bat drag

Hmmmm....Chris Oleary is now a hitting expert...motivational speaker - maybe - hitting expert ?. You can check out hittingisaguess for some stuff or webball that might help you out.

Bat drag is the result of doing other things wrong. Post a video here and someone will give you some advice. Better yet find a good guy locally you trust. At 10 I would not get too worked up about it.

Chris will freely admit he has fought bat drag in his sons' swings....not sure if is fixed or not.
He has a bunch of good stuff on his site but BOF's suggestion would be the best place to start.

At age 10 this is not an uncommon problem that often has it's roots in T-Ball. Kids will be trying to lift the ball off the T by trying to drop the hands and bathead down and then swinging up on the ball. The rear elbow gets ahead of the hands in alot of kids swings when they do this as they still haven't got everything working in the proper order.

If posting a video is difficult, go to Chris's site and have you son watch some of the videos of good swings (he has examples of bat drag also). Kids are the worlds best imitators and often can copy things better visually than just by listening to someone.

quote:

Originally posted by danocaster:
My 10 year old son is having a problem with bat drag. Can anyone tell me how to correct it? I've searched the net, and I couldn't find anything, besides Chris O Leary's website offering a solution if you buy his video. I'm not opposed to buying a video, but I've read some reviews of it were not too good. Help!

Stay as far away from his video as possible!!! Clueless! Absolutely CLUELESS!!!


Post a clip and you'll get the advice you need.

Power is probably correct about the video (never seen the video or even knew of it), but Chris has a site that has some good video to watch for good MLB swings and young players with bat drag. Easy to see and show to a kid as to what a good swing looks and what bat drag is. Some of the editorial on the site is good...some you may want to question. May be talking about different sites as I don't recall him selling anything last time I visited; I'll see if I can find the site I'm thinking about and PM you.

Thanks for all of the input. I'm getting some video together and will post it asap..

http://www.youtube.com/user/danocaster100

Here's a few video clips we did last night.
1. soft toss- side view
2. soft toss- rear view
3. tee

Sorry, I didn't know how to put them in slow motion yet.

PS- these are not the original clips where I saw the bat drag, but I had trouble converting those from an old camera. Still working on that part of it..

Let me know what you think. He has been working hard. I want to make sure that he's not ingraining the wrong info into his muscle memory.

Thanks for the help.

I downloaded and looked by frame.

It's a timing issue. Elbow going down before anything moves. Fix this and the bat drag will disappear.

I'm not clear on what you mean. Could you elaborate please?

bump.

Any other input on the video?

quote:

Originally posted by SultanofSwat:
I downloaded and looked by frame.

It's a timing issue. Elbow going down before anything moves. Fix this and the bat drag will disappear.

What should make the elbow go down, IYO???

danocaster,

What size bat is he swinging?

It's 29", 17 oz. He can pass the "bat weight test" by holding out...

He looks to me like he's gotten better with the drag like you've said.

The Towel Drill is often used for drag---place towel under left arm and swing keeping towel in place----Can help him with keeping hands inside.

One thing I saw on one of the swings is his bat head immediately went down. I couldn't slow it down, so I don't know if it was the norm or not. I wonder if he still has a little trouble handling the bat. Choking up 1 inch will give him so much more control of the bat.

If he's popping up and you can see bat head dropping...try putting a tee 2 feet behind him while your soft tossing....just an inch or 2 above his swing plane... That way he starts swing with bat head up, then through the zone, then back up.

Try to make sure he always finishes his swing strong too. I tell my guys to finish high...Have told young guys at camp to "Take their picture" like they are posing for a baseball card. This a good way to make sure they are following all the way through and you can check to make sure he's balanced at follow through.

This guy dropped the barrel of the bat consistently.....

So does every other great hitter. They just don't get it! Thing is, they don't really just drop it behind them, they aggressively turn it behind them, it's what made them great in the first place.

from what I see, it looks like he isn't getting a good weight transfer from the back leg to the front. his step is pretty small, which is ok, but bigger steps reinforce the weight shift. either consider a bigger step or incorporating a "rock" into his load.

kinda like what this guy is saying:
http://www.monkeysee.com/play/...ting-the-stride-load

like coachjo said, have him hold after his full swing, see if he is balanced.

He also had 20/10 vision and better hand eye coordination than anyone in decades.

Williams is not doing the dropping that I was speaking of.I probably didn't explain it well. You "veterans" might have a better term for it.

I think it's really what makes drag....drag.

