HitTestPoint to change direction of moving object

Question

I'm having a problem changing the direction of a movieclip using  hitTestPoint. I have some balls on the screen that only move left,  right, up and down. and pending the way they are moving they have to  change direction. if they're moving right they have to change to up.  left to down, up to right and down to left. I tried the following code  for getting a ball moving moving right to change to up.
note: movingDir is just a string i use to keep track of how the ball is moving and is defined initially in another class.
here is a snippet from the ball class:
this._movingDir = "right";
this._speedR = 5;
this.x += this._speedR;
public function hittingRebounder(e:Event):void {
            for(var c:uint = 0; c < Ball.ballsArray.length; c++){
                if(Ball.ballsArray[c].hitTestPoint(this.x, this.y)){
                    if(Ball.ballsArray[c]._movingDir == "right"){
                        trace("right");
                        upMoving.push(Ball.ballsArray[c]);
                        Ball.ballsArray[c].addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, greenPo****U);
                    else if(Ball.ballsArray[c]._movingDir == "left"){
                        trace("left");
                    else if(Ball.ballsArray[c]._movingDir == "up"){
                        trace("up");
                    else if(Ball.ballsArray[c]._movingDir == "down"){
                        trace("down");
public function greenPo****U(e:Event):void {
            for(var g:uint = 0; g < upMoving.length; g++){
                upMoving[g]._movingDir = "up"
                upMoving[g]._speedR = 0;
                upMoving[g]._speedU = 5;
                upMoving[g].y -= upMoving[g]._speedU;
Help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

I see what your saying. I modified my ball class to allow this. I made the balls move in four directions rather than two. Now im getting no movement though when I do the hitTestPoint.
Here is my ball class:
package  {
     import flash.display.MovieClip;
     import flash.events.Event;
     public class Ball extends MovieClip {
          public var _startX:uint;
          public var _startY:uint;
          public var _movingDir:String;
          public var _speedU:uint;
          public var _speedD:uint;
          public var _speedL:uint;
          public var _speedR:uint;
          public static var ballsArray:Array = [];
          public function Ball() {
               // constructor code
               ballsArray.push(this);
               this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, ballMove);
               this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, ballStop);
               this._startX = this.x;
               this._startY = this.y;
          public function ballMove(e:Event):void {
               if(Start.isStartPressed == true){
                    if(_startX < 40){
                         this._movingDir = "right";
                         this._speedU = 0;
                         this._speedD = 0;
                         this._speedL = 0;
                         this._speedR = 5;
                         this.y -= this._speedU;
                         this.y += this._speedD;
                         this.x -= this._speedL;
                         this.x += this._speedR;
                    else if(_startX > 280){
                         this._movingDir = "left";
                         this._speedU = 0;
                         this._speedD = 0;
                         this._speedL = 5;
                         this._speedR = 0;
                         this.y -= this._speedU;
                         this.y += this._speedD;
                         this.x -= this._speedL;
                         this.x += this._speedR;
                    else if(_startY < 40){
                         this._movingDir = "down";
                         this._speedU = 0;
                         this._speedD = 5;
                         this._speedL = 0;
                         this._speedR = 0;
                         this.y -= this._speedU;
                         this.y += this._speedD;
                         this.x -= this._speedL;
                         this.x += this._speedR;
                    else if(_startY > 280){
                         this._movingDir = "up";
                         this._speedU = 5;
                         this._speedD = 0;
                         this._speedL = 0;
                         this._speedR = 0;
                         this.y -= this._speedU;
                         this.y += this._speedD;
                         this.x -= this._speedL;
                         this.x += this._speedR;
          public function ballStop(e:Event):void {
               if(Start.isStartPressed == false){
                    this.x = _startX;
                    this.y = _startY;
and here is my other class which detects the hitTestPoint:
package  {
     import flash.events.Event;
     import flash.display.MovieClip;
     public class PosRebounder extends MovieClip{
          public static var isRebounderHit:Boolean = false;
          public function PosRebounder() {
               // constructor code
               this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, hittingRebounderElect);
          public function hittingRebounderElect(e:Event):void {
                     if(Ball.ballsArray[0].hitTestPoint(this.x, this.y)){
                         if(Ball.ballsArray[0]._movingDir == "right"){
                             trace("right");
                             Ball.ballsArray[0]._speedU = 5;
                             Ball.ballsArray[0]._speedD = 0;
                    Ball.ballsArray[0]._speedL = 0;
                             Ball.ballsArray[0]._speedR = 0;
                    Ball.ballsArray[0]._movingDir = "up";
                         else if(Ball.ballsArray[0]._movingDir == "left"){
                             trace("left");
                         else if(Ball.ballsArray[0]._movingDir == "up"){
                             trace("up");
                         else if(Ball.ballsArray[0]._movingDir == "down"){
                             trace("down");
So in my ball class i have to check if the start button is pressed to make them move:
if(Start.isStartPressed == true)
When it is not pressed (stop is pressed) and they have to return to their original position and not be moving.
I also have in the ball class to check where they start on the stage and depending on where they start, they move a certain way.
if(_startX < 40){
//stuff
I think thats my problem now. because that is always true so it will always move right. _startX starts at 20 and 20 is always < 40. Now I'm not too sure how to get around this. Thanks for all the help Ned.