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My son just turned 10. He is a gifted athlete who learns quickly and retains what he learns. He plays s****r, basketball and baseball, depending on the season. To this point, his baseball hitting has been largely just his natural swing, while he has transitioned to facing live pitching. I am now starting to teach him more hitting technique. As I research the subject (I have little firsthand baseball knowledge except for a lifetime love of the game) I find a number of differing opinions and styles. I am seeking an answer to this question ... Knowing that I have $100 to spend for a hitting instruction DVD, which would be of the most benefit to a 10 year old hitter and his Dad. Thanks!
Rob Lasch
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Welcome aboard Rob.

Here is my advice. Use this wonderful tool the internet to find information on various hitting DVD's. Just a search of that term here or on any other discussion board will get your head spinning.

When you have a list of DVD's that you are considering take the next step and call the guys who put the DVD's together. The ones worth their salt are available and will gladly spend their time to help you get a better uunderstanding of what they are teaching.

Find someone you are comfortable will be there to help when you have questions and then go that route.

The only other thing I can say is that if it doesn't feel right to you don't do it.

All of that and you have a PM.

Tim
Last edited by deaconspoint
University of Kentucky head coach John Cohen has a video for $30.00 available on the schools baseball website. Although I do not have it or seen it in its entirety, I've have followed his career as a player and coach and have also seen exerpts of the video from his coaches show on Fox Sports (FSN). I'd say investing $30.00 for this video would be a good investment. Good luck
A hitting instructor isn't bad advice however... at 10 yo your boy isn't going to make or break his baseball future. You could spend thousands only to find this really isn't his cup of tea. There are many solid sources, books, dvd's, etc.. from which you can get the basics and lead him down a sucessful path and then have your son determine just how far he would like to go. Much of hitting a baseball relies on repetition, reps of that individual's own personal swing, without a bunch of outside input. Take a good look at all the swings in any MLB lineup and it becomes readily apparent there is more than one way to be sucessful. Good luck and enjoy. Have you seen the video of Tiger Woods swinging a golf club at a very young age ? Sure looks alot like his swing today yet he has had at least a dozen expert swing instructors and spent a small fortune on them since he began his journey.
I am planning on being his first hitting instructor. He may need to go in another direction at some point ... but not yet! So I am in the process of taking in as much info as I can afford (not much). I have found a fair amount of info on the web. I have ordered a wmv file from Preston Peavey that has some good stuff in it, and I am waiting for the begining dvd from Englishbey, which should arrive next week. Hopefully that will be enough to get us started. I am looking for input regarding what has been succesful for others with young children learning to hit. I would love to hear what people think of Englishbey's and Epstein's DVD's.
I admire you Rob. Educating yourself so you can educate the boy. I don't know anything about Epstein, but I'm sure there is something to be gained there somewhere. You already know my feelings about Englishbey. Keep doing what you're doing and be willing to adjust along the way. Don't do anything that just doesn't feel right or make sense. If you don't believe it will help, it wont.

This next tidbit is just something I have been working on and maybe it will help. My son will be in his first year in kid pitch next season. We have been working on getting loaded up early so he can better adjust to the pitch. I think most kids load too late as the want to get a big running start to crush the ball. The more the are loaded when the ball comes the more time they have to wait before they have to unload. Being loaded before the pitch is helping my son adjust better and giving him more confidence at the plate that he can hit these guys.

For an example I look at the swing of Marlon Byrd of the Texas Ranger's. He has a distinctive load before the pitch is delivered and I think it is helping him adjust to the pitching he's facing. I look at it and can alomost see him thinking, these guys are pretty good, I better get back here and get ready. When I am ready they don't stand a chance.

These are just the opinions of a dad trying to help his kid have fun and they are worth what you pay for them.

Enjoy the ride Rob and son!! Most of all, have fun!!

