quote:Originally posted by CADad:
The right swing depends on the player and how the player projects. Most players are best suited to a line drive swing with a slight bias toward the ground ball when they don't make full contact. Kids with power are more effective biasing the line drive swing a bit more toward getting the ball in the air. Kids with enough power to hit a significant number of home runs should bias the swing toward more of an uppercut. Hitters with little or no power and lots of speed should be trying to hit line drives that hit the ground before getting to the infielders. Even Williams said there are some hitters who should swing down on the ball.
In my own, admittedly unqualified opinion, every hitter should be trying to hit line drives and the angle should vary a bit depending on how much power they have or project to have. It is really a trial and error thing and it can change as a player matures and faces different types of pitching.
My suggestion is to have your son think of hitting lower line drives to satisfy the coach and hopefully not mess up his swing. BTW, one hits the bottom part of the ball resulting in backspin more often by swinging slightly up than by swinging slightly down.
Tfox, BTW, my guess is that the HS coaches pushing the grounders will do so even more with the new bats because fewer HS players will have home run power especially given that the current crop has grown up using rocket launchers.
You may be right but even our high school coach,who also is a proponent of Epstein teachings seems to think the new bats will hurt smaller schools because they tend to be the ones that are swing down schools and have fewer power hitters.Those ground balls imo will just be much easier to field now than they once were and as with any swing,line drives are where it is at,regardless of homeruns.
Only time will tell