Identifying Swing Problems
From the Grinch's Perspective

- Perry Husband, GuessWorks and the author of the "Downright Filthy Pitching" series.

To diagnose hitting errors, you first have to really define what you believe as an instructor. What one instructor would call a flaw, another might think was a positive trait or in the Grinch's words "One man's toxic sludge is another man's potpourri." There are many, many hitting traits that continually show up in the biggest bombs of virtually every player in history when they are analyzed correctly; not necessarily all their hits, just the very best ones.

Only when a hitting instructor takes a stance on what he believes to be the most efficient movements, can he/she truly consistently diagnose swing flaws accurately. If you are on the fence about what you believe, then there are no absolutes and therefore nothing to compare the present player's swing movements to. That makes everything you say OK, which is a copout from my perspective. However, now that we can measure swing output with objective means, a lot of this type of analysis will soon go away.


I will start out by committing to a viewpoint - I believe that all hitters should hit the ball absolutely as hard as they can as often as they can. Harder contact equals more than HRs - it also equals hits. When hitters add 10% to their swing output such as exit speed, their batting average will go up dramatically in most cases. Harder hit groundballs and flyballs get through the infield and outfield faster and result in more hits. Period.

Efficiency is king - less effort for more output equals less injuries and higher production in both power & consistency. Of course, you should try to make the level of efficiency match the hitter type to some degree, but not pushing the hitter to reach max efficiency, in my opinion is a crime against that hitter. I believe that you should make all hitters strive for their max levels and let them decide what level of output they are comfortable with.

Who are we as instructors to tell a player what type of hitter he has to be? How do we know at the onset of working with a young hitter what their physical attributes will end up being? How about their mental makeup? How many coaches told Joe Morgan that he should choke up and put the ball in play and forget about hitting home runs. Hank Aaron and Sadaharu Oh are both slight in stature and with a different upbringing would have developed into great 'contact' hitters. Instead, either by ignoring instructors that told them they couldn't be home run kings or simply not getting any coaching, they decided they would lead the modern world in bombs, and did. So the flaws diagnosed in those guys' swings could have ruined their chances to reach their potential.
 
My test for determining hitter types is very cut and dry...

If hitters taking BP have the goal of leaving the yard for 100 swings and they can produce 30 HRs consistently, they should be considered true power guys. 15-30 is on the edge and perhaps with some adjustments may make that club soon and less than 15 should be treated, not as bad hitters, just not as POWER hitters. This makes efficiency slightly less crucial, or more aptly, the 'level' of efficiency is less crucial.

- Different types will have different criteria

The basis for my physical swing mechanic errors is all about efficiency. In-efficient movements are easy to spot if you have aptly taken a stance (even if you have chosen poorly) - it is determining how efficient is sufficient for an individual hitter that is a bit tougher...

For example, two players do not get their max bat lag. One player hits 25 bombs on average in BP and the other guy 7. The player hitting 25 in BP should be pushed a little harder to make his bat lag angle better than the 7 guy. I tend to push them both hard on the point just in case the weaker appearing player doesn't turn out to be the next Sadaharu Oh.

- Physical Efficiency/Timing/Pitch Rec/Mode Training/At Bats

My first goal is to give the hitter an overall picture that is clear and make them responsible for their swing. With the responsibility goes ownership and that is the key to them working on making lasting changes. It's crucial that the hitter sees the same things you see. Remember they 'feel it' but they don't see it and you see it but don't feel it. You have to establish a working set of terms that let you both get on the same page.


This is where things get off track for most instructors in my opinion. Understanding the difference between what is physical and what is not or at least not wholly physical. Virtually all hitting mistakes have a physical element, otherwise they wouldn't be considered mistakes. Deciphering deeper than the physical part when it is called for; that's what separates the men from the boys.

