Bat Position

The major variation in the way successful hitters go to the plate involves stance. For what it's worth, I teach that it really doesn't matter what kind of stance a player has as long as he is quick enough to get to a good launch position. The launch position is after the stride foot comes down. At this point, the hands should be over the rear foot and the back elbow will have already started down. If a kid wants to stand with the barrel of the bat on top of his head, it doesn't matter to me as long as he is in the launch position before he swings. I have 3 boys who have been successful thus far. One keeps the elbow up, one down and one in between. The oldest keeps it up and gets criticized by our HS coach for doing so. The coach tells him he needs to bring it back down to hit so why start it up there. The coach is right in that you have to bring the elbow back down in order to swing. But in my son's case, bringing the elbow down during the stride is part of his trigger. My point is that we need to keep in mind the difference between the stance and the swing (which begins when you reach the launch position).

Jon