[Music playing]
Ryan is going to assist me in setting this up; you and Ryan take the position. Notice that often times with this drill, if I can borrow your bat for a second, coaches will have you do it this way, “I do not like to do it this way. This is too easy. It is not really a challenge to me.”
So, we set Ryan up a little closer. We are going to have him about a foot and a half away from the fence. You will notice there is no way he can extend his bat without making contact there. If you feel like you are not close enough or if you are too far way, this is a good checkpoint. When you place your feet, you should have a bend in your elbow. If your arms straight, you are too far way, you need to move up some. So Ryan is checked is, he has got a bend in the arm and he is ready to go.
This is what we want. It is technique that we want to emphasize. I want him to take his foot, he gets a little bit of movement backward, he will take a stride with his front foot, and this is a point of emphasis. We want him to start his hips first and let the upper body follow, which is something that most hitters do not do. So he is going to rotate his hips, notice that his upper body follows through, the bats above the shoulder. From here, he is got the bat and odd pointer at the ball and he is going to let that bat ride right down along side his shoulder and then he will finish his swing. Something that, it is kind of impressive once you learn how to do it because your stance is so close to the fence yet, you do not make contact. And initially, if you do make contact, if you let that bat slide out away from your shoulder and you make contact, it is telling you that you are extending the arms, pushing the bat away when you are pulling it through. We do not want that, we want the arms to stay in.
We want Ryan to stay in what we call a good box. Notice the box that he is got here, in front if the box, bottom across the shoulder’s top of the box down the back arms back of the box. Okay, Ryan, in return stride; squish the bag. Notice how his arms are feeling the box. His arms having straighten that he has not lost the box here and he is going ahead and extend from here, boom! Contact and then he will drive through it. Forces you to stay in a good box and make sure that you maintain good hand quickness and good drive through the ball.
Okay, Ryan, let us take a look at the cap. Notice how he keeps the hands in, close to the body, stays in his box, see how he executes the swing, in spite of the fact that he is stand right up on the fence. If you extend here, you are going to whack the fence, it is going to wring a little bit and you are going it feel it.
[Music playing]
Okay, Ryan, if you would step away from the fence about two steps, right there, now swing again, same thing. I want you to emphasize the same technique, except now, you do not have to worry about the fence being there. So as you execute your drill, you should do at least ten of this a day and then back off the fence and do ten more, without having to worry about the fence making contact. But every time you swing, consider doing the exact same technique as if you were standing right up on top of that fence, and that is just a good way to drive this drill home prior to going in to hit.
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