Hands apart

[wild man]

I am going to have this girl next year that goes up to bat with her hands about 5 inches apart on the bat.
I have never coached her before and her old coach was ok with her doing this.
Now I have an old machine that is very hard to hit off of. It pitches off the BOTTOM of the wheel and gives proper fastpitch spin and throws kind of a drop. you can also change the location of the pitch easily.

Now this girl can face this machine or a live pitcher and hit EVERY pitch. Shes been playing about 4 years now I guess.
Should I change this grip ? Or let her do it like she has been?

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Dot Richardson used to teach hands apart, although 5 inches may be kind of extreme. I guess, I would leave her alone, if she is getting on base.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

I am going to have this girl next year that goes up to bat with her hands about 5 inches apart on the bat.
I have never coached her before and her old coach was ok with her doing this.
Now I have an old machine that is very hard to hit off of. It pitches off the BOTTOM of the wheel and gives proper fastpitch spin and throws kind of a drop. you can also change the location of the pitch easily.

Now this girl can face this machine or a live pitcher and hit EVERY pitch. Shes been playing about 4 years now I guess.
Should I change this grip ? Or let her do it like she has been?

A split grip increases bat control at the cost of whip and power. A bunt is the ultimate split grip.

The odds are that this won't work at the higher levels but she could be one in a million.

But she probably isn't.

 

[starsnuffer]

Sounds like the old "slug bunt", which was sort of the precursor to slapping. Teach her to start with a fake bunt and then pull back and hit like that and you'll fool a lot of teams until the higher levels. If you do this, you're teaching her a new technique in which she can easily adapt her swing style to. This opens you up to be able to teach her a different swing for power hitting. This way, you're not telling her "dont' do this", you're just making it situational and showing her she has a benefit for doing it her way when the play calls for it.

-W

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

A split grip increases bat control at the cost of whip and power. A bunt is the ultimate split grip.

The odds are that this won't work at the higher levels but she could be one in a million.

But she probably isn't.

There are many that agree with what CO states above. That is, the split grip, as a drill, is believed to improve understanding the functionality differences of the top and bottom hands.

Michael Lotief has a different opinion and promotes the use of a split grip in game swings.

Some believe the opposite of what CO wrote .... that is that the split grip, especially a large 'split', decreases top hand dominance at swing initiation and encourages bottom-hand initiation

 

[SBFAMILY]

I seen coaches teach this, but over look the fact they were not using the correct grip to begin with. If you are using the correct grip that hitter posted on here some time ago, you will not have top hand dominance that fiveframeswing posted above.. This is just a fix for a problem that should be addressed in a different manner. Get the bat out of the meaty part between the thumb in the first finger on the top hand and you won't have this issue.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

There are many that agree with what CO states above. That is, the split grip, as a drill, is believed to improve understanding the functionality differences of the top and bottom hands.

Michael Lotief has a different opinion and promotes the use of a split grip in game swings.

Some believe the opposite of what CO wrote .... that is that the split grip, especially a large 'split', decreases top hand dominance at swing initiation and encourages bottom-hand initiation.

I don't think the claims in this video really hold up. I don't see any significant mechanical difference in the ULL hitters, even though at least some were using a 2 inch split grip.

The biggest difference is that they are pretty much all GIGANTIC.

It may be a coincidence, but I drove 10 hours round trip to see ULL play in the Arkansas early season tourney and came away more impressed by the Arkansas hitters.

In general, the wider the split gets, the more nervous I get because the likelihood of good whip goes down and the need to push goes up.

P.S. Siggy used to have some ULL clips on his site, and they would be useful for a comparison, but I don't see them any more.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Curious .... in the video there is a claim that the split grip encourages getting the bottom-hand more involved with the swing.

Doesn't that claim tend to agree with your assertion that the split grip inhibits whip?

 

[Chris O'Leary]

Curious .... in the video there is a claim that the split grip encourages getting the bottom-hand more involved with the swing.

Doesn't that claim tend to agree with your assertion that the split grip inhibits whip?

I'm not convinced their logic is solid.

I do think that bottom hand dominance tends to encourage whip and top hand dominance tends to encourage push, but I'm not sure that a split grip is really doing what is advertised. If you take a split grip too far, the only way to get the bat head through the strike zone is to push with the top hand.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I'm not convinced their logic is solid.

I do think that bottom hand dominance tends to encourage whip and top hand dominance tends to encourage push, but I'm not sure that a split grip is really doing what is advertised. If you take a split grip too far, the only way to get the bat head through the strike zone is to push with the top hand.

IMO, how one uses the top hand will largely determine whether one pushes/drags the barrel, or whether one turns/whips the barrel.

IMO there can be an advantage to having the top hand closer to the knob in terms of generating whip ... assuming that the top hand is used correctly of course. Notice that Bustos buries the knob of the bat in the middle of her bottom hand, thus allowing her top hand to be close to the knob of the bat. Also notice that she creates the "rearward C".