How to Avoid Bat Drag - How The Best Hitters in Baseball Use Their Hands

[LetsGetWilly]

Good analysis. This is Brian Giles, not Marcus. Marcus is a righty.

[hitmorelinedrives]

Great swing. Short to the ball and ready to drive through the baseball.

[hitmorelinedrives]

Great swing. Hands are short to the ball and ready to drive through the baseball.

[haveagooday11]

Hey, check out this video...it is so cute and it is inspiring for kids who find it difficult to play baseball..that was me when i was a kid and this song helps...just write Stella Gain in the search engine if this link does not work

[youthbaseball]

I understand "hands to the ball" differently that you described in this video. "Hands to the ball" is an important component of "True Rotational Hitting." I understand "Linear Swing" to mean a linear movement where the hitter moves his weight from back to forward, after the load, stride. Thus, I think you are right on with the rotational swing components you described.

[Xxsideshow22xX]

i dont really know if this is right but to get me to swing faster i just used my back hand to help push it harder

[SGuitars58]

would u say that he's throwing his hands to the ball or keeping them inside the ball

[donervin1]

At 5-11 I measured my elbow distance to be 14 inches apart, during my swing approach to the ball I was doing better when I kept them at that distance .

toyodathon08

The reason nobody yet understands the swing is that 99&44/100 percent of the people spend their time experimenting and attempting to copy every one in sight which is the reason they make it much harder than it is build from a very successful foundation such as the best "Mr.TED WILLIAMS" and add to it as feasible.

Don Ervin

[MrROBERTJONEILL]

i play little league and ill try the elbow thing and pushing towards the baseball more when im in the position thanks:)(:

[toyodathon08]

Isn't it fuuny that baseball is over 100 years old and yet nobody fully understands the swing?

[noahmcdx]

@toyodathon08 Actually it's pretty much been figured out. 3000 frames per second don't lie. It's physics. The best hitters use rotational hitting. I haven't even watched this guys videos, but I just saw the name of his channel, so obviously he promotes it as well.

But if you read batspeed . com, you'll see the swing has very much been figured out. The good ones atleast.

[slkbaseball]

THT (top hand torque) is when the top hand and forearm rotate the barrel to get it set in the zone quicker and longer. Most high school and even college players bring the barrel from behind their head. The key to THT or just torque of the barrel is a propper grip. If the knuckles are lined up and the player doesn't re-grip before the swing, the forearm and barrel will be loaded. Thumb gaurds help young players with their grip. Learn to hit the inside thread of the ball= no drag!

[lichenbwp1]

Rather how can you describe the torque or the bat/barrel?

[lichenbwp1]

please please explain this to a golfer, I understand what he is saying but cannot apply it.

[MarilynT2405]

Great video! I am a softball hitting instructor and I teach the baseball swing. I was taught to hit by an experienced baseball player and any good softball hitter has the exact same swing. As JRM082793 said, I have never heard of someone really focusing on the distance of the elbows. Great thing to look at!

[EvilMushroomProd]

THIS DOES NOT HELP YOU IF YOUR A FLATFOOT HITTER

[MamasChoice]

Great baseball video. Thanks for posting it.

[JRM082793]

30 to 35 degree angle of the spine, and rotates efficiently on the back leg, it's nearly impossible to create barrel drag. However, I have never seen someone go into so much detail regarding the distance of the elbows. Something I, being a player myself, have never even thought about. Kudos for that. Just my 2 cents. Excellent video regardless. Cheers!

[JRM082793]

This is a rather exceptional video. I only have one problem with it. Forgive me if I am beating a dead horse as I have not read the preceding comments. But, in my opinion, 9 out of 10 hitters that drag the barrel through the zone are either pulling their front shoulder off of the ball resulting in the hands being pulled away from the body resulting in a long swing, or inefficient use of hip rotation. Either way, the hips are usually the culprit. If a hitter has a solid base, maintains a good 

[GBDiddy]

@JRM082793 Disagree with you, sir. Bat drag results from a combination of two or more of the following factors: early extension of the front arm during the load, impropper bat angle during the load, over-tensing of the wrong muscles during the swing. I know this because my son had those habbits, and I just finished correcting them. The part about the distance of the elbows is actually pretty important because it's one indicator of whether your load and swing are correct.

[FueledByTyeler]

@GBDiddy lol i'm a high school baseball player and i work quite a bit (almost obsessively) on my swing. i have a great swing because of it, when you say early extension of the front arm, do you mean like extending before you hit the ball?

[GBDiddy]

@FueledByTyeler By that, I mean extension of the arms before the hands start their movement forward.

[GBDiddy]

@JRM082793 With an optimal power swing, your hands should indeed pull away from your body (towards the point of contact with the ball).

