BVSA Teaches: Stick Drill for Hands Back

BVSA Teaches: Stick Drill for Hands Back

On this episode of BVSA Teaches, Frank Ramppen talks about the stick drill for hands back. Hey everybody, I’m Frank Ramppen from Bobby Valentine Sports Academy, and I’m here with Anthony Pascal, a junior at the University of Bridgeport. We’ve been working on something pretty high level, a little more specific than what you would teach with the little guys. But you know, Anthony is already a high-level catcher and hitter, and he does a lot of things right in his swing. The thing we’ve been focusing on is maximizing his separation. We need to get his lower half working in front of his upper half, so there’s sequence and maximizing his torque. It’s easier said than done because there’s a tendency for most hitters to want to bring their hands too early.

So we’re going to do a couple of drills to help him feel the right timing. Let’s start with the stick drill. All we do in this drill is put the stick down stationary behind him. He gets his hands back into a nice relaxed position, does his load and transfer, whatever feels natural to him. Then he explodes off of his back foot, starts the rotation, and keeps his hands back. He might move his hands a little because most hitters have some movement with their hands.

Overview of the Sequence

It’s important that when you stride forward, your hands work back a little or wait until the front foot gets down. Many young hitters tend to bring their hands forward too early. Anthony will demonstrate it a couple of times.

Nice little load, good transfer, back foot starts the swing, and you can see his hands stay back here. The goal is for his belly button to rotate and face out while his chest stays back. He can hit any pitch from that position. What many kids do is they rotate their chest and hands at the same time, making it more difficult to hit pitches away. Let’s do it one more time.

Great job, Anthony! That’s just one good drill that might help you improve. Keep up the good work, Amp!

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