HOW do you stop the hands from "disconnecting"?? (clip)

beastball,

First it looks like you're very athletic and have the tools it takes to be a real good hitter.

Problem is you are doing some things that will get in the way. The most obvious is that the swing your using with the Tee, can't possibly allow you to see the ball well against a pitcher, especially a RHP. You're basically showing youe entire upper back to the pitcher. You would need to have eyes in the back of your head to see the release well.

In short... Your swing is too big and too complicated. IMO Maybe it's not the same swing you use against live pitching.

I think if you loaded differently, with less moving parts, you would see immediate results. Best of luck.

You are loading as you are going back.

You must load as you're moving forward.

quote:

Originally posted by beastball4:
I have tried over and over but I cant break the habit of disconnecting the hands (pulling them through the swing early) how can I fix this? ive tried numerous approaches. I also feel my lower body isnt as efficient as it once was....

What problems are you having?

Your swing actually looks decent.

Your lower body action doesn't seem bad.

I do thnk your posture isn't quite right near the point of contact. You're a little too erect. I think that is due in part to your exaggerated load (e.g. taking front heel WAY off the ground).

I may see signs of marginal bat drag, but it's hard to say for sure.

It also looks like you are swinging a little too top down; that your shoulders get going a tad early when they should be more pulled around by your hips and your core (e.g. belly button).

Are you trying to swing down on the ball?

Do you have your door knocker knuckles lined up?

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:
The most obvious is that the swing your using with the Tee, can't possibly allow you to see the ball well against a pitcher, especially a RHP. You're basically showing youe entire upper back to the pitcher. You would need to have eyes in the back of your head to see the release well. In short your swing is too big and too complicated...I think if you loaded differently, with less moving parts, you would see immediate results.

I agree.

As I said in my comments, you need to simplify things. You've got too much going on.

One thing you may want to try is to have your back foot just forward of parallel (toe pointed toward pitcher rather than catcher) this may help you cut down on your "backswing". Shortening up will improve your timing and may keep you "connected".

quote:

Originally posted by thepainguy

Your swing actually looks decent.

Simply unbelievable.......yet not.

You are absolutely dangerous, Chris.

quote:

You are loading as you are going back.

Chameleon, I certainly respect your opinion on hitting. I agree with your comments.

Do you think he may be doing that because the way he sets up. It looks like he starts slighty pre-loaded, then loads more by rocking the whole body back. By that I mean he starts with his core section already stretched, so to to generate power, he has a big load on the way back so that he can load, then unload/stretch it out again before rotating. If the upper body weren't so "pre-loaded" and then adding more load to it, the lower body would not need to load as much as it does to try and catch up to the upper body.

Would he not be better with less stretch in his stance (in other words more balanced between front and back), which would allow a more efficent load/unload? Also, a little more flex/bend in the waist to allow an effecient load.

The upper body load should be a more "quiet" load with the front shoulder tucking in, and the rear arm rising lightly to allow the barrel some forward tilt. Someone in another thread used the term "rocking a baby" in describing the shoulder rotation around the center, which I thought provided a decent visual.

Your thoughts?

As for the hands. it looks to me like the big load also creates a lot of scap load.

Chameleon or BlueDog or Infopimp (where's he been), or Linear (him too), what do any of you guys think of the rear arm? Does it start too high, and then load excessively high/rearward from that point? Does that create any problems for the forward rotation?

In this case, is there such thing as too much scap load? Or, does he require a more efficient rotation of the hands during the rotation of the shoulders, and less of pull the knob action?

quote:

Originally posted by Chameleon:

quote:

Originally posted by thepainguy

Your swing actually looks decent.

Simply unbelievable.......yet not.

You are absolutely dangerous, Chris.

He certainly has some problems, and his swing is too complicated, but his lower body rotation isn't bad and he doesn't get too disconnected.

I've seen better swings, but I've also seen worse.

He's got load issues which should be addressed with an instructor.

wow nice to see ive gotten so many replies so soon....

yea i know i rotate back way too much, and im probably starting my shoulders too early and not rotating around the hips right, when i try to focus on hips...i get the whole hip slide thing where i dont rotate at first...my hips shift waaay forward

its just that is the ONLY way i "feel" like i can hit the ball hard, when i just stand there and stride and swing i feel like i got nothing on my swing and i feel soo uncomfortable, and very difficult to just break theses habits after years (cuz theres a lot of bad ones) and try to think about applying a new swing during a game...

I found a clip where i was working on not loading so big but still...i am disconnecting my hands from my swing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIaBVHdk1y8

Try not focusing on your hips but overall posture. It is a lot easier to get good results by giving yourself a solid starting point. You may even try a form of negative stride (like Bagwell) while doing t work to help with these issues. Start as wide as you can, draw back and fire, might help give you a feel for proper swing duraton. As for posture try getting back to basics, slight flex in knees, slight tilt at waist, bat at back shoulder approx 45 degree angle, etc... Or you could always get mom and/or dad to pony up for those lessons

I noticed that your head moved a lot in that clip. It will be easier to get solid contact if your head doesn't move throughout your load.

yet another thing i need to fix....i feel so overwhelmed, i dont even know where to start

beastball,

The second clip looks much better to me. In fact, at a glance it looks pretty darn good.

Good luck

beastball4

Don't be overwhelmed--you came here asking for advice and you are getting it from some very knowledgable people---take the advice and make it work for you

Beast, the intent is there as you seem to have the right idea so don't get down on yourself...Some high-level instruction with the proper load/unload process and you'll be mashing in no time.

