If you think there is a lane between your toes and the ball the hands will be inside the path of the ball and the lane is established by hitting the ball up the middle first to gain an insight of what controls our bat.
To establish this we like to place the tee forward of home plate about two to three inches and in the middle and we line up off the back corner of home plate the length of a bat. Difficult to establish bat control without having a place to set up that would make hitting a ball off the tee in a fixed position repeatable in my opinion.
We load, separate to toe touch ( some will call it stretching the box however the hands are what Don Slaught refers to as inside the elbows. That is the top hand, if taken off the bat and then making a fist, could be directed forward and hit the bicep and that hand would be inside the elbow.
In my opinion if the box is stretched too far the hands go down and lower too much for fast pitch. The reasoning is the strike zone and possibility of the rise ball, so the hands are usually the bottom of the bottom hand at the top of the shoulder or the top hand thumb near or at the ear hole.
During the matrix drill, we say separate to toe touch and do what Coach Enquist terms the Elvis drill, by lowering the front foot heel and lifting the back foot heel and as we say Elvis drives the hips and the shoulders are slave to its movement and the elbows and shoulders start to turn slightly and are in the lane. This action was started by the hitters instincts to swing at the ball and the back elbow beginning to lower and the lead elbow making what Don terms a good first move of about two to four inches forward and up like the elbow is going up a ramp. This is why we start the lead arm elbow down verses up. Try holding onto the wrist as they move forward from an up position and from a lower position to feel the difference.
We teach as the rear elbow comes down the shoulders because of the Elvis move are turning and the tilting is started and the shoulders are doing what? Directing the knob of the bat inside the path of the ball based on the rotation of the hips and using the belly button as an indicator of how far we should rotate the hips based on the depth in box of the pitch and location as to middle, outside and then inside as this is how we teach how to hit the ball.
The triangle would be determined by the back elbow staying some what stacked as the lead elbow is picking up and the hips will turn based on the pitched ball depth in box. The bat is released by the un hinging of the wrist releasing the barrel to the ball with the elbow above the plane of the pitch and the hands below the elbow and the barrel below the hands at a specified angle depending on the instincts of the hitter to adjust the angle of the bat.
In my opinion the pushing of the hands comes from the back elbow not lowering and the tilt and turn of the shoulders. Not uncommon for most females as they are taught by males who do not understand the difference in the female shoulder being narrower and rounded and that there is laxity in the shoulder and the carrying angle has 4 to 10 degrees of elbow defection outward towards the thumb.
Make sure the grip in the top hand is done so there is a slight mis alignment of the top hand finger knuckle alignment towards the wedding band if you are a right handed hitter. The top hand index finger looks like a hook and the bat is in the finger pad area of the top hand. We tie a pony tail type rubber band on the index finger of the top hand and keep the bat out the finger side of the knot.
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