I have a young man that has shown up at my office the last two morning at 7:30 A.M. asking for help with his swing. He has struggled going 2 for 20 in his last six games. He told me that he has struck out twice with one homer during this time frame. He also mentioned that he has grounded out to the left side 15 times and flied out to right in his other at bat.

I took him out to my field and we did some tee work and soft toss. His balance looked good as well as well as his swing path(arc). My impression is that he is swinging early and has really started to press.

He tells me that one his school coaches thinks that he has developed an upper cut and is trying to get him to overhaul his swing.

I managed to attend part of his game last night and to see two of his at bats before I had to get to my own town for our own practice. His first was a K looking but from my vantage point it was a good 6 inches of the outside corner and the ump proved to be consistent with that location. A previous strike in that at bat resulted in a severely pulled foul ball on the ground to the third base side. His second AB resulted in a fly out to right going with an outside pitch.
What else I noticed was his carrying the baggage from that first at bat into the field. His frustration showed while taking grounders and his trying to launch the ball back to first.

There does not appear to be any backside collapse for this RH hitter and I still conclude that it is more a matter of timing and regaining confidence for him.

We talked about soft centering and fine centering and also about some mental techniques to try and bring his mental side back into allignment.

I do not want to interfere with his coach's suggestions but I also see a young man that has potential to play at a higher level and would like for him to be able to play up to his potential.

Districts are coming up next week and I don't think that this is the time to begin a reconstruction process. Any suggestions out there?

Thanks

You might want to move this over to hitting.

Perry Husband has a nice section on his web site that has keys to hitting and 5 minute fixes. I like to go back to it when my son struggles just as a recap I pasted the pop up part here. Rest is at: www.hittingisaguess.com

Frankly I have found that the only way my son could develop consistency is to have someone who REALLY knows a his swing work with him over a long time. When he gets in a funk we go see him and he immediately sees what he is doing wrong and fixes him up.

I know this really will not help you in this situation, but I would stongly urge him not to re-do the swing in season, this will make a bad situation worse. I suggest you continue to help him like you are try to find a small flaw right now. Maybe talk to his HS coach also so you are in sync.
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From Perry Husband:

5 Minute FixesPop- Ups - Almost all pop-ups are caused from the swing plane of the bat going up and by being late by about 3" or more. 4 Main Causes : (1) Grip - Make sure both hands are going the same direction. Get your grip and extend all the fingers of both hands, if they cross, they are going different directions and that will make the bat go 2 different directions. Adjust the hands so that the fingers of both hands are going the same direction. (2) Back side collapsing. The back knee or the back foot collapsing will cause you to swing up. Traditional thought was that the shoulder "dipping" caused the bat to go up. The shoulders are not at fault. The back side collapsing causes the shoulders to tilt upward and the bat follows the line of the shoulders. To fix that, push hard off the back foot and lock out the front side. This will make the swing line straighter and the pop-ups will go away. You will still hit the ball in the air, but it will be a harder hit flyball. (3) Hands too high in the finish. If you freeze in your finish position and check the hands, if they are above the shoulder line, the bat will have gone up as well. Finish with your hands lower. The list of old timers and new age hitters is long that finish with their hands low.

I would have guessed back side collapsing from the description as it causes both pop ups and rolling over the ball to pull grounders. Sometimes it isn't all that obvious.

BOF and CADAD, thanks for the responses, I wish I had film but I did not take a recorder with me. I did get a chance to talk with his older brother this afternoon though. He is currently playing at a D-2 school and thought that he might be pressing to much. The younger brother (soph.) idolizes his older brother and wants to prove that he can play with him.

Hopefully the younger can start to find his way back and finish the school season on a positive and get back to last years form during Legion. Again, I appreciate the responses.