old habits hard to break

Stay away from any sort of toss. No short toss, flips, or live BP. Work off the tee. Take 100 swings off the tee. It is all about muscle memory. Focus on getting good extension through the ball before the wrists roll.
The whole thing of finishing high is relative to the pitch. You should not finish high if the pitch is high, that would just result in a popup. Just have him practice on hitting line drives into the net.

LOL......

Is this pitch high?

quote:

Originally posted by Eric D:
Hello everyone,
My son is 14 and after a rather bad offensive season this year in travel ball, I decided to video tape his swing both at games as well as off a T at home. I have found him to have a good approach to the ball, but he rolls his wrists over at about 2 frames past point of contact which causes him to finish across his body. I have watched slow mo video of the pros and they all roll over well past the point of contact and finish high. My boy understands what the proper swing should look like, but can't seem to do it in full speed. What can I do to get him on the right track.
Thanks to all

I would say post the video of your Son here and get some opinions. If you don't know how, post it to Youtube and post the link here.

I will work on the video tomorrow night and try to get it posted on youtube. Thanks for the help.

Yes Blue dog that pitch is high and Edmonds ends high, the end result is a fly ball (which leaves the yard)... But theres the flaw, you can't have 14 year olds swinging up and ending high, the end result will be the same everytime (flyballs) ... No kid that age can hit one out unless they are a genetic freak.

Here is the video of my son's swing. It is a little dark, but I think it will do. Thanks again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBqC5z02JJI

I thought I was radical about having son doing drills but having a net and tee in the house genious. I think we can sneak it by the wife.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric D:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBqC5z02JJI

Squish the bug.

quote:

Originally posted by gimages:
I thought I was radical about having son doing drills but having a net and tee in the house genious. I think we can sneak it by the wife.

Oh My Goodness....what a crack up. You are the man! If my wife saw a video on the Internet of my son hitting balls in the living room...

Just curious what happens when he gets under one?

One thing I see pretty clear is that he is pulling his front arm across the ball. If he consciously thinks about aiming the knob at the ball and not pulling the knob to the ball, it will stop the rolling over too soon problem.

One other thing I see that may be contributing to the problem is that his stance is closed and he steps staying closed. If he will step back to square it will help his bat direction some too.

quote:

Yes Blue dog that pitch is high and Edmonds ends high, the end result is a fly ball (which leaves the yard)... But theres the flaw, you can't have 14 year olds swinging up and ending high, the end result will be the same everytime (flyballs) ... No kid that age can hit one out unless they are a genetic freak.

LOL!

quote:

Originally posted by Shantzee:
Yes Blue dog that pitch is high and Edmonds ends high, the end result is a fly ball (which leaves the yard)... But theres the flaw, you can't have 14 year olds swinging up and ending high, the end result will be the same everytime (flyballs) ... No kid that age can hit one out unless they are a genetic freak.

It's not just about hitting the ball out of the park though.

Many times, base hits occur when the ball is hit over the infield.

If the focus is to swing down, finish low, and/or hit the ball on the ground, you may end up finding a hole once in a while, but you will not be building a good swing.

Ted Williams said that the best swing is a slight upswing because not only will the focus be to get the ball airborne but you will also be swinging into the path of the ball.

IMO the rationale that kids are not strong enough to hit home runs at that age, hence they shouldn't focus on getting the ball in the air is very flawed. Sure, you don't want the kids hitting pop ups, but if you aren't focusing on swinging into the path of the ball you won't see line drives over the infield and into the gaps, which is not out of reason for these kids.

Why teach the kids something (as in swinging down or level) that they will have to change later if they want to succeed at the higher levels?

quote:

If the focus is to swing down, finish low, and/or hit the ball on the ground, you may end up finding a hole once in a while, but you will not be building a good swing.

I like Mike Epsein's approach to the high pitch. He says to "weather vane your front arm" to keep the plane high. One of the easiest pitches to get a base hit on, is a high outside strike if you just stay on the ball and drive it over the infielder's head.

Beemax, nice post. I especially like this part:

quote:

Originally posted by beemax:


Ted Williams said that the best swing is a slight upswing because not only will the focus be to get the ball airborne but you will also be swinging into the path of the ball.

To answer some questions, If he gets under one he misses the net and put a hole in the wall(happened once and I switched from hard balls to the high density sponge balls.
Thanks for the response, powertoallfields, I will try out your advise.
Could anyone give me some drills that force him to not roll over, or produce results that show roll over. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Eric D,

I had a kid who had the same problem. I took him out to an open field with an old bat and had him throw the bat.

He would "swing" at 5 inside pitches and would release the bat at contact. The bat should fly in a straight path to LF. He would repeat it on balls down the middle (bat flies to CF) and outside (bat flies to RF). If he rolls over too soon, th ebat goes straight into the ground and/or hooks in its flight path.

If you are limited for space, try a wiffle ball bat.

Fence drill is a very easy way to get hands inside the ball.

quote:

Fence drill is a very easy way to get hands inside the ball.

People still do this?

quote:

Originally posted by BlueDog:

quote:

Fence drill is a very easy way to get hands inside the ball.

People still do this?

I don't think the old fence drill I learned years ago with knob of bat against bellybutton and other end against fence while facing fence is a useful drill to learn a good swing. The fence drill shown by Mike Epstein with the hitter facing down the fence (starting position only) can be useful if done properly to learn when the top hand should fire. He would probably be able to do the first fence drill with not much problem since he is pulling the bat through the zone with his bottom hand already.

One other slight change that may work if what I've already suggested doesn't and that is weaken his grip (if you understand the golf grip). It's not the true fix, but it is a temporary fix that will work until you get the mechanical flaw fixed.

quote:

Originally posted by BlueDog:
People still do this?

Why do you ask?

'Cause most people understand that the drill is counter-productive to an efficient swing.....

I am sure everyone has their version of the fence drill and some are probably outdated and useless and others are beneficial, just like any drill/workout...

I don't think we can throw a blanket over the term "fence drill" though and say it is bad and can hamper all swings...

I specifically remember being at Univ of Nebraska in spring 2005 and watching a kid named Alex Gordon do some of his drills... one being the fence drill... he said he liked to do about 50 reps before he started in to his hitting live, etc... and another 50 at the end... he said it allowed him to believe that his hands weren't getting "too far away from him his body" on any given swing...

his swing (during his fence drill) looked identical to his cuts off tee and from soft toss and from live BP on field.... nothing much mechanically different....

i think he did pretty good for himself...