what [is] the worst advice [you] ever heard a Little League coach say. ‘‘The absolute worst thing and the thing I hear all the time is, 'Get your back elbow up.’’

This well intended statement has hurt more young hitters than any other advice I have heard. The idea here is to get on top of the ball and hit line drives the ball goes down if you hit the top, see Hit the Top of the ball, but just the opposite will occur. Here's what happens.

* During the swing the back elbow should come close to the rib cage and the barrel of the bat should stay above the hands when you first start the swing.
* With a high back elbow, the elbow travels a much greater distance and at a much faster rate of speed.faster bat speed is not better?
* Consequently, the barrel of the bat will drop below the hands as it does for 99% of MLB hitters, the front elbow will raise up, and you end up with a long swing. If this technique is used for very long, you will develop a real bad habit. like Pujols maybe

Hitting Fallacy #1: "Get Your Back Elbow Up!"

I cringe every time I hear these words. Every little league coach I have ever heard at one time or another has told his hitters to do this.

I asked my friend Chris Bando, a former Major League Coach, what the worst advice he ever heard a little league coach say. Chris is a great person to ask since he has had five boys in Little League. The first thing he said to me was, "The absolute worst thing I hear all the time is, 'Get your back elbow up!'" He's right. This is the worst advice around, but you hear it everywhere.

The idea here is to get on top of the ball see Top of the Ball Myth and hit line drives, but just the opposite occurs. During the swing, the back elbow should come close to the rib cage and the barrel of the bat should stay above the hands. With a high back elbow, the elbow has to travel a much greater distance and at a much faster rate of speed isn't this the point? higher bat speed?. When this happens, the barrel of the bat will drop below the hands actually the barrel must drop below the hands, the front elbow will rise as in every MLB swing, and you will have a long swing. If this goes on for very long, you have created a habit - a very bad habit.

In reality, this is a "style" issue and has nothing to do with a hitter's technique. not sure if he's talking about the stance or toe touch here

No matter how or where the hitter places his rear elbow in his stance, it MUST slot (tuck down and in) at the launch position.

The picture (left) shows the correct grip of a hitter. The top hand "knocker-knuckles" line up with the "knocker-knuckles" of the bottom hand. With the hands in this position, it is virtually impossible to elevate the back elbow. MLB hitters do not use the grip he describes, and 99% of them elevate their back elbow

(L) 0:35 He shows what he calls a bad swing (the swing on the left)this looks like a MLB position to me

(R) 2:42 "The key is to get on plane early back here." He shows the dropped elbow as a fix for a push swing. That's not the remedy for a push. Some Epstein followers say this is out of context. I can't imagine why anyone would spend an entire video teaching something that no current MLB hitter does.

It used to be every coach (and well meaning sideline parent) would yell "get your back elbow up" most confuse elbow during stance with elbow at toe touch. Then, for a time, every instructor explained that the first action in a swing is to bring the elbow in towards the body, therefore elbow up is wrong, it should start down logic?.

Our view now - who cares?

We aren't even sure we should include this page. It's such a huge non-teach and yet there is a temptation with images and animations to think this should be studied. It should not. The point is - as you'll see when we get to arm action from launch to contact - that the hands matter more than the elbowswe don't think hands are very important.

Time to put a youth baseball fallacy to sleep. Send it out to pasture. File it in the cold case baseball section of the local library cellar. Eliminate it from modern day baseball instruction and just consider it old time folklore.

Where it came from I don't know. It's never mentioned in any hitting book I've ever seen, yet I keep hearing this jargon around the youth baseball batting cages, games and practices. It's yelled from the stands by parents and from the dugouts by coaches.

I'm talking about the dreaded saying "get your back elbow up to hit."

While you've probably seen some major leaguers get their back elbow up to some extent most MLB hitters, none of them were taught to actually hit that way contradicts his lead-in "I keep hearing this jargon". And besides, they're so strong and have tremendous bat speed through the hitting zone that at the point of contact their bat is in the correct position logic?. However, no major league hitting coach is standing next to the hitting cage telling them to get their back elbow up probably because they all do it anyway.

If these same people studied hitting in more depth they would understand the disservice they're doing to young hitters. Simply put, if a kid's back elbow is up to hit (by high I mean his back elbow is actually pointing toward the backstop behind home plate) he must then drop it to hit, causing the bat to drop which then means the bat takes a slower it's faster, actually and long looping path to the point of contact, thereby swinging under the ball it does go under the hands initially - but that is in the plane of the ball and missing it.

Younger kids usually don't have forearm strength, core strength or strong hands to generate bat speed. Therefore, it's essential to teach them the right mechanics to hit. Keeping your back elbow up is not one of them! Forget about what professionals do you lost me there. Concentrate on what's the best thing for a young hitter to learn.

If kids are taught correctly and learn to swing down or level on the ball and hit line drives not so good, see Hit the Top of the ball this fallacy can finally be put to rest.

I would agree that a player having an elevated elbow would be of little value with the swing mechanics that are taught by the vast majority of coaches. In fact, it could very well lead to the problems you outlined. But this is not the case with the top hitters in the game. Having an elevated elbow adds to their hitting performance because they have adopted transfer mechanics that are far more efficient than the mechanics taught to the average hitter.

Most Pro batters elevate the back-elbow and most hit under 300. But, all the great hitters (300+ aver & 30+ hr) have transfer mechanics that keeps the hands back at the shoulder during initiation.

The reason you find the best hitters with an elevated elbow is because they find this a more powerful position for "pulling back" with the top-hand (like an archer pulling back on a bowstring). And, as I stated earlier, it is of little value if the batter (Little League or Pro) drives the hand forward at initiation.