Another great question from a BioForce friend.

Coach Bill,

I see so many young baseball players swinging with just their arms forgetting to start with the lower body. What would you suggest to many young players to help them get the legs to do the work? Tips, drills, mental adjustments, etc.

Coach Rob

Thanks for the discussion topic coach. I completely understand what you are talking about.

I usually start by showing the athlete pictures and videos of professional hitters generating plenty of energy by getting their momentum going towards the target.

Why do they do this? Well, what would feel better if you had to bust a door down, hitting it with your fist while standing in front of it toe-to-toe, or running towards the door with your whole body and slamming into it with your body?

What about the javelin thrower? What do they do before they throw that javelin? They run up to the line and throw like crazy. Why? Because they can and they know the value of momentum.

After I've talked with the athlete about the value of momentum and they clearly understand, then we try it out.

For the younger kids, we do our Happy Gilmore drill with the ball on the tee. I've never been a big fan of the baseball tee because you have a stationary target, the ball, and a stationary body. That's the opposite of what happens in baseball. You have a moving target and a moving body. I'd rather train that way.

With the Happy Gilmores, all you need to do is step back from the tee a little bit and do back-steps, or small crow-hops moving the body into the tee. After the kids adjust to it, they really like getting their bodies into the swing to see how hard they can hit it. I wouldn't suggest a forward step. Doing that opens up the hips and shoulders too much.

Another benefit of the Happy Gilmores, is that they have to keep their head steady as they swing.

The older kids, we do the drill with soft toss. I've even used the drill while someone pitches live to the hitter.

The hitters will feel the benefits of the weight transfer.

And I think that's what you are alluding to in your question Coach Rob, what starts the swing. I agree with you, that the lower half really gets things going. The hips rotate going into footstrike, the shoulders and hands should not be rotating until after the hitter has shifted his weight to the front leg.

There's a lot more to it than just the lower half, like the timing mechanism, but I'll leave that topic for another day.

I can hear it now, some people are going to say I'm crazy to promote movement towards the pitcher. The player is sure to lunge. I say hooey. A lunge is when the hitter commits his shoulders and hands too early to the swing and is fooled by the speed of the pitch. He then lunges at the ball.

To follow up with last weeks tip and my son Craig and his working the drills and how they helped his performance, well, he got another win. His 4th of the year. It was a little ugly though. Struggled with his control of the curve ball. But is making progress.

We worked a lot on drill 3 this week. With an emphasis on his glove side action. He has been a little quick and pulling the front side a little. This has led to his control issues, especially the curve.

I think by this coming Friday, he should have his timing and front side fixed well. He again came into the academy tonight, and he worked drill 3, the stretch, and windup, all focusing on the glove side.

I'm excited to see him pitch this Friday. Only a couple of weeks of regular season left in his high school career. Pretty sad to see it coming to an end, but, he's got college ball ahead!

Until next time,

Train like a champion today!

Bill Mooney www.bioforcebaseball.com