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Now that you have taken your swing at the ball you will continue your motion so that
your bat ends up behind your front shoulder and you can release the bat and run to 1st
base. As you swing through the ball your top hand will lift the barrel of the bat upward
and your wrists will roll over so that the bat can drop out of your hands over your front
shoulder. This is the very last part of your swing before you begin to run.
It is important that you follow through with your swing as you want to hit the ball as
hard as you can. If you stop your swing after contact you may actually take away some of
the energy you've built up before you actually hit the ball. The best thing to do is to swing
your bat all the way through until you bat ends up over your front shoulder.
One common phrase you may hear in batting instruction is "Short to...Long through".
This means that you have a quick, compact (which means very little movement of the hands
until impact) swing to the ball, but you have a nice long follow through to release the
bat.
Once you put all these pieced together into one swing you will have a very efficient,
compact and powerful swing that will give you the opportunity to hit the ball often
and well.