Hands go back or stay put

[Shawn]

There are several factors to how much one hitter appears to load the hands. Hitters who appear to start sooner, leg kicks, knee lifts, open stances, or combine all these actions. Seem to set the hips early and load the hands more in their approach. How much they actually load the lower body early or just employ a soft load is up for debate. Altough what seems to be common is a more noticable hands or upper body stretch during the stride.

You can chalk it all up to style.

I just wanted to add that loading actions and stride actions are the most changed things in hitting. The actually swing of individual hitters remain the same, although they make adjusts and different things can be seen to say how much the hands load.

 

[LongBall]

I like the hands to stay close to the back shoulder. They can tilt the bat a bit -- point the knob back at the catcher -- but I find if they take their hands back too far it throws off their timing and they wind up with the back elbow coming forward while the hands stay back. Then you get the dreaded bat drag.

I'm sure there are high level players that can push their hands way back and still avoid bat drag. But for the ones I see, getting the hands back too far is really deadly.

I agree with this as well...we have found that young players will straighten and sometimes lock the leading elbow doing this. Which causes a mess of troubles E.g. casting, inability to stay inside the ball, elbow leading the hands and many more!

We personally like the starting the hands off the back shoulder as well. Players who start the hands closer to the head and move the hands back add one more possible swing flaw when they get in tough. When we review video the grip becomes tight and the shoulders start to raise in a tough situation the hands rarely clear enough to be effective.