The Low Pitch (The "uppercut swing")

The 3 frames below show how the body can work to attack the low pitch. In frame 2 you can see how the back shoulder is working down to the ball. The key is the front shoulder has not started to open . yet. Then in frame 3 which is prior to contact you can see the back shoulder start to work forward and the front shoulder opening up as rotation continues. The hands do not go straight down to the ball. I remember being told as a kid that an uppercut swing is wrong. On the low ball you want an upper cut swing. Try this in the cage this winter and sometimes your body starts to move into better mechanics if you think about having an uppercut swing on the low ball. 

Adjustment to off speed

Chris' homerun he just hit in the ALCS is a great example of adjusting to an 0-2 change up the correct way. Most amateur hitters continue to move their body weight forward and lose all ability to use their lower half in the swing. Chris has awesome depth to his swing so he keep a strong bent back elbow as he just continues to rotate his back shoulder to the ball. The extension your see in the last frame is done well after the ball has made contact with the bat. You can see in the still frames below how Chris moves to contact and how at contact his back shoulder is more forward then it would be if he had perfect timing. Chris' back shoulder movements allow him to stay in the zone a long time and continue to be in a position of strength with his top arm.

The "Attacking Position"

The "attacking position" is a phrase I hear a lot when coaches talking about the ideal posture to swing from. I agree that it is important to get to a position at landing where the upper body hinges at the waist and the chest moves towards the plate. I've heard it called a crunch, getting to athletic position or creating room for the back elbow to work. This hitting posture needs to be created to some extent and the angle of the spine depends on the flexibility of the individual hitter. However pre setting the attacking posture in the stance creates pressure and tension in the lower back for most body types and I am a big advocate for creating the attacking position during the load or timing sequence of the swing. How early or late your begin to hinge at the waist and how much you move your chest towards home plate is up to each individual hitter and should be experimented with to find whats comfortable for your body. The main reason creating the attacking position is important is as you hinge at the waist and lower your chest to home plate you are getting your back shoulder in a lower position to fire down into the strike zone when its time to swing. The farther your back shoulder is from home plate the farther it has to go to get into the hitting zone. The majority of the pitches that are thrown to hitters are down and we need to set up our body and our eyes in a position to be accurate and on plane for those pitches. In the next post I will talk about the front shoulder's movements in the swing.

Below is Bour's sequence of timing for a 3 run home run he hit earlier this year. Notice his timing compared to the pitcher's delivery.  His timing mechanism and barrel tip happens later then you would think. Notice where the ball is in picture 3 as he finishes tipping his barrel. The baseball is out of the pitchers hand. In picture 4 you can see the turn of the elbow and back shoulder which initiates the actual swing. In picture 4 and 5 you can see the top arm's elbow and shoulder work down and stay tight to the body, then in picture 6 you can see the top elbow move slightly away from the body as Bour adjusts to a pitch on the outside half of the plate, if the pitch was inside you would see the elbow stay closer to the body. His timing is not perfect on this pitch but he creates "bat path" for himself by in picture 4 taking his back shoulder down and to the ball. If Bour had just taken his knob to the ball he would most likely have rolled over this pitch for a ground ball out to the right side. The swing does not happen in straight lines back to front even though the swing is taught that way by a lot of people. Extension is irrelevant. Work on getting into the right movement patterns that allow you to be in the proper position at contact. What happens after contact is just a byproduct of timing, pitch and pitch location.

The Top Arm

Look at contact position in the first two clips. Most amateur hitting can not comfortably get to this position because there are trying to take the bat straight to the ball and get extension. Ideal contact position is with a 90 degree bend still in the top hand. That is the position of strength not with the arms extended. In the three clips above watch the top arm and how the top arms' elbow and shoulder create depth in the swing. A way that clicks with a lot of my guys is, " take the tip of your top elbow and try to jam it into your back hip bone to start the swing. This is impossible but may create the action you are looking for.

Correct landing position.

Very rarely do I see college hitters create the sitting action with the lower half at landing. This position is consistent in each big leaguer below. There are many reasons why you are in a position of strength by creating the sitting action at landing. However, the easiest way for me to justify it to you is; pitchers throw the majority of the pitches down. The closer you get your eyes to the baseball the more accurate you will be with your barrel. 

"Just put the ball in Play"

Young hitters are rewarded for putting the ball in play and shunned for striking out. However, the constant encouragement by coaches to "get your foot down" "just put the ball in play" "don't get too big" "don't over swing""don't swing at balls" Everyone knows that it takes a long time to become a good hitter and failure is a big part of the process. Coaches need to realize that hitting is not simple and simple phrases like the ones above give the impression that putting the ball in play is easy.    Also, as you get to higher levels when you weakly put the ball in play you are out! Especially with the amateur game being played more and more on turf fields playing the infield has become even easier.  From a pitchers perspective there is nothing better then facing a hitter that is just trying to put the ball in play. He is not a threat to the pitcher and he is also a great double play candidate.

My point for this post is to understand that the swing will evolve naturally if coaches allow their hitters to have the freedom to develop. Stay away from short phrases they don't work. Focus more on timing and pitch selection. There is a small percentage of coaches that know what they are talking about in term of swing mechanics and thats okay but if you don't know what you are talking about don't simplify the swing to your hitters. There are certain simple commands that will help your hitters like "work on hitting the ball on the barrel more" "work on seeing the ball better out of the pitchers hand" These are examples of phrases that a hitter can work on and his ability to get better at seeing the ball and being accurate with the barrel will allow his swing mechanics to evolve naturally. I always try to phrase commands by not saying "hit the ball on the barrel" or see the ball better." I say work on......" Getting better takes hours and hours of work and you never get it completely, there is always something new to "work on" Respect the process and keep in perspective that hitting is very difficult and the great ones are the ones that are consistent with their pursuit of being great. If you are not satisfied with your skills as a hitter, almost always its just a case of not spending enough time working on your swing. A great phrase one of my assistants uses is "everyone wants to be rich but most people just want to win the lottery." There is not magic hitting potion that you can drink to become a great hitter. Just dedicate yourself to consistently invest time on your swing and the results will eventually follow.