Long time lurker, first time poster.
A bit of background, I am a salesman by trade but out of necessity I have been immersed in baseball for the past fifteen years. I have been open minded and tried to learn as much as possible about the game so that I could work with my boys.
Son #1 is in his first year at a competitive junior college program. He has always been an above average hitter with the ability to hit for a high average and decent power numbers. In the summer after his junior year in high school, he developed a bad habit of getting out on his front foot. We worked long and hard to correct the problem and finally got it fixed. However, somewhere along the way, he lost the pop in his bat. We were both at a loss to explain the decrease in power. Son #1 got lessons from several hitting instructors in our part of the state and all had good suggestions but nothing seemed to correct the problem. He had a fairly good senior year in high school but the decrease in power was noticeable both to the eye and in the stat book. The frustration continued to build and no matter how much time, effort or money was invested, nothing improved. He went to college in August and set about competing for a starting position. Unlike in the past, he has been very streaky this fall…up down up down… At his best, Son #1 is a left handed hitting line drive machine that sprays the ball hard all over the field on a line and will occasionally hit one in the gaps for extra bases. This fall, mostly singles and hardly anything to the left side of the field with any zip on it. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, one of the coaches at his college said something that resonated with both Son and me. Coach said Son was firing his hips to soon and his hands were late getting to the ball. As I understand it, this means his hips are fully engaged and the bat is meeting the ball somewhere over the plate and likely behind the belt buckle. As I mentioned earlier, I am a salesman so I am certain I am not using the correct terminology. However, the problem as described by the coach, makes sense to me. Often times while I was throwing BP, I would tell Son he was late and that he was hitting the ball behind him. He would argue and say that he was early. Now I think we were both correct…he would fire his hips early, the hands would lag and he would hit the ball late and more often than not it would result in a spinner that would loft softly toward the left field foul line.
I have learned a lot from reading this board over the years and I am hopeful that someone will be able to provide some insight on this problem. From several hundred miles away there is not much that Dad can do other than offer encouragement. Any ideas, drills, suggestions, etc. would be appreciated. Son’s team has just finished their fall season and they will begin individual drills soon.
Please forgive me for being long winded and thanks in advance for any assistance.
Original Post
Of course the hips move at the same time, we agree. We are talking about the relationship of the hips to the shoulders, though. Have you ever done the Twist?
