When you are hitting, you want to be swinging THROUGH the hitting zone and not across it. What we mean by that is we want the direction of the barrel to be going towards the pitcher and NOT towards third base if you are a righty or first base if you are a lefty. In this article we will be covering what causes players to “swing across their body” and how to fix it.
Reason 1: Improper Setup
The easiest way to start swinging across your body is having your hand in the wrong place in the setup position. When the hitter is in the set up position, you want the hands close to the shoulder. This allows the hands to move forward to the hitting zone. When a player has their hands away from their body, the only place for them to go is back to the body. This causes them to swing across their body towards their pull side.
Solution
If the hands are away from the shoulder and there is a visible gap between the front arm and their chest, just simply move their hands to their shoulder. As long as they stay connected, this will fix the problem. If they become disconnected, then we need to learn to stay connected. A quick fix for this is take some swings with the bat resting on the shoulder at the set up. Once they are used to this and they feel connected, you can start taking swings with the bat off the shoulder
Reason 2: Squashing the Bug
“Squashing the Bug” refers to loading back and instead of shifting your weight forward and landing on your front foot, you keep your weight back and just rotate with your weight on your back foot. This causes the swing to become strictly rotational. When there is only rotational movement and no linear movement, it becomes extremely difficult to swing the bat through the hitting zone, causing players to swing across their body.
Solution
To fix this we want to make sure that we are utilizing a forward weight shift and putting pressure on that stride foot. A great drill for this is called the rocker drill. Rock back and forth from your back foot to your front foot multiple times before you swing. Shift your weight from neutral to back to forward to back to forward and then swing. This will help you get away from squashing the bug and introduce some linear movement into the swing.
Reason 3: Shoulders Parallel to the Ground
Shoulders being parallel throughout the swing is an issue we see most commonly in young players. Parallel shoulders has the same philosophy as squashing the bug. When the shoulders stay parallel, the swing becomes overly rotational and lacks any linear movement. Without linear movement, the bat wont go straight through the hitting zone.
Solution
You can use your bat or a PVC pipe and you are going to put it across your chest. From here, you will get in your set up position and bring the PVC pipe to contact position just as shown in the video. This will force you to have the correct posture and shoulder angle. If done incorrectly, the PVC pipe will stay parallel to the ground. Once you are able to do this properly and it feels comfortable, take some slow swings with the bat and make sure the proper mechanics are carrying over.
