Learn how to fix bat drag or casting with this hitting drill. Discover how to STOP missing the ball, looping swing, and swinging under the ball for baseball and softball players.
How To Use the Flashlight Barrel Angle Drill to Boost Barreling the Ball
This time of the season, I’m getting a lot of younger hitters starting their turn before the stride foot hits the ground. I ask them if they throw a baseball or softball before their stride foot hits the ground.
Try it. Feels awkward, doesn’t it?! Why are these younger hitters starting their turn before landing their stride foot. It could be because of a flat barrel at or close to landing.
The video above is my favorite prescribed drill for fixing a “Bleeding Barrel” and a flat launched bat. Here are the video notes:
What was once Pre-Launch Barrel Angle,
Fixing throwing before front foot lands v. Final Turn before front foot land,
Center mass of the bat,
Variance using feedback markers, and
As close to landing as possible.
Please keep me updated on your hitters using the Flashlight Barrel Angle Drill…
Grab 'Finger Pressure' Video
Frustrated with fixing BAT DRAG? Beat it!
Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
Click button below to access FREE video that has been downloaded over 20K times!
PLEASE NOTE that along long the bat drag lines, I recently tapped into my readers’ knowledge-base with this article titled, Hitting Tips To Boost Barrel Time On Pitch-Plane, that offered up some handy gold nuggets for correcting bat drag. There almost 30 comments! So go check it out and get involved in the discussion.
To refresh your BEST-of 2014, let’s recap by hitching a ride in my time baseball and softball hitting machine…
SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:
Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.
Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.
SpeedHitter promo featuring Tampa Bay Rays hitting coach Derek Shelton. Photo courtesy: Momentus Sports YouTube video
In this baseball online post, we talked about:
Speed Hitter baseball training aid review,
Barrel path science, and
A better alternative…
CLICK HERE for a 2-minute Swing Hitter demo video. Momentus Sports promises the Speed Hitter will help a hitter achieve four ingredients all great hitters do (watch the video to see what they are). When proven human movement science is applied to the Speed Hitter, it doesn’t deliver on any of the promises.
Unbeknownst to Momentus Sports, the question the Speed Hitter attempts to answer is, “When is the barrel suppose to accelerate?” Is it at impact or before impact? The answer is the latter, but the Speed Hitter’s focus is the former. So, what better alternative is there? The Swing Blaster. Focus should be on hearing a clear audible “click” before impact, NOT at contact.
Post UPDATE:Click Here for an article on how barrel path changes based on pitch dept (e.g. middle-in versus middle-away pitch).
Josh Donaldson “staying closed” with his shoulders at landing. Photo courtesy: MLB.com
In this baseball online video, we analyzed:
Josh Donaldson v. Jose Bautista metrics,
What “staying closed” means to spine engine mechanics, and
Where Josh Donaldson might be leaking force at impact.
How eerily similar Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson’s body types AND swings are. CLICK HERE to listen (start at the 1 min, 10 sec mark) to Josh Donaldson discuss how he modeled his swing after Jose Bautista. This was an interview after being traded from Oakland to Toronto. By the way, this post got some air time on Canada’s National Post!
In the above post, “staying closed” DOES NOT mean an inward turn of the hips – towards the catcher – to “load”. It also has ZERO to do with striding with a closed front foot. But what this baseball online BEST-of post does do, is go into the counter-rotation of the shoulders – versus the pelvis – during the fall. Or what my hitters will tell you, “showing the pitcher their numbers.”
Upon analysis, it was interesting to note that Josh Donaldson didn’t commit his weight to his front side like Jose Bautista did. And this led to inferior ball exit speeds and a lower average home-run distance because of an inefficiency to use Gravitational Forces.
One of my local High School hitters Charles fixing an early arm bar.
In this baseball online post, we went over:
What is Bat Drag?
The science of Bat Drag (to hitting an unknown moving pitch), and
How-to fix Bat Drag.
Youth bat drag is causes mostly by over rotation of the upper and/or lower half. It is NOT like what some coaches say, being caused by a dominant top hand or back arm, quite the opposite actually. Bat drag can be caused by a weak and disconnected top hand and back arm.
This article I originally posted back in 2015, and blamed bat drag on a barred out-front arm. I’ve since revised my position on this thanks to Perry Husband. A barred out-front arm DOES NOT result in a long slow swing, an early barrel in the hitting zone does. Specifically on pitches that are middle in. For a refresher on how barrel path changes based on pitch depth, then click this post.
Grab 'Finger Pressure' Video
Frustrated with fixing BAT DRAG? Beat it!
Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
Click button below to access FREE video that has been downloaded over 20K times!
This newly UPDATED article (video isn’t updated) presents a fun youth hitting drills approach to help fix bat drag for baseball and softball players. We go over what causes and what is bat drag, how to cure and stop it tips for batting swing beginners.