[GBDiddy]

Excellent. Well done, sir. I do disagree on some points though. First, I believe that rotation of the shoulders along a tilted axis (which starts on the ground behind the batter and extends to the sky over the plate) helps to initiate the centrifugal force that whips the bat around. The movement of the hands also starts out as circular, and this also helps initiate the centrigual force. The finishing movement may be linear, but the beginning movement of the hands is circular.

[GBDiddy]

Lastly, the shoulder rotation that I described above yanks the handle back in front of the batter's body, thus putting the finishing touches on the whipping of the bat head forward to contact.

[rcglert]

All concepts look good - like someone said earlier, different language. I NEVER talk about the hands. My students get the torque he is talking about when the hips lead the hands and the arms stay in a "box". Anyway, more than one way to skin a cat and still get a skinned cat. Language is secondary to the interpretation by the student.

Tom

[dxmakina]

what media player are you using for slowing down and rewinding this video?

i'd like to be able to watch things in slowmo myself...

[cjdeadly]

@dxmakina I would like to know tooo

[dominikkeul]

no it's not independent. the hands turn with the shoulders. so it's not hand action. but it's important that the hands turn in all dimensions with the shoulders (which is not level but also up/down since the spine is tilted). the hands can't be just pulled around with the shoulders, they need to turn with them so that they hold the angles. if they are just pulled in the horinzontal dimension you dont get perfect power transfer

[reconcomm]

Every time he tells us to watch the hands "swivel" or "turn" or "whatever" ...... well at that exact moment I look at the middle and shoulder and they are turning also. I really do not see at all independent hand turning ever thourgh Brian GIles swing.

[SoftballSNJ]

When your hips activate the swing they pull the core, and you  tilt side while your hands keep a 90degree angle or less with the elbows. The back elbow will slot automatically due to the force pulling (big muscles/legs are stronger than small muscles/arms) if it is resisting against the pull of the hips. The hands will rotate above and inside the ball's path and the 'swivel' of the hands will also happen naturally. Too much/early arm and hand movement messes with sequencing & bat path.

[eluniconubio27]

Dude That's Brian Giles not Marcus Giles, Marcus is smaller en right-handed....

[kramden21]

the "torquing" that generates the most power in the swing is the torque between bat lag (keeping the bathead back by not unhinging the wrists) and the hips rotating. Good mechanics create a "ground up" motion.

This creates the "whipping" effect and tremendous batspeed of all great hitters today . This happens ("holding that angle") in the golf swing , the tennis serve and swing, throwing etc--- it is the crucial element in generating power through the body in almost every athletic move

[brooxy]

Everything from the hips up is moving rotationally, that includes hips, hands, shoulders, etc. The only part that drives linearly to the ball is the back leg. That's where most of your power is generated.

[brooxy]

I can pretty much guarantee that hands don't go straight to the ball in linear fashion. ask Ted Williams if his hands went in linear fashion. there's a picture of the ariel view of his swing in his book The Science of Hitting and he has arrows drawn in the path of his hands to the hitting zone in a semi circle, just like the hips. You are correct, the upper body works as one unit. but how can the hips and hands take two seperate routes to the ball if they are moving as one? impossible.

[dominikkeul]

torquing means that you get the hands flat as soon as possible. The elbows move like a teeter totter. back elbow slots and the front elbow raises. that turns the hands from a stacked position to the flat wrists you want at contact.

It also gets the barrel up to speed early

[PromoterLockerz]

search ryan howard hitting mechanics on youtube click the video by laflippen and you can clearly see that ryan howard one of the star players manually slots his elbow

[PromoterLockerz]

this "STUDENT" of his manually slots his elbow the first thing that happens in his swing is manually slotting his elbow (changing your hands to the direction of the catcher does not make your elbow come in

[PromoterLockerz]

@TangySkaters you have to manually slot your elbow then you get the flicking of the wrist that every baseball player does

[TangySkaters]

by hand swivel do you mean flicking your wrist?

[rebelmoon100]

Torque is applying pressure on the bat in opposite directions.

[socra66]

I would really like to hear more explanation... anyone?

[SportyBoy454]

@socra66 go to their website it's batspeed(DOT)com, complete explanation about everything he is talking about here

[socra66]

When you torque the handle, do you move both hands in the same direction towards the catcher?

OR...

Do you sort of 'pull' with both hands, thus tipping the bat towards the catcher?

Any explanation would be helpfull.

[thestork31]

That's Brian Giles, not Marcus, if anyone cares.

[thardley]

Great video. Can you tell me exactly what / how you torque the handle?

[mrbaseball7]

Great video. Just the way I teach it in different words.