulling the ball. I do fine on balls middle away but middle in I tend to just shoot through the right side instead of pulling with power like I used to. Faced a pretty slow thrower the other day, and first swing of the game I took him deep barely over the fence in right, but on a pitch middle in. Great result but wouldn't hold up against a better pitcher or a field with larger dimensions. 

I've tried starting earlier, tried using more top hand, even just tried swinging earlier and trying to yank pitches to left but nothing has worked, just made me worse at going the other way. It's almost like I'm taking an inside out swing on every swing, and my bat head isn't catching up to my hands. Any ideas on a fix for this?

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I like your swing and didn't see anything until the very end of the video when it ended and it froze as a stillframe with you mid-swing.

What I saw was along the lines of Ted22 observing an arm bar.  What I saw was your front arm locked straight, pointing at the second basemen, while the bat is still lagging through the zone, still pointing back at the catcher.  Your body is ahead of the bat - in other words, in that final stillframe with your hips, arms, head,etc., I would have expected the bat to be at full extension out in front of the plate, not in a position where it is yet to come through the zone.  See the attached pictures, comparing body position and bat location.

I'm not a hitting coach, but I had the same problem one summer in college.  My issue was my front elbow flying up and out away from my body a bit, creating a longer, loopier swing than normal and everything went opposite field.  Wondering if the early "arm bar" is in effect causing the same thing for you?

Best of luck.

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Verndawg24 posted:

Too long as in the swing or the actual bat? The bat is a 33" and I'm 6'1" so I'm guessing you mean the swing?

Based on what you said above, I would not think the bat is too big (meaning length), this was my first observation (maybe camera angle - the bat physically looks long to me).  your going to get tons of opinions on this post - all good.  Other than the hip, when you rotate, the knob of the bat stays behind the back shoulder longer than it should (it lags behind the shoulder).  Once you start changing things, your timing will change.  I'd work on hip drive first until you do that one thing perfectly every time and then move onto the next.  If you look at the first swing, your left hip flops out because the right hip is not rotating towards the pitcher (watch your right foot and the point of your right hip).

Ok all so I'll share my change. What I think the issue has been is poor bat angle in my load. I have worked on getting the bat more vertical and not laying it so far down and this seems to be working out. I got to try it out today against a college pitcher from ball state throwing in the mid to upper 80's and I took an inside fastball and promptly deposited it in the backyard of someone's house past the left field fence and over the street lol. Also lined out to center and doubled into right on a breaking ball away. 

Verndawg24 posted:

Ok all so I'll share my change. What I think the issue has been is poor bat angle in my load. I have worked on getting the bat more vertical and not laying it so far down and this seems to be working out. I got to try it out today against a college pitcher from ball state throwing in the mid to upper 80's and I took an inside fastball and promptly deposited it in the backyard of someone's house past the left field fence and over the street lol. Also lined out to center and doubled into right on a breaking ball away. 

This slight change can make a world of a difference. I had the same problem, my bat would be too horizontal instead of being vertical, is should be between 60 and 75 degrees. I was told this by my hitting coach/uncle and have seen results, not I am working on using the back hip to drive open the front shoulder. Watch this video and tell me what you think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fikf50Lmyn0

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