#1 Youth Baseball Swing Fix To Deflating Bat Speed
Awhile back I posted the following youth baseball post to my Hitting Performance Lab Facebook fan-page (CLICK HERE if you haven’t “Liked” my fan-page yet…new content daily):
This video blog post will target one of the worst youth baseball swing offenders to deflating bat speed…bat drag. In this article, we’re going over:
What is and What Causes Bat Drag?
The science of Bat Drag (to hitting an unknown moving pitch), and
1 Way How to Fix, Cure, & Stop Youth Bat Drag
What Causes AND What is Baseball Youth Bat Drag?
Notice the difference in Charles’s barrel angle.
Article UPDATE: Bat drag is when a young hitter’s upper and/or lower body rotates way passed the hands and bat to cause the back arm elbow to race passed the hitter’s belly button. We call this racing back elbow.
Youth bat drag is causes mostly by over rotation of the upper and/or lower half. It is NOT like what some coaches say, being caused by a dominant top hand or back arm, quite the opposite actually. Bat drag can be caused by a weak and disconnected top hand and back arm.
This article I originally posted back in 2015, and blamed bat drag on a barred out-front arm. I’ve since revised my position on this thanks to Perry Husband. A barred out-front arm DOES NOT result in a long slow swing, an early barrel in the hitting zone does. Specifically on pitches that are middle in. For a refresher on how barrel path changes based on pitch depth, then click this post.
SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:
Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.
Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.
Myth#1 – sometimes coaches say get the back elbow up in the batting stance. We do teach this to help get the front shoulder slightly down at stride landing. Lifting the back elbow without this principle is irrelevant to fixing anything.
Myth#2 – the hips before hands argument is old and stale. This is EXACTLY what’s happening with bat drag, the hips are way out front of the hands, resulting in a connected swing. The two main problem with bat drag are 1) Not taking slack out of system (fix below helps with this), and 2) over rotation of upper and or lower half. Over-teaching myth #2 tends to promote over-rotation.
Myth#3 – again, hip rotation is not the end all be all to power, contact, etc. in the swing. It’s over coached. If anything, we should be coaching LESS hip rotation, NOT more.
Bat drag is a disease of over rotation, so rotating more will only make matters worse. Here’s a great place to start…
1 Way How to Fix, Cure, & Stop Youth Bat Drag
See Cutch pulling his top hand, while bottom hand restrains that pull forward (look at muscles in left forearm and triceps). Photo courtesy: MLB.com
Typically, I have my youth baseball hitters practice the Catapult Loading System when we have an arm barring issue. The finer points before a hitter lands in the Fight Position are:
Showing pitcher your numbers,
Hiding hands from pitcher, and
Slight downhill shoulder angle.
Another piece I’ve just added to the puzzle comes from Homer Kelly in his book The Golfing Machine. The following quote may shed additional light on “educating the hands” to combat arm barring…
“Power Accumulator #1 (for right handed golfer) – is the bent right arm. Even though the right biceps is active, the backstroke is always made with the right arm striving to remain straight. But the straight left arm restrains this continuous extensor action of the right triceps with an effortless checkerin action. Consequently , during release, the right arm can straighten only as the left arm moves away from the right shoulder.”
You see, the problem with bat drag at the youth baseball level isn’t the move itself, but how the compensation is triggered. What’s happening before the front arm bars out? Is the hitter properly activating the springy fascia within the torso?
If you “Click here to ‘Get Instant Access'” button below, you can get a free video that explains:
Why the following advice: “Power is all in the hips”, “Load and explode the hips”, and “The hips lead the way” won’t produce the repeatable power you’re looking for…
Where power really comes from – the answers to how the body actually loads are validated by science…
The 3 Do’s & Don’ts that will help you execute this simple strategy without any hitches in swing quality…
'Add 40-Feet' To Batted Ball Distance
Swing Study reveals how tens of thousands of hitters are adding 40-feet to batted ball distance by using one simple strategy.
Click the button below to access the FREE video that's been downloaded over 30K times!!
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Fun-Youth-Hitting-Drills-To-Fix-Bat-Drag-For-Baseball-Softball-Players-What-Causes-What-Is-It-How-To-Cure-Stop-Tips-For-Batting-Swing-Beginners-e1659417919879.png280800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-08-01 10:00:052022-08-02 18:04:33Fun Youth Hitting Drills To Fix Bat Drag For Baseball & Softball Players | What Causes, What Is It, How To Cure & Stop Tips For Batting Swing Beginners
Here’s a fun youth hitting drills post to help STOP bat drag for beginner baseball and softball players. Easy at home indoor use with limited space. Learn how to fix dragging back elbow for 6 year olds on up. Discover batting instruction tips for what is bat drag and what causes it.