When Williams first moves his hands, shoulders hips...his bat head is still well up.....he then takes it to the baseball...through the zone...and finishes back up high.

What I mean by dropping bat head is on first movement, the bat head immediately goes down to try and "hurry" to the zone. Usually the bat gets there below the ball and results in popflys.

I think reasons for this may be:
-Bat too heavy
-wrists/arms not strong enough
-kids not trusting their eyes to get to ball in zone quick enough
-they've been doing it all their life

I'm still learning and would love to hear what you have to say on this bluedog....and if you think this is a problem... I actually have 3 kids on my team who do this very thing. I've been working the Tee Drill with them for 2 weeks and their swing/results have gotten alot better.

quote:

Originally posted by fullertonowlz:
from what I see, it looks like he isn't getting a good weight transfer from the back leg to the front. his step is pretty small, which is ok, but bigger steps reinforce the weight shift. either consider a bigger step or incorporating a "rock" into his load.

kinda like what this guy is saying:
http://www.monkeysee.com/play/...ting-the-stride-load

like coachjo said, have him hold after his full swing, see if he is balanced.

That kind of instruction is what is killing kid's swings and giving them virtually no chance of playing College ball.

quote:

Originally posted by coachjo:
He also had 20/10 vision and better hand eye coordination than anyone in decades.

Williams is not doing the dropping that I was speaking of.I probably didn't explain it well. You "veterans" might have a better term for it.

I think it's really what makes drag....drag.

When Williams first moves his hands, shoulders hips...his bat head is still well up.....he then takes it to the baseball...through the zone...and finishes back up high.

What I mean by dropping bat head is on first movement, the bat head immediately goes down to try and "hurry" to the zone. Usually the bat gets there below the ball and results in popflys.

I think reasons for this may be:
-Bat too heavy
-wrists/arms not strong enough
-kids not trusting their eyes to get to ball in zone quick enough
-they've been doing it all their life

I'm still learning and would love to hear what you have to say on this bluedog....and if you think this is a problem... I actually have 3 kids on my team who do this very thing. I've been working the Tee Drill with them for 2 weeks and their swing/results have gotten alot better.

Bat drag is caused by the arms slotting the elbow instead of the hands slotting the elbow and then forcing the hitter to pull the bat through the zone knob first. Sad thing is, 95% of Coaches and Instructors think this is what is supposed to happen.

Please(because I have been asking this question all over) how do you teach them to stop bat drag. How do you teach teenagers to stop this movement that is ingrained in to them by years of performing the wrong swing? All I want to know is the best most efficient ques and drills(or non-drills) to get these young men better

quote:

Originally posted by danocaster:
I'm not clear on what you mean. Could you elaborate please?

His back elbow is going down and his hips aren't moving. They should go together. Fix this, and the other symptoms (bat drag, etc.) will disappear.

BTW, NEVER choke up on a bat. Where do you think those 2-3 inches come from?

quote:

Originally posted by patriots1980:
how do you teach them to stop bat drag.

Depends on what's causing it. If you drop your elbow too soon, you can fix that easily.

Other times, the back elbow gets ahead of the hands. Sometimes that's a problem, sometimes not.

danocaster,

First thing I would do is shorten the stride and narrow the stance. No lower body; kinda like the bottom half is being dragged along by the upper half. His finishing stance width after the stride is so long that he effectively blocks his hips from rotating properly; his starting stance would be a good finshing stance width. Very few kids at that age have the core/hip stength to adequately use a stance as wide as your son is trying. Many try to copy Pujols' swing; very few have the strength needed.

He drops his hands/elbow in an effort to start his hands at the same height as the pitch ( don't like holding the bat in front of himself at start but that can be a style thing). Looks like he wants to pull/sling the bat barrel into and through the zone without help from the backside. Appears that he wants to slot the elbow and then swing in two seperate actions instead of a combined continous motion.

Those are just basic starting points to begin with. He's only 10; there will be many hitting streaks and slumps in his future as he continues playing the game in the years ahead. Be prepared, Dad; sometimes it will drive you crazy when you see the problem but your son can't feel the problem in his swing. Good luck.

Strength really appears to be a problem. Additionally the bat is too light. His bat deflects too much at contact with the ball.

Strength issue or light bat issue or holding the bat too loosely at contact? Don't know.

Recommend have him hit a punching bag with his bat and do tee work with a heavier bat focusing on hitting the ball hard up the middle.

Also recommend going to batspeed.com to see some of the posts and videos on top hand torque.

Patriots1980, try the insider bat. It has worked wonders for me.