Help - Suggestions for son's hitting problem

MLB players do not use the knocking knuckles. They line up their rings.

It doesn't matter where his hands are in his stance, where are his hands at toe touch?

There is no standard protocol for how you position your hands. Look at Brett Boone, he lines up with"Door Knocking Knuckles" look at Moises Alou. Do you remember Jack Clark? So everyone is different with how they position their hands. It all depends on what feel comfortable for your son.

I also want to add, that your wrists are supposed to roll over when swinging.

quote:

Originally posted by NIC15:
There is no standard protocol for how you position your hands. Look at Brett Boone, he lines up with"Door Knocking Knuckles" look at Moises Alou. Do you remember Jack Clark?

Here is Bret Boone lining up his rings.

Here is Moises Alou lining up his rings.

I can show you these MLB hitters lining up rings:
Bonds, Carlos Lee, Derek Lee, manny, mantle, Aaron, DiMaggio, Mattingly, Pujols, Ted Williams, etc.

Edit: Well... what do you know, I found a pic of Jack Clark. Guess how he lines up his knuckles?

quote:

Originally posted by SultanofSwat:

quote:

Originally posted by NIC15:
There is no standard protocol for how you position your hands. Look at Brett Boone, he lines up with"Door Knocking Knuckles" look at Moises Alou. Do you remember Jack Clark?

Here is Bret Boone lining up his rings.

Here is Moises Alou lining up his rings.

I can show you these MLB hitters lining up rings:
Bonds, Carlos Lee, Derek Lee, manny, mantle, Aaron, DiMaggio, Mattingly, Pujols, Ted Williams, etc.

Edit: Well... what do you know, I found a pic of Jack Clark. Guess how he lines up his knuckles?

SultanofSquat,

If you notice the picture of brett boone is not him at the plate in preperation to hit, the image of moises alou image is him on the down plane preparing to swing where you can see his knuckles and hands have started to move, same thing with jack clark. Now I have read many of your post, and they are all negative, or you trying to prove someone wrong. Clearly that is the case here, where you are trying to make me look like i have no clue what I am talking about. Yet I have never once read a post by you that shows any actual personal knowledge or insight. Its all regurgitated, belief based coaching rhetoric. Do you have any of your own beliefs or personal experiences?

Instead of trying to make people look dumb, why dont you try being helpful and stick to the topic at hand. You get alot farther in life with respect, not being a jack ***.

And of course you can find images of these guys lining up rings. Anyone can go to efastball.com and cut and paste an article in which clearly you got your information from. But yet what you fail to add is the rest of the story, where door knocking knuckles is also what is taught. My post if you clearly read it was not defending either of these methods, my statement was whatever feels comfortable, but you failed to read that, yet looked for the first chance to jump on someone and make them look dumb, resulting in you looking even more foolish.

Take care champ.. Best of luck!

Hitting the top can happen for many reasons. I don't think anyone can provide you with a single answer without seeing his swing.

Topping the ball can happen for quite a few reasons. It could be wrist roll. Keeping the front elbow up from launch and throughout will prevent wrist roll from occurring before contact. Wrist roll should never occur before contact. Is he trying to pull pitches located middle and out? This can lead to weak ground balls. If he has the correct slight upswing (on the plane of the ball), then getting to contact late can result in hitting the top of the ball. Too much upswing can also cause this.

Regarding knuckles - there is no single right way in my book, although some knuckle positions don't work well with some swing types. For instance, lining up the rings and taking the knob to the ball linearly, will result in the wrists binding and power leaking.

Maybe you could post a video? Good luck.

MV has a great point. His wrist rolling over before contact could very well be a reason why his is hitting the top half of the baseball. Do you have video by chance?

IC,

I always video AB's and cage work as well. That way you can have a frame by frame look see.

The obvious is that the swing plane of the bat isn't matching up with the flight of the baseball in the contact zone.

Lots of possibilities. Without the benefit of video start with what he's looking at; make sure he is truely "seeing the center" of the baseball. Surprisingly, hitters focus will often wander when they are struggling and they see the entire ball (top is easier to view as it's below your eye level) versus fine focus on the center. You can work on this off the tee and see if he can consistently hit line drives the length of the cage.
One must perceive the center to hit the center!

My son is 6'3" tall. Hitters needs some bend and flex in their knees. He could be coming down on the ball or dipping/dropping and coming up and topping the ball. Either way he is not coming to and thru the ball in the contact zone.

Begin work in those areas on the Tee and in the Cage until he's hitting line drives, move to soft toss, dart toss and then front side pitches .... always with the same goal of driving the ball the length of the cage.

Then video, review and begin anew!

lol

IC


Think about this a minute---a good many HS pitchers have fastballs with limited velocity that has the ball dying as it it gets to the plate---this can lead to hitting on top of the ball , especially for a 6-3 boy

Have him try moving up in the box a bit so he gets to the pitch before it starts to die

Sometimes a very simple thing works

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ICBaseball:
lately has been hitting the top of the ball resulting in weak ground balls on the infield... He in particular has difficulty making solid contact with pitches low in the strike zone.


When I read this post the first thing that popped into my head is that he might be trying to pull the ball or is trying to swing the bat too hard. Mostly this leads to pulling the front shoulder out and making weak ground ball the infielders. This is extremely hard to detect since a swing is so quick, but I find that when I hit weak grounders that it normally is this problem.

One thing I have my guys always do, and that is hit fungos to the infielders holding the fungo properly. Meaning if they are right handed, hold the fungo with their left hand, throw the ball up with their right hand, and go. I have found this drill to be very beneficial.

Nick15,

I am trying to learn something from your comment. I can see that hitting fungo is useful in developing the coordination and bat control to make contact with the high, middle, or low part of the ball. How does the hand you toss with make a difference? I am not aware that the way you described is the proper way. Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by MVSquared:
Nick15,

I am trying to learn something from your comment. I can see that hitting fungo is useful in developing the coordination and bat control to make contact with the high, middle, or low part of the ball. How does the hand you toss with make a difference? I am not aware that the way you described is the proper way. Thanks.

MV:

I can see where this would seem a little odd. And and first it will feel odd. The reason why I have my guys do it this way is. You will find out alot about your swing, stride, and hands by using this method. When you throw the ball up with your back hand - for a right handed hitter it would be his right hand throwing the ball up, for a lefty it would be his left hand, you are keeping your bottom hand constant throughout your whole stride, approach, and swing, as it would be when you are batting in a game. As we know for some guys the top hand is not constant on the bat, ie. Kevin Youkilis. If you are using your bottom hand to throw the ball up, you have to get in a balanced stride, and get your bottom hand quickly into position before swinging. Do you see what I am saying?

Also by doing it this way you will find out by how you hit the ball, what your stride is doing. If you are over striding, usually it will be a topped ball that chomps short in front of you and then rolls to the player, taking big time divots out of the grass. If you are under striding, usually it will be a flare, or something that goes up. If your stride is perfect, and your swing is on somewhat of a downward plane, you will get the nice short skip on the ball, and an almost perfectly smooth ground ball hit to the position player.

I hope this explains it a little better. Give it a try, and let me know what you think. I feel that you will really like this drill. And it will help you from having to hit all of the fungos to your guys, give yourself a water break coach

Take Care,