Okay, I’ll admit it…
It took 30-mins to clean up my Sophomore in High School, Zack May’s, Rear Racing Elbow using Reactive Neuromuscular Training (RNT)…
The one hitting fault that is a bugger to fix is,
Rear Racing Elbow.
Unfortunately: I find that a baseball hitting instruction fix for one player with this challenge, may not work for another.
Fortunately: I do see symptoms that tend to haunt specific Rear Racing Elbow bat drag hitters.
Unfortunately: I also find that the same combination of symptoms may not be present for every hitter.
Fortunately: For this baseball hitting instruction drill to work, the symptoms must be present.
In this post:
We’ll define Rear Racing Elbow,
Look at the symptoms of this particular case study,
Front knee action at landing: slightly bent or straight? and
How we fixed the issue in one 30-min session, using RNT…
What is Rear Racing Elbow?
It’s when the rear elbow “races” passed the hands towards the middle of the body (see “BEFORE” image up and to the right).
It can cause the hitter to:
Dump the barrel prematurely, which leads to flares OR misses completely to the opposite field, OR
Roll over or get jammed on inside pitches.
It’s a nasty bug to fix with conventional baseball hitting instruction, and one my readers sounded off on at the following two HPL posts:
Frustrated with fixing BAT DRAG? Beat it!
Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
Click button below to access FREE video that has been downloaded over 20K times!
In this particular baseball hitting instruction case study, one of my local hitters Zack May, a Sophomore in High School, over the past year, has been haunted by these three things…NOT getting the:
Front leg to straight at or passed impact,
Back knee to 90-105 degrees during the turn, and
Downhill shoulder angle before landing, and
Post UPDATE: Over-rotation is a BIG issue we see with the over-coaching of rotational mechanics.
Front Knee Action at Landing: Slight Bend or Straight?
This is a major baseball hitting instruction debate among instructors I respect. They teach their hitters to keep a slight bend in the front knee at or passed impact.
They point to big sluggers like Mark McGwire and Mark Teixeira, among others, as examples.
The amount of bend in the front knee up to impact will depend on the amount of forward momentum (FoMo) the hitter uses.
The more FoMo a hitter uses, the more Ground Reaction Forces (GRF) are needed to transfer planes of motion from the Frontal/Coronal* (sideways) to the Transverse* (twisting). In which case, a straightening of the front knee would be highly recommended. Hitters like Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson come to mind.
On the contrary though, like a lot of big sluggers, the less forward momentum (wide to little striders), there doesn’t seem to be a need to straighten the front knee during impact.
Think of a wide receiver running a 10-yard 90-degree cut route. He uses GRF and FoMo just like a hitter, but he’s transferring from Sagittal* (front) to the Frontal/Coronal* (sideways) plane of motion. In this case, he’s reaching a maximum forward running speed (FoMo), then has to cut very quickly, so you’ll see his plant leg go from bent to straight as he uses Ground Reaction Forces. Evidenced by him dropping down (or getting shorter) before making the cut.
My hitter Zack is both tall (6’4″), and uses quite a bit FoMo. So, for him, when that front knee doesn’t get to straight, that’s a problem. Coupled with the issue of not getting sufficient bend in his back knee during the turn causes the pelvis to not fully rotate. And as a result, his back shoulder and arm feel like they have to do extra work. And Rear Racing Back elbow is born!
*CLICK HERE for a more in-depth overview of planes of motion on Wikipedia.
Post UPDATE: we’ve since moved away from the front knee action having to get straight as an absolute to fixing bat drag or contributing to significant power, for that matter. We see hitters like Bellinger, Seager, Rizzo, Pedroia, and Beltre all keep significant bend in the front knee when getting a ball below their belt line.
Baseball Hitting Instruction: How We Fixed Zack’s Bat Drag in 30-Mins…
Baseball hitting instruction and RNT drill we used with Zack,
We used two long resistance bands positioned as close to his pelvis as possible (high up the thigh without damaging “the goods”),
Both resistance bands pull in opposite directions (feeding the mistakes – front knee wants to stay bent, and back knee wants to straighten during the turn), and
We worked on getting him to “resist the resistance” during the turn.
One thing we also used that seemed to be the permanent fix was finger pressure (see below…)
Baseball Hitting Instruction SAFETY Issue: Please be careful with this drill. The person facilitating the front band is in the way of a swinging bat!!! To be done with adults who know better, not teammates. Please watch video above for clarification on this.
Post UPDATE: one other concept we’re had even BETTER results with fixing dragging back elbow bat drag is the concept of wrist snap or pronation. We kind of talk about the concept here.
Grab 'Finger Pressure' Video
Frustrated with fixing BAT DRAG? Beat it!
Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
Click button below to access FREE video that has been downloaded over 20K times!
. Focus should be on hearing a clear audible “click” before impact, NOT at contact.
