Frustrated by hitting instruction

Question:


Assuming this --that your son is a successfulhitter

Why are you spending $$$$ when you think they are not teaching him correctly, according to you?

strange story, didn't really think about it until i read this thread. my oldest son had a hitting event with a mlb hitting coach. about 2-3 hours, when he was 10 or 11. he was a very good hitter through LL,aau,legion,hs.
he went to a jc that happened to be near this coaches home. he read about his hitting in the paper and decided to go watch a game. my son recognized the man watching.son went 4-4 or something like that.after the game the hitting coach came over and talked to him. he asked "who taught him to hit like that"? he say's "you did" then goes on to tell him about the lesson back then. after which he remembered him. surprised that he still hit the way he taught him.had to be one of the few things he remembered.lol

i'm sorry,didn't mean to talk about my kid. but the point is if you can hit, you can hit. no need to change things. but as they climb the ladder they may hit a wall. then may need some help. this doesn't work for everyone,thats why the pro's have hitting coaches too.

foultip,

i get that all the time. i try to figure out exactly what they mean, because like you mentioned, you cant swing with your shoulders level.

but i think it said when a swing may be too loopy. it leads to too many popups. does that happen to your son?

hope that helps

Catch43 thanks for the reply, nope, doesn't popup an excessive amount.
TRhit, Mr Internet Baseball Guru, I am open to any rational answers or opinions. If you are interested in your usual pi##ing contest, you have the wrong person. Let's stick to substance, how do you hit a pitch at the knees with level shoulders? How about we start there?

I'm not big on clinics. For that kind of money, I can pay a professional to work one on one with my son. What I look for is someone that can communicate their ideas with my son. If the instructor is saying "keep your shoulders level" and my son is saying "huh?" I know I've got a problem.

"Keep your shoulders level" can mean a lot of things. Could mean the back shoulder is dropping, could be bad weight shift, could be collapse of the back leg during the swing. So "keep your shoulders level" is a difficult key to work with.

Its easy to hit a pitch at the knees and keep the shoulders level. Stand up and put yourself in a batters stance. Now drop the barrell of the bat on the baseball. If your back shoulder is "dipping" or "dropping" chances are your eye level is changing as well. Plus when this happens you tend to collapse on the backside and back leg can also collapse. This leads to alot of pop ups , weak hit balls and misses when you are facing quality velocity. I believe in standing tall on the backside and dropping the barrell on the baseball.

I do not believe there is one way to hit. I do not believe that every syle works for every hitter. But I do know for a fact that just because your a good young hitter does not mean you will be a good HS hitter or college level hitter. A short compact swing that allows you to put the barrell of the bat on the baseball consistently is what I believe in. As the pitching gets better the hitter must improve as well. What works when your 12 might not work when your 18.

I for one never clone hitters and never put them in a "You need to hit like this because Epstein or Bucky or Tommy says this is the way to hit etc etc. You are who you are. You need to hit the way you can be successfull. There are certain things in hitting that are constants. Keep your eyes on the ball. etc etc.

Take Pedroia for instance. Very long swing. Does alot of things no one would teach. But it works for him. He may be the only person in the world that could have success hitting with that swing. But guess what he is the only person that has to be successfull with that swing because it is his swing and it works for him.

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foultip...

He is a link to a good, and recent thread in the instructional section...not "dead on" the same topic but you likely will find some helpful experiences/information...

http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8686003481/m/8801065552/p/1

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foultip

I asked a legit question---why, if he is successful are you going to others for instruction when you think it is all garbage--

IF IT AIN'T BROKE DON'T TRY AND FIX IT !!!!

I truly believe a hitter is a hitter period---you can refine him and tweak things but you don't change things---the good hitters are naturals, they are not created

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
foultip

I asked a legit question---why, if he is successful are you going to others for instruction when you think it is all garbage--

IF IT AIN'T BROKE DON'T TRY AND FIX IT !!!!

I truly believe a hitter is a hitter period---you can refine him and tweak things but you don't change things---the good hitters are naturals, they are not created

A great hitter is a natural. You can take an average hitter and make him a good one. There are very simple basics to hitting a baseball. Sometimes you just need to tweak one of the basics. Like Coach May said, everyone is a little different.