Upper Body Hitting Mechanics Flaw - Bat Drag

Tired of beating the baseball into the ground with top spin? Frustrated because all you seem to be able to hit is the pitch down the middle of the plate? If this sounds like you, there is a good chance that your path your bat is taking to the baseball is funky. In some technical speak, you need to create some more bat LAG and ditch the bat DRAG you’re creating. Let me break this down.

Bat Drag: This is a hitting mechanics issue that can be solved with the right information and some consistent repetition. Take a look at the picture you see here. Do you see how the hitter’s top hand elbow is in front of knob of the bat? This is the dragging motion that the term is referring to. The upper body hitting mechanics are such that the knob of the bat drifts downward before it moves forward. This causes a hitter to cast his hands away from his body producing a sweeping action with the barrel of the bat through the hitting zone. 

Bat Lag: Bat lag occurs when a hitter begins forward movement with the knob of the bat without letting the knob sink downwards first. Now, take a look at how the hitter in this picture is leading with the knob of the bat. The knob is actually in front of the back elbow which is the ideal location. As the knob of the bat begins to move into the hitting zone, the barrel of the bat will lag behind the knob. Eventually the barrel of the bat will whip into the strike zone and the hitter will extend his arms forward towards the pitch. With proper upper body hitting mechanics, a good hitter will be able to extend his hands through the baseball after impact instead of prior to coming into contact with the baseball.

I explain this concept in its entirety in my Hitting Mechanics 101 video. It’s a tricky piece to figure out since some of the problem can be caused from sloppy hitting mechanics.  If you haven’t already clicked on the video button above, what you will see there is a short clip on my blog discussing the difference between bat drag and bat lag.