Active Team Sports : 2007 : March : 13

Often times you will hear the phrase ???stay back??? yelled out at a hitter. Two areas need to be examined when dealing with the term "stay back." First, what is happening that would cause the coach to say ???stay back???? And secondly what needs to happen in order to ???stay back????

Because the phrase ???stay back??? is so ambiguous let me give you two key reference points when dealing with staying back. The first is the upper torso and the second are the feet. During the loading phase, the hitter will have his upper torso closer in line with the middle of his feet. And at contact the upper torso will be closer in line with the front foot. However, this (contact) is the critical point that we are dealing with. At no point during the swing does the hitter want his upper torso (shoulders and chest) to go in front of (or over) the front foot. When the upper torso does go over the front foot, this is commonly referred to as ???lunging at the ball???. Lunging at the ball will negatively affect a hitter???s power.

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New York's City Council is now considering a ban on metal bats, with former New York Mets reliever John Franco testifying Monday in support of the proposal. Franco and the bill's supporters are hoping a New York City high school ban would inspire others to follow.

"I'm speaking from someone who was standing on the mound for 22 years, and I can see the difference," Franco told a council committee on Monday. "And while I'm standing in the stands watching my son play, or some of the other Little Leaguers, I can see the difference."

Similar measures have been proposed by youth leagues and lawmakers in other states, including New Jersey, where a batted ball struck a 12-year-old boy in the chest, sending him into cardiac arrest. He was revived by spectators but was in a coma for months, just recently returning home. His father, Joseph Domalewski, told the committee on Monday his son sustained brain damage and still cannot walk. "My son is doing a sentence, and to me the only thing he did wrong is to pitch to a guy holding a metal bat," he said.