Example, a hitter is late on a pitch and pops the ball up. Yes, the back shoulder is lower than the front (shoulder dip); yes, the back elbow was up and when it went into the slot during the swing, it drug the bat down into an uppercut swing line; yes, there was a breakdown in the back side and yes, the hitter's hands were slow getting through the ball. Although all these physical things are true, the root issue is not these symptoms. The true problem is that the hitter had a bad idea of the timing of the pitch and his body was simply doing the best it could, where it was, with what it had to work with. The body was compensating for being put into a horrible place and doing a damn fine job of ad libbing to even pop it up. Fix the bad thinking and most of the physical problems will disappear. Fix one or more of the physical problems and ignore the real problem, then it's time to get prepared for a slump.

I use a simple point system for each task that the hitter is to perform for a given job at the plate. Understanding the different jobs is another subject entirely but we'll say that today's focus is Double Mode or trying to drive the ball.

There are three tasks that hitters must do to drive the ball close to their max level of power, enough to hit a double or HR (Double Mode). The first is to pick the right pitch; second is to be 90-100% on time to that pitch and third is to make an efficient swing movement. Any or all of these can and will go awry. Using these three simple questions will help you diagnose the true issue...

1. Did you pick the right pitch for the job?
2. Were you 90-100% on time?
3. Did you make a great swing?

Category 1 issues are typically from a bad plan or bad pitch recognition skills.
Category 2 issues are timing based and could have a physical cause or an approach cause or both.
Category 3 issues are mechanical for certain but could very well be the result of a bad plan, bad timing, poor recognition or all of the above. In fact, I would say that a great deal of physical swing flaws are due more to the other two categories at the higher levels of competition.

Hitters and instructors need to know how to identify which problems are which or they will be chasing their tails forever. No matter how perfectly you climb the ladder, if you are on top of the wrong building at the end, you lose. Get the diagnosis correct by keeping all the facts straight and knowing where your hitter is at in their development.

With a low level hitter that has just begun the process of getting their swing efficient, their tasks are different and usually have at least one physical element from Category (3).

For this essay, we'll stay focused on the physical elements.


After determining that we are dealing with a physical issue, now we have to get more specific. All physical swing issues that I have been able to test and identify, stem from one of these basic Functional Skills. Leverage/Torque - Forward Momentum/Balance -Elastic Energy Usage - Energy Absorption - Body Timing/Awareness - Pitch Timing/Recognizing - Sweet Spot Awareness. Once you have a good understanding of each of these movements, the hitter is either making the movements or not. This is not rocket science. This is the easy part from my view.


Diagnosing the in-efficiency is one thing, the proper prescription is quite another. Isolate the in-efficient movement and make it better and the swing will get better. This is best done without hitting specific drills in many cases. This is why we've all gone gadget crazy to some degree or another. Gadgets that are well thought out can create feelings that you simply can't easily feel in a traditional drill using a bat and ball.

I think most outside people would consider me a gadget crazy instructor and although it's true that I use them often, there is always a very specific reason that involves a feeling I know will be more direct with the use of something other than a bat or a regular baseball. Some help hitters feel the hip action easier due to additional resistance or pressure. Some help the hands release easier or harder, arms swing slower or faster, wrists more firm or loose and many, many other things that help the body feel the desired action.

- Should Be Designed To Prevent In-Efficient Movements

Every day, hitters should work off of a general plan that covers drills that will help them work on all the functional skills mentioned above.

Warm Up - Tubing and movements that include the identified functional skills
Physical Drills - Hitters should perform drills that they know employ the functional skills they need the most work on.

Example: Player has poor elastic stretch in the abs during the load. The day's drills should focus on the hands going back while the hips start forward. Some drills may have tubing to help reinforce the stretch or simply relying on the body to feel the stretch without aiding it with tubing. The drills should exaggerate the movements so that the student feels the movements, even if the movement does not look or feel exactly like the swing, the movement itself will find its way into the swing eventually, usually sooner rather than later.

Pitch Timing/Pitch Recognition Drills - At Bat Type Drills. These type drills should be part of a daily routine as well but we will have more on these subjects in later works.



Editor's Note: Comments added below BEFORE the end of voting were removed so as not to bias other voters. Now that voting is tabulated and authors revealed, we welcome additional insights and opinions.