I'm sorry to hear your son is struggling,
If I may ask, what does "having the hands out in front of the hip rotation" mean exactly??
By the way, most successful hitters have a low point in their swings at or a tad in front of their center of gravity. So if you consider the ground to be your basis for what is "level" then most good hitters have an (slight) "uppercut". Their swings are level, but not to the ground, they are level to the plane of the pitch, or are very close.
Thanks again everyone for your kind encouragement and continued interest.
I think I know what you mean by the slight upward swing, or uppercut, it is impossible to not do that if you want to meet the ball on the same plane that it is coming at you, and want to get it elevated enough to not be a soft grounder. What I am hypothesizing with my son is that there is too much of that, so much so that if his timing is not absolutely perfect, he tops it or hits under it...having me thinking that the bat simply is not in the impact zone, at the right angle long enough.
The coach wants their hands and hips to move at the same time, and he doesn't talk about separation at load. This results in the hands leading the rotation of the hips with players that have fast hands. I can see that it may work with a young player that struggles to get a heavy bat around, but not good for much else, and teaches a bad habit. I am not impressed.
Our story may have a happy ending yet...at a tryout tonight the coach had my son shorten his load with his hands, lean in a bit more from the waist, and reduced the amount of weight on his back foot when he loads, and he he hit the ball nice and flush (and hard) about 15 times in a row. Best I've seen him hit in many weeks. It was in a cage, so I couldn't judge how far the ball would have gone, but it looked and sounded good.