Turning the barrel at shoulder level is one of the keys I look for in an effective swing. Here’s Correa demonstrating the feel he uses to get him there.
This past week we had an athlete in the facility who was struggling with hitting too many popups. After taking some video, it was pretty easy to see that a big part of that was his hands: they were “plunging” below his shoulder level (swipe left to see a before and after).
A hand plunge effectively forces your barrel to cut down and across the baseball, which is going to result in more popups than desired.
Swipe left again to see what we did to address it. By pulling his hands down with a band through his turn, we were forcing him to work to keep them up. What this does is make it a much easier move to execute, when we then take the band away, as evidenced by the change in his swing path.
While the Correa feel can be effective for some, it can also cause others to be pushy and lead with too much handle. The banded work is one of my favorites for addressing this issue, as it helps the athlete feel what they need, without any different cuing or swing feels.