Sorry I've been away for awhile. The end of the season brought a lot of hectic activity, including a trip to the Northern B Nationals in Kentucky. But I'm back now, baby, and ready for action.

To get us started, I thought we'd go right into hitting. Here's a photo of Stephanie, one of the girls I coach, as captured by Mike Zupec, with whose permission I am using this photo.



There are a number of things going right here. Looking from the ground up, the front leg is pretty firm and the back foot is heel up, toe down. Her back hip has some around to replace her front hip and her weight has shifted forward into her front leg. The shoulders have come around, the hands are palm up/palm down at contact, they are slightly above the bat head, and she is leaned into the plate. About the only problem I see from this picture is she is a bit late to the ball. I'd like to see the contact a little more out-front. This particular stroke, however, went for a double to the fence in left-center so that's a quibble.

If you have one, compare a photo of your position at contact to this one. This is pretty much where you want to be.