2020dad posted:old_school posted:2020dad posted:old_school posted:Had an interesting conversation last night in the cage with my 2017. he has been working at school, with some friends, over the winter with his travel program. last night was only the 2nd night I got spend in the cage with him since last fall. he is a thick kid, left handed power, typically has the one of the top averages on his various teams. he projects to be left handed power with average for college as well.
I noticed his swing looked a little different, I also had notice from some pics of game AB's this spring that he looked a bit different. So he proceeds to explain to me what he has been working to develop a little more tilt so he can improve his launch angles slightly... this is a kid who has never hit the ball on the ground.
So we talked and tossed and I watched, he is good, he is getting more lift, I noticed it in the games this spring I just didn't realize it was an intentional act...his average is down slightly, his power numbers are up in a bigger jump. the combo is tough to argue with.
Point being it is all about age appropriate timing. if he had been working on this stuff at 14 it would have been a waste. IMO - what did amaze me is the power an 18 YR old develops, I have soft tossed him thousands of times for years but now the balls just come screaming off his bat. You can hear the difference, no gun needed.
Why would it be a waste at 14? Why is it ever a waste to improve? Even if some were caught on the warning track at 14 wouldn't many have gone for doubles, triples and homers? I have seen many many 14's who have at least the capability to hit the ball 350 to 400 feet.
you lose me here, I have not seen many 14u that can do this consistently, specifically not with wood or BBcor. back in the BSR days I would be more inclined to give you more leeway on this.
And quite honestly the reason they can not do it more consistently is all this coaching for years teaching them to hit the back of the cage!!! Back in the day when we played pick up games and didn't have enough guys it was right field out and you turned and burned and hit the damn ball in the air!! Come on old timers - you know it's true! I don't know who started this ground ball thing but it was us old guys! We played home run derby, three flies, put marks on the grass or walls or whatever and the higher and farther you hit it the better. Old school if you are really old school tell me when you and your friends ever got together to challenge each other to a ground ball hitting contest!!
Heck we typically didn't have enough infielders. So ground balls where outs. 
We used to play in my back yard. Starting in grade school. Then one day we grew up. Started hitting the neighbors house in left field (they had a nice big window). There was a grain silo on the farm behind my house. We knew we were getting too big when my good buddy put one on the top of that silo. It was da bomb. After that, we had to move to a real field.