Coach Dan Huff

Hi Dan

I have a question.

My son has been playing baseball since he was 4.

He is now 12. Overall a good fielder and hitter but not a big kid -- 90 lbs -- 4' 8"

He has played on a local travel team for the last 3 years - Ripken Baseball.

This year he moved up to playing on an AAU Tournament team.

It is a step up and he is seeing a variety of pitches, not just the fastball.

We have been playing in Tournaments since March 1^st (VA VSC Tournaments)

When batting, he makes contact but is having a problem keeping his front foot from moving.  He is not bailing out just that his front foot is going towards the pitcher too far and he ends up having his weight out front and is basically only using his arms and wrist to hit with.

I believe he needs to use legs and hips and keep his front foot still or at the most, move only a few inches.

Do you have any drills or adjustments he can use to keep his front foot from moving too far forward and keep balanced and use his legs and hips?

Thanks

Stan

Hey Stan,

Thanks for the great question!

Keeping a solid front foot is a problem that we see with a lot of our younger ball players.  They have a tendency to hit off of a sloppy front foot instead of keeping a balanced stance and pulling power from both legs.

I think there is a simple reasons for this, remember that I am a strength & conditioning guys and not a hitting instructor.  These are my observations of hitting mechanics and then I will go into my "weight room fix".

When they are moving up to a bigger field they actually have a longer time to see the ball.  Even though the pitch is moving faster, it's traveling a greater distance so it actually takes longer to get to the plate.  This waiting tends to lead to an eager lean forward and a "happy" front foot that dances toward the ball.

When the front foot is dancing forward you lose all front side stability and end up hitting off of a soft, weak front leg.  Does this sound like the situation?

Our weight room fix for this is to have the ballplayers stand on a slide board (with the rear foot braced) while swinging.  The beauty of the slide board swings is that it requires complete body control.  If you shift too much weight in either direction (front leg or back leg) you will completely loose balance.  It's an instant cue that you did something wrong.

Once the ballplayer gets the hang of taking dry swings on the slide board, we will advance to soft toss on the slide board followed by hitting in the cages and eventually facing live pitching on the board.

One thing that I have yet to experiment with is the "mini slide boards" where you simply place your front foot on the board.  Your back foot stays on solid ground.  The advantage here is that the boards are smaller and easier to move around from place to place… and they're considerably cheaper.

I hope that helps a bit.

If you have a question that you'd like to get answered, just let me know at coachdan@baseballstrength.com

Yours in Baseball,

Coach Dan