How to Set Hands with The Bat

Clubhouse Gas

Casey: Today on Clubhouse Gas, friend of the show coach Turtle Thomas, Head Coach of Florida International University is here to talk with us about setting the hands, how to set, trigger and explode through the ball so stay tune to another great edition of Clubhouse Gas.

Turtle: You know in hitting number one we’re taking that short sauce stray ahead stride. Number two, we’re loading out about 70% of our body weight to our back foot. The third thing that you want to do is you stride, is you want to trigger your hands or take your hands back from the say the barrel excuse me the handle maybe a couple of just slightly inside that back shoulder just slightly behind your back shoulder. A little bit of a trigger.

Now what does that do well it overcomes inertia, I don’t want to start my swing with a dead steel bat, dead steel hands generating no bat speed so remember engaging from the zones, good pivot, good trigger with your hands are the three main things that help you develop bat speed as a hitter, that’s what we’re looking for all the time. Good mechanics, good bat speed, using the hands to hit with you got something going when that happens right there.

But to trigger the bat overcomes inertia, an object will remain at rest with the bat until acted upon by an outside source that’s the muscle in your hands and arms as you trigger the bat 3 or 4 inches straight back at the catcher umpire. Now when you trigger, good point, I always want to do it with the top hand. See when I trigger with the bottom hand that is what wraps that bat around my head and links them out or bars out that front arm making your bat in the length of your swing too long before contact.

When you trigger your hands it’s always done with the hands not the shoulders and it’s always done with the top hand. So a good trigger drill, hand open, bottom hand, top hand trigger. If you don’t wrap the bat, you don’t use your body to trigger with straight back 3 or 4 inches straight back. Every time any time you see a guy wrap the bat is because the bottom arm is doing the majority of the triggering 3 or 4 inches back overcoming inertia getting the bat speed started.

Here’s the good one, let’s say I’m a right handed batter because I’m going to get down on my right knee. Alright, I’m going to put my hands together like I’m holding the bat. I’m going t hold my hands even with my front, not my back shoulder, my front shoulder, shoulder level one hands linked from my front shoulder, trigger. By smoothing fluid straight back right under my chin, right to my back shoulder, trigger.

They do it right under your chin, trigger, bat. Only your hands move, not your shoulders. Then you start your normal position. Trigger, bat, you see the other bat thing that happens when guys incorrectly trigger, that back elbow flies up that not only tilts the barrel of the bat back towards the pitcher making your swing longer and loopier and what it does it adds extra inches to the length of your swing before you make contact with the baseball.

Back elbow should stay down at a 45 degree angle to the ground as I trigger with my hands straight back. Here’s another one, how about this one, put my hands together straight up, alright elbows down and all you do with your stance you’re up here and your going to trigger that front hand pushes the back hand by a trigger, bat, trigger, bat. We even want to do this karate chop. Why? Because I think you would feel the trigger better with karate chops than versus gripping the bat or making two fists, trigger, bat, trigger.

Do this, you’ve got this tape and I’m going to stand about 5 inches from the tape making sure I don’t take my hands away from my body or my hands back this way diagonally behind me. So what I’m going to do is I trigger is look right down through my hands down to the tape and as I take my hands back 3 or 4 inches I want to take my hands straight back right down the tape exactly right there.

Now here’s a great one I’m telling you this is an little known fact about hitting. There’s 2 or 3 guys on every baseball team in America that when they set up in their stance, their back elbow is like way back toward the end of the 3rd base dug out behind them right back here. So what happens to clear hands and arms of their body they got to swing out like this and then back like this, they have a horizontal V in their swing because their back elbows is way back here too far.

Everybody has got a little bit behind but not extremely behind them because that creates that as a I say horizontal V in your swing, now how do you break that habit? Well, think about this. Let’s say I’ve got a pole right here, like the pole, the edge of the batting cage. What I’m going to do is put my back foot half way right in instep so to speak at the back side of my instep right against the pole and I’m going to put my tricep on the other side of a pole and as I go to swing it doesn’t allow me to do this because I bump right in that pole.

So I’m sliding the back tricep right against the outside of that pole keeping my arms in the slot so I can take my back straight ahead. So many people do that is the amazing where they start with that back elbow way back towards back edge of that dug out right there. So there’s a few things about the trigger with your hands taking you back by 3 or 4 inches as you go to swing the bat.



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