These thoughts take you back to basic Psychology 101, what's more important in development, Nature or Nurture?
Us parents with multiple children KNOW, that without a doubt, children are in no way a clean slate. I argue that they infact are "hardwired" for far more things than we ever imagined! All kids are somewhat ambidextrous early, but somewhere around 3-4yrs. begin to show their prefereces (about 80/20 split right vs. left).
It's apparent that there are advantages to hitting and pitching left-handed. But can you and or should you try to stack the deck? I decided early on to let nature take it's course. As everyone says, "we will never know for sure." I believe that true hitters are born with a hand-eye advantage that propel them further, if they train hard enough, than those that didn't inherit that advantage! You can't make every athlete a hitter!!
quote:Originally posted by Prime9:
These thoughts take you back to basic Psychology 101, what's more important in development, Nature or Nurture?
Us parents with multiple children KNOW, that without a doubt, children are in no way a clean slate. I argue that they infact are "hardwired" for far more things than we ever imagined! All kids are somewhat ambidextrous early, but somewhere around 3-4yrs. begin to show their prefereces (about 80/20 split right vs. left).
It's apparent that there are advantages to hitting and pitching left-handed. But can you and or should you try to stack the deck? I decided early on to let nature take it's course. As everyone says, "we will never know for sure." I believe that true hitters are born with a hand-eye advantage that propel them further, if they train hard enough, than those that didn't inherit that advantage! You can't make every athlete a hitter!!
I agree. I believe in the Darwin theory here and let natural selection take over
Seriously, I have no problem with what Rob and others have done here to encourage a left-handed stroke at the plate. It's entirely possible that batting left or right handed is not akin to writing left or right handed. On the other hand, there might be some correlation. It's also possible that the parents who encouraged left-handed hitting were merely encouraging their son's natural hitting talents. It's also possible they encouraged their son's away from their optimal hitting performace - long term. Not sure any of us are smart enough to know that and that is why I didn't put much thought into which side my son's hit from. I figured they would figure it out on their own.
I can remember the day my sons' first picked up a bat. The one son was 4 an 1/2 year old and the other son almost three and it was Easter. We were over at my parents house and someone bought the kids a plastic ball and bat. My brothers and I started by pitching to the older one and he did a fine job hitting them from the right side.
My two year old of course was dying to get his turn. When he stepped in there, balls started whizzing by our ears and all of us were laughing our butts off at how natural this seemed for him. It never occured to any of us to experiement from the other side because with both boys, the immediate results we were getting were excellent.
Finally, I have personal experience with many of these theories and it supports my thinking that kids have a preference to their natural side. I am left handed. When I started kindergarten, the teacher kept taking the pencil out of my left hand and placing it in the other for about two weeks. I kept putting it back there and finally they left me alone. Nowadays, it is considered poltically incorrect to try and convert a lefty into a righty
As I grew older and developed a love of sports, many skills took over - some lefty some righty. I hit right handed but throw a baseball or footbal left handed. Even though I throw a football left handed, I kick it right handed or legged in that case. I shoot pool, golf, and shoot a gun right handed. In my personal experience, there was a preference for things that seemed to guide how I did them. It's possible I could have been trained out of them at a young age but I keep wondering even today why I kept putting that pencil back in my left hand
Lot's of great discussion here...
My thoughts on 'nudging' jr to left handed was simply because I knew of no players who ever threw left handed and batted right handed. Seemed foolish to start batting right handed when you could be two steps closer to first base batting from the 'natural' side.
I'm RH all the way, except my first hockey stick was bought by my maternal grandmother (rest her heart) who simply didn't get sports. She bought me a left handed stick, probably because it was on sale. I learned to play hockey left handed because that's the stick I had and the curve works a whole lot better when you work with it.
I haven't tried to play two sports at once (skating & playing hockey) in years, but if I ever felt the urge at my advanced age, I couldn't imagine playing any other way the left handed.
I'm going to place a vote for nuture versus nature, although I wasn't a great hockey player and maybe not having my dominate hand in the right place had something to do with it?
Let me throw a curve ball into this, is hitting from the dominate side a function of hand strength or a function that the dominate eye tends to be on the opposite side of dominate hand? Thus, a RH like me is left eye dominate, so the left eye is the one that dominates tracking the pitch, is closer to the pitcher and has a better angle for seeing the ball?
I read a study on this years ago, but couldn't find a link.
My thoughts on 'nudging' jr to left handed was simply because I knew of no players who ever threw left handed and batted right handed. Seemed foolish to start batting right handed when you could be two steps closer to first base batting from the 'natural' side.
I'm RH all the way, except my first hockey stick was bought by my maternal grandmother (rest her heart) who simply didn't get sports. She bought me a left handed stick, probably because it was on sale. I learned to play hockey left handed because that's the stick I had and the curve works a whole lot better when you work with it.
I haven't tried to play two sports at once (skating & playing hockey) in years, but if I ever felt the urge at my advanced age, I couldn't imagine playing any other way the left handed.
