The Swing: (Lead with Hands)

By: Jeff VanHuis

Provided by: Baseball Concepts

4. The Swing: (Lead with Hands)

1. Begin the swing coming from the load position by bringing the hands forward and down towards the hitting zone.
2. Hands should be brought into the hitting zone, as player begins slight rotation in the hips - do not pull out the front shoulder until contact with the ball is made - lead with hands.
   1. Explode: As bat and ball contact is made, rotate hips, keeping front leg straight and pivoting on the back foot.

Drill Practice: In partners: soft toss a ball to the hitter. T-Drill, working on the swing with a stationary ball on a tee.

1. Soft Toss Drills:partner will sit on a bucket 6' away. Be sure ball feeder is back from the hitter and clear from the swing, (eight reps per player).
   1. Underhand toss the ball into the hitting zone.
   2. Hitter takes a full swing at the ball driving it into a sock net.
   3. Proper stance, load, stride, and swing explosion.
   4. Be sure to give hitter time to get set into his stance before tossing the next ball.
      Variation: Underhand tosses can be delivered from behind the hitter as well, just another version of the drill. Soft toss can be done with or without the stride.

   

2. T-Drills:(eight reps of each drill per player)
   1. Top Half: Square up lower half of the body to the sock-net, then rotate top half that is square with the Tee. Hitter then takes a full swing (with top half only), and just after contact with the ball, he rolls his wrists so to not move or pull away with the front shoulder. Goal is to drive ball straight into the net while keeping the front side of the body closed.
   2. Small bat: Hold with the bottom hand. With the top hand, grab the front shoulder. Practice a full swing while driving the bottom hand to the baseball and keeping the front side closed.
   3. Full swing: Player works the entire swing: Rhythm, Load, Stride, Lead with the hands, explode while rotating the hips! This can be done with a regular bat or with a thin barrel training bat (shown in picture).