HAVE YOU NOTICED

I don't think you have to have a pedigree as a hitter to be a good hitting coach. Conversely, many good hitters are terrible hitting coaches -- they try to teach EVERYONE how THEY did it.

I don't believe hitting is natural. In the early 1900s golfers and baseball hitters hit from the back leg to the front leg. Now hitters are taught to fix a rotational axis (at least once the front foot lands). There is no way that is natural it has to be taught. Natural is swaying from the back to the front. Also, hand speed can be developed but some naturally have faster hands than others. Hands up at load is not natural. Watch a novice swing with his hands level or even at the waist. It is not natural to get backside rotation. All new hitters lock up the backside and hit linear.

The great hitter may have picked up hitting by watching other great hitters. That is a form of learning.

I think a great hitting instructor and a student with little ability will not translate to a great hitter. However, I think many potential great hitters are hurt by bad hitting instructors. My definition of a bad hitting instructor -- one that teaches all hitters one way.

OK so this father asks a hitting instructor to take a look at his H.S. kids swing...having done so the instructor tells the father that he could tweak his sons current swing to get him to college but there are basically two types of swings with the other being a high level pro type swing which would take many many years to develop.

How many agree or disagree with this two swing theory and is this a matter of sacrificing long term potential for short term success. Does this help explain why maybe so many outstanding college hitters never make it to the next level, or those that do make it were gonna get there anyway because of thier natural hitting ability regardless of technique?

NYdad-

Yes, on the two techniques... linear or rotational - and by definition, it depends on the path your hand takes through the swing...

if you have a hitting instructor telling you he can "tweak" things to fix problems... doubtful. if it needs tweaking, then it needs de-learning and then re-learning the new mechanics, and that won't happen (on-the-fly)until muscle memory takes place, whcih is 1,000+ reps for most people.

Disagree. Rotational (Williams, Bonds, Griffey) and weight-shift (A-Rod, Gwynn) are both linear and rotational. There is no linear only system. All systems have linear and rotational elements.

On an earlier thread Rose was shown from overhead almost totally rotational. It was because his shoulders were turned at set up. Many major league hitters have their shoulders down the line and initiate linearly with the barrel coming in rotationally.

The problems seem to stem from (1) dead hand hitting, (2) totally still head, (3) no to small load, (4) being too short which all translate to little power.

Some of the coaches on this website that argue are not really arguing hitting, they're arguing symantics.

Bottom line, if your hitter cannot hit at least 1/3 of hits for extra bases, then they are below average. They better have foot speed. So many coaches just teach contact. If your kid's hitting coach is not trying to max bat speed, get another coach.

TR,

Truth is... most of the greatest hitters have so much money they have no serious interest in teaching hitting for a living.

However, there have been a few who have enjoyed teaching hitting. ie. Ted Williams, Tony Gwynn, etc.

Just to clarify...the point of my original post was not about whats involved in fixing/tweaking the swing, it concerns the two types of swings comment that this hitting instructor made to one of the fathers of a kid on my son's school team which I found very nteresting.

baseballpapa!!!

Hey brother! How's CW doing ??? Hope all is going as planned

You will be hearing from another club if not already. Clue>Your home state. Recommended you to Texas Rangers front office boss who is very impressed to the point of asking me what I am I currently doing. When they ask me questions of this nature, I just point up to my wife up in the stands and say, that's why I am not full-time, my wife doesn't need to be left alone at this stage of her life. I always keep the door open though and say maybe one day....

Sometimes our desires aren't God's desires for our lives. Guess I am coming to accept this fact of life. If He wants me to be full-time one day, He will make it happen and not me, if you know what I mean

Good to see you back posting brother! Take care!

YBIJC,
Shep

I think many of the great hitters had an extra dose of talent but they still worked very hard to perfect their skill. Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, and Tony Gwynn for example have all talked about the hours they spent with other great hitters talking about their craft.

Good Day Folks,

"Have you noticed that most of the "acclaimed" hitting instructors were not great hitters ?"

This is true of most, not all, great athletes.

In golf, most of the swing gurus are not former great players.

In football, not too many All-Pro players are championship coaches.

In basketball, look at Magic Johnson, great player....lousy coach.

One of the common threads to all this is great player usually has two things you simply can not teach. Tremendous talent & Incredble Drive to be the best. As a coach you have to deal with players of all types, and that is a hard thing to do for most of sports top athletes.

Ask Isiah Thomas how its working out right now.