SWING FOLLOW – THROUGH
BY RICHARD PACE
Many hitters believe that once they’ve made contact with the ball, the swing essentially has ended. But what you do after you hit the ball directly affects what happens to the ball you hit.
Some hitters can produce a much better follow-through by releasing their top hand from the bat at the “end” of the follow-through. You may have seen in the old baseball movie clips where Willie Mays and Ernie Banks show they released their top hand on every swing. In contrast, Ted Williams kept both hands on the bat all the way through to the end of his swing.
There’s a natural reaction to stop muscle movement once you have achieved your goal – hitting the ball and stopping your follow-through. Unless you really focus on the follow –through, you will have a tendency to slow down your swing motion. Subsequently you will lose speed on your follow-through. This translates into a ball hit less sharply.
It is important that you don’t release your top hand off the bat too soon. I have this problem from time to time. I end up making contact with the ball one-handed. The hand shouldn’t come off until well into the follow-through. The time the hand should come off the bat is when it has past your front shoulder. As I have mentioned earlier, there are no absolutes. I prefer keeping both hands on the bat on my follow-through, and not releasing when I pass my front shoulder. I also make sure I finish high on my swing. I have found that if the hitter has a proper follow-through, with a good high finish, subsequently the hips will naturally come into play at the proper time. For the hips to properly “turn” is directly related to the swing’s follow-through.
PRACTICE YOUR SWING
As I had stressed earlier, “practice makes perfect”. Every swing in batting practice or on the on-deck circle you take, your swing should be the exact same swing you would take in the game. The best hitters take batting practice and the on-deck warm up preparation, very seriously. Do not resort to weight lifting to improve your swing. This will not make you a better hitter. You become a good hitter by spending your time swinging the correct way. It will also make you stronger. Your practice swing regimen accomplishes this, not weights. No one has become a good hitter by spending three hours lifting weights and half the time in the batting cage.
Finding the time to take batting practice between scheduled games can be very difficult. Here’s a quick convenient productive alternative; take 25 wiffle balls, place them next to your batting tee, take your favorite game bat, set the ball on the tee and swing away. The wiffle balls are of coarse taking the place of a hard ball. The plastic balls serve the purpose in simulating the hard ball – a target to focus on, they don’t go far nor will they damage anything. I suggest no more than 50 swings a day. It will take about 20 minutes to accomplish this quick drill. This will guarantee a positive difference at your next plate appearance.