Where are you located (within the USA of course ), perhaps someone can recommend a quality hitting instructor in your area.

i know...i appreciate everything you guys are saying seriously, its just hard cuz baseball has never been this tough for me haha...and im located in redstick louisiana...baton rouge...ryan theriot from the cubs who played at lsu just opened a really good baseball facility...im gonna call and see about some hitting lessons

Lousianna kid looking for local high-level hitting instructor. This may be just the place as I know of one

really, who?

Beastball 4,

You will find helpful info at Batspeed.com.

One thing to focus on is your left elbow. As you slot your right elbow, your left elbow gets away from your body and makes your swing a little armsy and long. Among other things, when you reach too far you are leaving yourself very little margine fpr error when your timing is early because your wrists are close to rolling.

I agree with others that point out that you are making it way too difficult. Simplfy your footwork. Try to "reach" with your front foot instead of "step".

Here's an exercise that should help with your footwork and arms.

Try placing the tee off your left hip and on the inside portion of the plate where it forces you to make contact deeper in the zone. Work on hitting the ball in the air. In order to do this, you will need to keep your weight back, your hands tighter to your body and behind the ball. Also in order to hit it in the air, you will have to get your bat on the plane of the ball sooner.

On the positive note, I can't see any killer faults that would keep you from improving once you get headed in the right direction.

Best of luck.

Learn to make the barrel go right as the hips go left.

beastball,

Just looked at that second clip a bit closer. I agree with SBK, your swing is a bit too long. Still much better than the first clip. Looks like your hands get away from you a little.

To me the most amazing thing was... you're hitting into a fence. I hope that is a rubber ball your hitting. If not, it sure looks kind of dangerous.

haha no it was a wiffle ball...and i do have some blooper clips with me getn hit in the face....but now im confused again...what part of my swing is long? i though since i was pulling my hands early that my arms would be too quick or too short and i should let them stay back and longer..

PGStaff, you have a private message.

quote:

Originally posted by beastball4:
I found a clip where i was working on not loading so big but still...i am disconnecting my hands from my swing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIaBVHdk1y8

I do see the disconnection, but I think that's because your sequencing isn't quite right. You still look too top down. Your lower body doesn't look at all like this around the point of contact...







Instead, you are more upright and your shoulders seem to be rotating ahead of your hips. Your hips don't seem to come through until after the point of contact.

Also, some of your swing looks weird because the tee seems to be quite high. That can distort your swing and your mechanics. Try putting the tee more at or below the level of your belt.

That will give a truer sense of what your swing mechanics look like.

Also, here are a couple of photos of Pujols hitting a higher pitch. You can see that much of the swing is similar...

Bestball4,

It is good of the painguy to take time to post the pujol pictures. It does a nice job of showing what I and others see. Notice how his lead elbow stays in close to his chest as he rotates. This keeps his swing shorter and more compact. It also keeps his hands flatter through the zone and allows him to stay on the plane of the ball earlier and longer.

It also allows him to reach a higher batspeed quicker. Also notice how much further back in relation to his body that he makes contact with the ball compared to your clip. (Obviously it depends on the location of the pitch where you should make contact)

When you reach out with your arms it creates a disconnect with your body and that makes your swing long or armsy. You start your swing with your hands hidden from the pitcher just like practically every major league hitter does. However as you reach out for the ball in front of you, your hands cease the circular path of most big league hitters hands and instead you start pushing them towards the ball. When you are extended as far as you can reach, your hands start rolling over.

Also, it is important that your body quit moving forward before you start your swing. The way your weight is shifting right now makes it difficult. I would like to see how you react to a ball you don't swing at and what kind of balance you have.

When you watch big leaguers like Pujols, you will notice that the bat is more in unison with the shoulders as he rotates.

All this is covered in detail at Batspeed.com. I would be interested if you find the info I posted here and earlier helpful.

I would love to have hitters with your current swing and obvious interest in getting better. As I mentioned earlier, you are doing some important things well and with a lot of hard work in a couple of important areas and with a lot of hard work, will improve your results substantially. Best of luck.

quote:

Originally posted by SBK:
Also notice how much further back in relation to his body that he makes contact with the ball compared to your clip. (Obviously it depends on the location of the pitch where you should make contact)

Excellent point.

I'd love to see how you'd hit with the tee placed farther back in your stance (and a little lower). More back by your front heel. Given where the tee is right now in your stance, how far forward it is, you HAVE to disconnect in order to go get the ball.

IOW, what you're showing us is your swing when you've gotten fooled by a change-up (and even the best hitters get arm-y and disconnected then).

alright i'll try to get some video of the tee farther back

beastball4,

Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about your hands disconnecting. You have already hit the ball before you let your hand come off the bat, so it is not a major issue. I see two problems, a cause and effect type situation.

1) You're turning your shoulders while loading up for the pitch. For that reason, it naturally takes you longer to get to the ball which is possibly why you feel that your lower body isn't as efficient. Take some out of the top half of your body and you will feel it in your lower body.

2) Resulting from turning your shoulders, your hands are pushing out. Therefore, you have a longer swing. This is a similar situation to something that happened to a kid on my team last year. He was a stud, and had gotten into the habit of turning his shoulders. He fixed it and is now playing JV baseball at a school that was in our state's final four last year. Just try to get rid of turning the shoulders and I'm positive that you will feel a difference in how hard you swing and how fast you get to the ball.

TSP4