I'm going to place a vote for nuture versus nature, although I wasn't a great hockey player and maybe not having my dominate hand in the right place had something to do with it?
Let me throw a curve ball into this, is hitting from the dominate side a function of hand strength or a function that the dominate eye tends to be on the opposite side of dominate hand? Thus, a RH like me is left eye dominate, so the left eye is the one that dominates tracking the pitch, is closer to the pitcher and has a better angle for seeing the ball?
I read a study on this years ago, but couldn't find a link.
Here is what I think of eye dominance;
Turn your head and look at the pitcher with both eyes.
Turn your head and look at the pitcher with both eyes.
when my kids were growing up i never thought of changing them.( one lefty, one righty). maybe i should have,didn't seem like a big deal to me. you are what you are kinda thing.
my son works at a baseball facility. i drop by every so often to watch the younger players. i was amazed at kids 7 or 8 yrs old switch hitting. they don't make anyone change what they do, they just take their hacks from both sides as a normal workout. i was very impressed, makes you wonder if started early enough everyone can be a switch hitter.
my son works at a baseball facility. i drop by every so often to watch the younger players. i was amazed at kids 7 or 8 yrs old switch hitting. they don't make anyone change what they do, they just take their hacks from both sides as a normal workout. i was very impressed, makes you wonder if started early enough everyone can be a switch hitter.
.
Wow 20dad! My wife never let me get away with that...high five to you sir!
.
- "when my kids were growing up i never thought of changing them."
Wow 20dad! My wife never let me get away with that...high five to you sir!
.
jemaz: Good one.
Although I've never seen a hitter completely turn their body so both eyes have an identical view of the baseball. Essentially, that is the position of the catcher and umpire, not the hitter.
I'm not suggesting hitters are watching with monocular vision, only that the dominate eye is closer to the pitcher and thus has a better view of the baseball.
Right handers tend to be left eye dominate and Lefties tend to be right eye dominate. Never seen anyone fire a gun aiming with both eyes...
Although I've never seen a hitter completely turn their body so both eyes have an identical view of the baseball. Essentially, that is the position of the catcher and umpire, not the hitter.
I'm not suggesting hitters are watching with monocular vision, only that the dominate eye is closer to the pitcher and thus has a better view of the baseball.
Right handers tend to be left eye dominate and Lefties tend to be right eye dominate. Never seen anyone fire a gun aiming with both eyes...
There are studies(ad nauseum), regarding hitting and eye dominance, including the relevance of uncrossed eye dominance, crossed-eye dominance, centric eye dominance, et al. Some conclude it has no effect, others conclude it does. One more recent stated crossed-eye dominance out performs uncrossed, centric out performs all. Unfortunately only a very small percentage of the population (17%) is centric eye dominance.
I believe eye dominance is a factor. If you really want to test the theory, determine your hitter's eye dominance and have them take a round of game speed BP, with the dominant eye closed, then let's talk.
One other major visual trait for a great hitter (other than eye dominace) is dynamic visual acuity, or the ability to see detail in a moving object.
GED10DaD
I believe eye dominance is a factor. If you really want to test the theory, determine your hitter's eye dominance and have them take a round of game speed BP, with the dominant eye closed, then let's talk.
One other major visual trait for a great hitter (other than eye dominace) is dynamic visual acuity, or the ability to see detail in a moving object.
GED10DaD
Interesting subject, one I've thought about myself from time to time. Personally I am a mixed bag like others on here. I throw right, bat right, kick right,golf RH & play hockey RH yet I write left-handed, eat LH, dribble a basketball LH, shoot that basketball LH (Ya I stink at it!!) I also shoot a gun LH and shoot pool LH. Scissors need to be LH as well. Like I said a mess!
Son is a true lefty. Does everything left handed but one thing..swing a bat. When he was 2 he picked up the bat and naturally started swinging right handed. I figured I'd let him do what came natural. So I have one of those crazy lefties that bat right handed. He couldn't swing lefty now if his life depended on it. Looks totally horrible when he tries. Maybe for him it was a dominant eye/hand thing? He mashed the little wiffle balls when 2 so I never considered switching him to the left side. I did have several people tell me that I needed to have him switch to hitting lefty as you didn't see professional players throw left and hit right other then Ricky Henderson. I dismissed it as for my son righty was the only way he could hit effectively.
I forget who mentioned it earlier but my son also seems to be more of an opposite field hitter then a pull hitter.
Son is a true lefty. Does everything left handed but one thing..swing a bat. When he was 2 he picked up the bat and naturally started swinging right handed. I figured I'd let him do what came natural. So I have one of those crazy lefties that bat right handed. He couldn't swing lefty now if his life depended on it. Looks totally horrible when he tries. Maybe for him it was a dominant eye/hand thing? He mashed the little wiffle balls when 2 so I never considered switching him to the left side. I did have several people tell me that I needed to have him switch to hitting lefty as you didn't see professional players throw left and hit right other then Ricky Henderson. I dismissed it as for my son righty was the only way he could hit effectively.
I forget who mentioned it earlier but my son also seems to be more of an opposite field hitter then a pull hitter.