Tim
Last edited by deaconspoint
I have actually had some experience with the loading early stuff. I also have a daughter who is 12 and in her final year of little league. We pieced her swing together as we went, using her natural tendencies with what little knowledge I had. She is a linear hitter, to be sure, but it is working for her at the moment. We are going to change it, but not until the season is over. My guess is that she will probably not play any more baseball, only softball. The transition to live pitching is such a big jump! She was 10 when she started, and the league was full of strong pitchers. It takes a long time just to think about standing in against the fast pitchers so she would swing from back on her heels and once in a while foul one off or hit the ball weakly to the opposite field. In an effort to get her thinking about something besides getting hit, and getting her to swing sooner, I taught her to open her hips sooner ... with the delivery. That really helped her in those early days. Now she hits the best pitchers, but without alot of power. That is why we are going to try to incorporate some rotational aspects, after the season has ended. Does your son hit against adults now, or machines, Tim? How about others? We are a small town and so the league is very small. We have only a major division, although there is a move to change that so that 10 year olds don't have to face 12 year olds.
We don't have machines here, so he was hitting coaches pitching last season. This is actually better I think because most of them are about as consistent as I am. It is the beginning of teaching a little plate discipline. He also practiced with some of the older kids for fun. Just every once in a while when some of the boys who were on his team last seaosn and had moved up were practicing. He's friends with all of them and they would invite him to come and play with them. This has gotten him some exposure to hitting with someone actually trying to strike him out. He does fine although his expectations are a little high at times. There's nothing like the look on his face when he does get a hit off one of the better pitchers. He has no fear and little concern with striking out. It's just the same swing, doing it's thing. It works and he knows it, it just a matter of getting ready and putting it in the right place at teh right time.

I think with your son hitting off older, more advanced pitchers the early load could be a big confidence boost. When Aidan is hitting off a buddy of his who is much older and one of the leagues better pitchers he will load up as soon as he sees him go to his glove. However long it takes him to bring it to the plate he stays loaded. If you ask him why he does it he'll tell you straight out. I can't hit him if I don't. He doesn't hit him a lot anyway, but everyonce in a while he'll turn on him and that keeps him coming back. You have to really load, before you can really unload.

I'm also a strong believer in intent to hit, hard!! Aidan knows that it's ok for him to swing hard every time. Some kids get up against better pitching and just want to make contact. Honestly, I don't think that's any fun for him. I cringe when I hear someone say just stick the bat out there and meat the ball. To heck with that, nail that little bugger!! Two strikes and I want the kid coming out of his shoes trying to knock the fence down!! He should be allowed to swing as hard as he can with proper mechanics each time regardless of the situation at this point. He's a kid. If he stikes out at least he'll know that if he had made contact it woudl have made some noise!!

Other's will certainly differ in opinion here.

Anyway, have fun!!

Tim
I've got the Epstein DVD and found it to be very educational. The first half of the DVD is Mike giving a talk on hitting, and in the second half he's demonstrating his drills with a student. One of the biggest points he makes is that once you get to the 'load' point nearly all succesful hitter's swings are extremely similar. In my opinion the Epstein DVD is well worth the money, if for nothing else educating yourself about alot of the 'crud' you'll hear from people who supposedly know a lot about hitting.

Another tool you'll want is a camcorder so that you can see your son's swing in slow motion. It's amazing how much more you can see that way compared to watching him swing live.
Last edited by StyleMismatch
The one problem with teaching young kids how MLB players swing the bat is that the young kids try to emulate them without having the tools that the MLB players have


I agree with baseballtoday, if the young lad is doing well as is leave it be---I don't think Williams, Musial, Pujols, et al had instructors and DVDS
I agree with TR on this one......your ten year old can get overloaded with information with some of the more recent guru videos out there....emulating the major league swing is a great goal further down the road.

roblasch, when my son was young like that I used to grab a baseball instruction video or two from the video store when we would be there looking for movies......at that time guys like Rod Carew, Pete Rose, Dave Winfield, Mickey Mantle and others had videos out there that were meant for kids.....he watched them over and over.

I have been a college coach for two decades, and those videos were inexpensive and fabulous.

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