Loading up

Forget about putting emphasis on the hands......Connect your hands to the shoulders and forget them......

DOGGIE

You do not believe in a hitter having "quick hands" ?

Perhaps at the dinner table......

But, as related to swinging a bat?....Not even a little....

"Quick hands" comes from connection to a strong hip turn...The hands can finish the swing, but not start it, so quick hands is really a good, quick turn.

DOGGIE

I am glad you have all the answers--new website that you found?

Level--I am with you and some hitters have them and others dont

Hitting is a combination of the body parts in conjunction with the brain, at least for me

quote:

The hands can finish the swing

They can, but shouldn't....

[QUOTE] They can, but shouldn't....[QUOTE ]

...Just curious...why not?...

IMO it's just a matter of definition. From what I see and feel, the hands are at their most active when they are strinking the ball...not that they're the only thing working, believe me.

Not sure what is meant by the hands can finish the swing but the hands are not a source of power and are only an extension of the arms and shoulders and should stay connected from launch thru contact. With proper load/momentum/rotation the shoulders/arms/hands will whip around hence the perception of having quick hands.

Hands can be very quick if the rest of the body is quick. But no such thing as slow body and quick hands.

well put...

Well put guys. Dog made a lot of sense here as he seems to be more and more lately.

Pujols vertical hand set is key to his "pop" . THe bat plane transition from more vertical to the launch slot near 45 degrees gets his separation. It is automatic in great players and it comes from relative upper/ lower body positioning...

You cannot force that issue.

Just a thought here. I had players hit from a tee on their knees. It is not possible to have hip rotation (to any degree) on your knees. Hitters hit the ball different distances. This was effectively without lower body. I believe some had a quicker path than others because of their upper body.

Furthermore, given the same lower body, the one with the bat extended (cast) will swing slower than one with a better path to the ball.

One more observation, some players do not push back with their bat when it appears that they do. When they stride forward, the hands stay back while everything else goes forward. The separation is not from pushing back but going forward and leaving the hands where they started.

Papa-
why are you working with players on their knees? if you are not getting hip rotation, what are you doing it for? Will there be a game situation swing when you don't use your hips?

Quicker path to the ball typically means shorter path traveled...

NO, I just think it is a mistake to think hitting is all lower or all upper body. Not all force is generated by hip rotation. How many times have you seen a hitter fooled by off-speed, be totally comitted and early with the bottom 1/2 but keep his hands back and drive a ball -- look ma, no hips. I saw Jeter hit one out in a World Series just flicking his hands, his hips were already gone.

I think quick hands could come into play when making an adjustment mid-swing. If the ball is a little lower than what you first anticipated, or a little more outside, the hands can make that last second adjustment. Good posture and connection should give you the best swing possible, but if you miscalculated, it can't hurt for the hands to make up for that, if necessary.

It all goes back to proper movement patterns. Upper body, lower body, hips, hands, whatever. Learn proper movements and get rid of improper movements (which the large majority of HSer's have and it's not their fault)and hitting will improve.

The great ones can get fooled and still have enough juice (although in some cases such as Vlad I just shake my head)to get the ball out.

These are rare cases. How many times have you seen a HS player get fooled and hit it out. Very, very rare.

Doyle,

I totally agree. My son has a great "path" to the ball with his hands and the ball jumps off his bat. However, his lower body is messed up and his hitting area is limited. It's not just lost power, when the lower body is messed up, it limits the amount of coverage in the strike zone.

As a freshman he hit 10 of his 18 homeruns opposite field. He has hit double digit home runs but all are from left to center field (RH hitter).

I don't have a problem with pull hitters (Williams, Bonds), the greatest were, but he is losing both power and coverage by his lower body.