Three Universal Swing Faults - Swing mechanics gone wrong

Three Universal Swing Faults

Let’s define swing fault and swing thought.

Something  done “wrong” in a swing or swing mechanics is a swing fault

A swing thought is what you think prior and during the swing... giving your body directions.

Proper Hitting Posture

Question: How many times do you see Major League Hitters lose their balance, fall over in the batters box, or fall out of the box? Not very often! How many times do you see young, amateur hitters lose their balance while swinging? Way too often!

Proper Hitting Posture consists of:

Keeping an “athletic” position throughout the swing

A slight lean or tilt of the hitter’s body over the plate throughout the swing

o        Feet as wide as the bat (after stride)

o        Knees bent

o        Upper body leaned over towards the plate

Proper Hitting Posture allows the hitter to:

Stay in the best possible athletic position to execute the swing

Keeps the head and eyes in the best possible position to see and track the ball 

Fault # 1 Lack of Proper Hitting Posture

Hitters lose their balance/athleticism during the swing which results in losing their hitting posture.
Hitters will open their front side (shoulder, hip, front leg, head) too soon and will loose hitting posture.
This causes too many bad things to mention them all… your head comes off the ball, your swing gets long and usually loopy, and the ability to adjust to an off-speed pitch is diminished immensely.

HOW TO FIX: Understanding specifically what the position is and consistently keeping the body in that position throughout the swing will increase success dramatically.

SWING THOUGHT: Stay balanced, keep the knees slightly bent throughout the swing and finish the swing with a slight lean over the plate.

DRILL:  Mirror drill – Simply watch yourself swing in a mirror, keeping proper balance and hitting posture… over and over and over.

BATTING TIP: Having proper hitting posture and balance on every swing is critical in maximizing any hitters potential. There is nothing you can do in any sport well if you don’t have control of your body.

Most hitters tend to have naturally long swings because of these next two faults… long swings are not mechanically sound swings.

Fault # 2   Dip, drag, loop, or uppercut which causes long, loopy swing.

Question: How many foul balls are hit in a Major League game and where do most of them go? There are dozens and dozens of foul balls and most of them go up and out of play… because of the natural loop or barrel drag which leads hitting the bottom of the ball.

Hitters naturally create a “loop” in the swing or drag the bat head. MOST of the good pitches to hit that we swing at and miss, we swing UNDER the ball… if you have TIVO, check for yourself.     

 Most young hitters drag let their bats drag under pitch  vs. Keeping barrel above pitch until just prior to contact

                                            

We want to flatten out the naturally loopy swing…this will keep the bat on the pitch plane longer to give us a better chance for contact.

WHY do hitters do make this fault?  

Natural movements

Lack of knowledge

Improper practice habits

Lack of functional strength

HOW TO FIX: Keep our hands and bat above the baseball’s path until contact point.

SWING THOUGHT:  “Swing slightly down” on the ball, aim at the upper half of ball/pitch

** Swinging down is a very controversial subject. The truth is that we don’t want to swing down but, hitters just have such a natural, pronounced loop that thinking about swinging down flattens the swing a bit.

DRILL: High Tee – Set up a Tee about chest high and go to swinging (line drives). If the hitter loops or drag at all… the Tee will be destroyed within a few swings.

BATTING TIP: Keeping an athletic base will allow the hitter to create the proper swing angle to help eliminate this fault.

Fault # 3            “Casting”, surrounding the ball, getting outside the ball, missing the slot

Question: Have you ever got a pitch down the middle of the plate and pulled a 5 hopper to the shortstop/2^nd baseman? This happens way too much! Why do we usually put the best young player at shortstop? Because of this natural swing fault! Most hitters are right-handed and with this almost universal “cast and roll” swing fault… a lot of ground balls are hit towards the short-stop.

Hitters naturally send their hands away from their body over the plate which sends the barrel over the outside and off the plate. The hitter then rolls the barrel back towards the plate which usually results in the pulled ground ball.

Staying Connected

WHY do hitters do this? 

Natural movements

Lack of knowledge

Improper practice habits

HOW TO FIX: take hands or knob of bat straight to pitcher from launch point

SWING THOUGHT: “Stay Connected” – Keep back elbow “connected” or close to body.

New York Mets hitting coach Kevin Long uses this phrase often when working with hitters.

Hit the inner half of ball 

DRILLS: Tee’s to opposite field (example below… exactness), Fence drills, opposite field hitting.

BATTING TIP: When working off of batting tee, pick a spot on inner half of ball and aim at that spot.

   

When the “loop” and “cast” are eliminated from the swing, the hitter has a short, flat, quick, powerful, and explosive swing. This makes for more solid contact, more often, and creates optimum power and ball flight.