by Kevin Goodman, Iowa

To increase a hitter's chances of getting the fat part of the bat on the sweet spot of the ball, we, as coaches, need to come up with ways to take time out of the hitter's swing to impact phase. (Swing to impact phase being defined as from front foot/heel drop to impact.)

One way to do this is to remind our hitters that the shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line. I know that this is painfully obvious, but little is ever written on how to accomplish this.

To have an effective short stroke to the ball, it is important that hitters keep their initial movements in a straight line as they load their swing to the backside... that means both their hips and hands should go straight back towards the catcher.

Just prior to the hands getting back to a full load, the hitter needs to push their front hip back to the pitcher, once again in a straight line or a linear motion. This is accomplished by a seemingly easy maneuver...

• The hitter pushes the rear knee towards the middle of the stance
• How? By lifting their rear heel up and pushing off the hitter's big toe.
• This moves their load shift from their back leg back to the middle of their hitting stance.

If you think about it, it looks very much like Tiger Woods start of his back swing to impact.

• The hitter times the lockout of front knee with this shifting of weight from the back leg to the middle of their hitting stance.
• It will effectively stop all forward movement of weight shift beyond the middle of the stance.
• Result: Achieving a balanced hitting posture with a good power thrust into impact.
  

That is what hitters must do on their lower half of their body to have a short, powerfull swing to impact.

Now, let's look at what hitters must do on their top half of the hitter's body to maintain a straight line with their hands to take the barrel of the bat to the ball.

• Our hands should be at least as high as the top of the strike zone.
  
• From there we work our hands forward and down in a straight line to a height no lower than our belly button.
  
• Depending on the height of the pitch, the hitter should run their hands from the belly button on up to the top of the strike zone (roughly the chest area).
  

Also, as hitters, we need to keep our hands inside our belly button. In other words, if you are a RH hitter, you do not want to hit with your bottom hand on the left side of your belly button. If this does happen, more than likely you will get jammed and unable to extend your hands and arms out in front of your chest.

All movements with our hands should be linear to get to a position or posture I refer to as the Power Vee Flex Position. At the PVF position, we are now at impact with a strong hip, shoulder and arm posture to absorb the impact of the pitch and power through it. But to get there, we have to have straight line starts to impact and from there we want to have a powerful rotational finish.

When starting our initial swing, it is very important that we do NOT squish the bug too early.

If the hitter's first movement with the rear foot is a spinning or a rotational action on their toe (squishing the bug too early) the hands will have to start in a rotational manner.

Why? Because that is what the hips are doing. Therefore the shoulders will follow the hips and that causes the arms and hands to be rotational. That movement alone is enough to cause casting or a sweeping action with the hands. When that happens we are no longer working in a short to the ball action; we are now going "around the block" to get to the ball.

The cue I use with the hitters that I work with is this...

SQUISH THE BUG ON THE FINISH, NOT ON THE START!!!

Here's the kicker: The more "torqued up" we get with our shoulders in relationship to our hips in the loading phase, the worse the hitter will cast or sweep if they start their swing in a rotational manner.

• Straight line or linear starts
• With a powerful rotational finish
  

That will help the hitter with achieving their ultimate goal... getting a hit!