Approach to Hitting

Applying a one size fits all approach may help some kids at the expense of others. "If it ain't broke don't fix it" I'd say. How well does he hit his way? Is this a new coach or is your son playing for him for the first time? There's no easy answer such as do it the coaches way at practice and do it your way in games. Tried it, coach wouldn't let it go even in the batters box. You're distracted, stress level goes up, BA suffers, you second guess yourself. Son discusses it with coach? May work, may make things worse.

My son is a PO, but he may play a little at third and bat every once in a while.  I told him since he is signed already, to just go with the flow.  I agree with the "one size fits all" comment.  It is a coach he has not played for yet since he transferred schools this year.  His travel coach, who he goes to for pitching lessons, is not happy with the hitting philosophy.

The if it ain't broke don't fix it saying can go a number of ways. It might not be broke now. But will it break at the next level? Some kids get away with things at the HS level they will not get away with at the college level. The ability to make adjustment's is critical. I don't believe in the cookie cutter approach. But success today does not mean change is a bad idea in every case. Keep an open mind.

I would be somewhat concerned.  Granted, a weight shift happens.  But I think it is a result, not necessarily a goal.  My concern would be over doing the shift.  It should be controlled.  Weight too far "over" the back foot is bad (it should be on the inside).  Lunging too far forward is bad.  Pujols and Cabrera are not your average HS players.  The real question is can the kid hit the ball on the barrel consistently. 

When a coach has a cookie-cutter approach to hitting or pitching mechanics, show  respect for it at practices.  Then, during games, do what you've got to do.

if you look at video of just about all the great hitters you will see the back foot comes forward and sometimes off the ground at contact and extension...it why neither rontational or linear hitting styles are complete. the truth is there is a blend where they both are right!!

From your description, I don't see an issue with the approach.   A small stride to ball of front foot will keep the load mostly on the back leg and over inside of foot.   The hands stay back and the hips power the swing.   The hip turn forces the front heel down and the back foot up.  Not off the ground though.

Baseball America's Top 10 are coming with some video.  Outside of several Yankees prospects, this is how most of the hitters look.

Spot on old school....be weary of coaches that try to move too far in any one direction with a hitting approach.

Example of Pujols' back foot below....  Not something that can be duplicated and you can see in this video that he does not need to rock back for it to occur.  Energy he transfers from that back side into the firm front side at impact results in his ability to flat out crush a baseball.

http://www.chrisoleary.com/pro...rtPujolsBackLeg.html

First every hitting theory uses Pujols and Cabrera as examples of what they teach.  I highly doubt that Pujols or Cabrera even knows most of those hitting philosophies.  I coached for some time and my teams had tremendous success at the plate.  In fact, they led my area in hitting for the majority of years I coached.  I tended to use a hitting philosophy as a template.  IOWs I made sure that each hitter had a base swing dictated by a certain hitting philosophy.  Some might call that cookie cutter.  However, from there, they were allowed to add style.  As with most coaches, hitters had to learn cues etc. in order for me to coach them and so, that was based upon "cookie cutter" cues.  From there, and once my hitters knew terminology etc. if they were successful, why would I bother them?  If they needed to be "fixed" then I cut down the time to do so.  One last thing, drills can be geared toward any hitting philosophy.

This advice is given a lot which I get, but hitting imo relies on muscle memory. It's difficult on one hand to practice one way, then switch during games. Who can really be successful that way?

What happens if  player using "his way"  hits grounder to SS and goes back and gets yelled at by coach for not hitting "coaches way"?

it's a bad situation all around.  

CoachB25 is absolutely correct!  I even saw two hitting gurus give seminars who were polar opposites in terms of hitting theory use the EXACT same video clip of A-Rod to prove that he used their style of hitting and not the other.  Hysterical.

What will generally happen is that if a kid hits the cover off the ball, the coach will claim it is a result of his method.  If the kid doesn't hit, it's because the hitter is not using his method.

The moral is ... listen respectfully and give the coach's style a chance - it may actually work for you - but also understand that if you hit well, no coach is going to care how you do it.

www.BaseballByTheYard.com

Hitting and pitching is very similar.  Having an initial weight shift to the back side is good....how you get there is personal preference.  You can get a good weight shift back with a zero stride (Pujos) or with a large dynamic stride (Harper).  Same goes for pitching from the wind up....think Bob Gibson, or David Price.  

The problem with instructing this without proper instruction is that players will get what I call "outside their leg", which loses the advantage we are trying to gain.   

IMO style and athleticism is being coached out of our ball players by teaching instruction via teaching specific positions rather than how to effectively learn how to create explosive body movements specific to each individual players own unique attributes.  Too many robotic looking hitters and pitchers out there.

Ted Williams had it right, hitting is a science. Specifically physics. There are certain things that you must do to attain maximal bat speed through the zone. A ball must be struck at a certain angle to achieve optimal distance.  Being "on plane" or on "optimal plane" for the longest period of time allows for more hard hit balls and allows you to still be successful at hitting balls hard despite imperfect timing. Can hitters be succesful without being perfect at these things?  Of course. There are hundreds of different hitting styles in MLB. But, if you look at all of them, there are a couple (almost) absolutes.  When the front heel gets down, the forward momentum stops, and the head does not move.  How they got to this point really doesn't matter, whether a big weight shift, or a big leg kick, or something like Jeff Bagwell. Most get the barrel on plane deep and keep it there all the way through the zone. Some are more backfoot hitters, some more front foot (Ichiro), and some get the back foot off the ground like Pujols or Frank Thomas.  Some have a bit more upswing such as Griffey or Papi, and some a little flatter. Each of these are individual to the hitter and their objectives.  Most of the hitting gurus like to claim they have the secret to success.  It really boils down to being on plane on time with maximum bat speed.  How you get there is not really a big deal.