Hitting/Coaching question

Hitting is all about making adjustments. If your son can hit, he should be able to make adjustments and find success.

Bear in mind that if he hopes to play at the next level, he is likely to encounter additional coaches that will try to put their imprint on his swing.

We ran into a similar situation with my son who was a college freshman (JUCO). If he wanted to play he was required to adopt the coach's hitting philosophy which was dramatically different and ran counter to what he had known to be true and taught over the years. It sort of worked out, he was able to finnish the season just under .400 with a number of doubles, triples and home runs and made all conference. He bought into what the coach wanted and found success.

That said, we knew that the approach to hitting that the coach required was not an approach that would take him to the level of baseball that he dreams of playing. Therefore, he transfered out and moved to another JUCO in a different conference. He has had to relearn his old swing again but is now being productive and hitting over .400 with numerous, doubles, triples, and home runs.

Your son should be able to make the adjustment, and I bet if he begins to see a few balls go over the fence, everyone will be quite happy that you chose to buy in and give it a go. Learning to hit for power is about approach and aggression. Good Luck!

I think your son has it right.
Any time a hitter is making adjustments, they feel odd and awkward and different. They don't feel natural because the player/hitter has been doing something different for such a long time.
But, from your description of the program, it sounds like this is a good HS program with good players and good coaching. Good coaches challenge players to be better players and be able to do more things.
Good coaches also want to win at the HS level and see their players succeed.
A good coach will either keep supporting your son until he makes the adjustments or recognize that something isn't working and move on from whatever he is trying to teach.
I think your son is right. This is between he and his coach.

This is an interesting question and one my son dealt with during his first year in college--he just could not get comfortable with what they wanted---he came home for the summer and during the summer ball season he reverted to his original method. When he returned to school he met with the coaches and explained what he had done--they never attempted to change him again and he had a very successful 4 years

If your son is hitting at a HS Varsity level successfuly, its pretty good. No one as of yet can really explain and / or teach a MLB swing. I would have your son go back to the old way of hitting, but he needs to be sneaky about it , or find a way to tell the coach.

You are not telling me what the coach is having your son do to adjust. What adjustment in his swing? where is he standing at the plate?
What is the mental approach? Is he right handed or left handed hitter? Do he work on the "high tee"?

Remember you son is his own teacher. He knows his swing. He has visualization.

Bob

First of all, a coach telling a player that he needs to hit more homeruns is asinine. I guess I don't know if the coach simply said he wanted to help the player hit for more power or something like that. But it seems crazy to me to tell a player he needs to hit more homeruns. Maybe he should tell his coach that he needs to be a better coach.

With that being said, if I'm the player, I know that the coach is always 'right'. And it sounds like your player already has that down.

I'm not sure exactly what your son should do. I'm not sure that someone else can tell your son what to do. Someone else posted above that he should either go back to the way that he knows how to hit or find a way to tell the coach that he disagrees. These seem like two of the best options to me as well.

I hope he finds a way to correct the situation so that he can just go out and play. Good luck.

-------------------

Well, I may have spoken too soon. 2 bombs today. Maybe the coach does know what he is talking about!

Haha! Like I said before, the coach is always right!!!

-----------------

Do what you have to in order to be successful.

It's important to remember that you and your coach have the same goal--for you to be a good hitter. The devil is in the details. You and him disagree on process. Ultimately, you know your swing and if what he is saying isn't working/doesn't make sense, just let it go in one ear and out the other. Keep on squareing it up and you'll keep yourself in the lineup no matter who's swing you're using.

P.S. I disagree with LaBall's comment that no one knows/can teach a major league swing. I have worked with a couple minor league hitting coaches/coordinators that have blown me away with their ability to get immediate results out of my swing by identifying subtle adjustments that need to be made. It's amazing how close you can be to a great swing and not realize it because the littlest thing throws of your entire pattern.

Good post, greenmachine.

-----------------------

Of all the questions that get posted on this site, those relating to hitting, at least from what I have read, seem to be amongst the most contentious, the most confusing, and the ones most difficult to visualize.
Personally, I would have a very hard time telling a HS player, even a good one, to not listen and make adjustments being proposed by a good and successful HS coach. Good hitting coaches make a major difference with their ability to see adjustments to make and in their ability to explain the adjustments.
The fact that it feels awkward or different or does not get immediate results, for me, does not mean the player resorts to where they have been.
How do you ever get better if you don't challenge yourself?
In my view, for HS and college hitters, getting better every day and learning what adjustments you need to make, and making them, is what makes the difference in the ultimate level at which you play and compete.

I think there are a couple reasons that hitting discussions are so contentious and confusing.

First, what a hitter thinks he is doing is not necessarily what he actually does. There is a disconnect between thoughts and actions. Add that to the fact that describing mechanics with words is very hard to do and you can see why its hard to have a debate on swing mechanics.

Secondly, there is so much unuseful advice given at lower levels and even some higher levels that a lot of time you don't know who to listen to. Coaches at lower levels undermine their credibility with unhelpful, confusing, or downright wrong cues that create skepticism in their players towards any future advice, even if it is sound.

Switching gears...
For me, when I make a "good" adjustment the effect IS immediate. A good adjustment never feels awkward or different. I don't believe that you can hit well and feel awkward at the same time. Most of the time when you feel awkward its because you are doing something wrong and have to overcome inefficiencies in your swing to get to the baseball.

When you think about it, why should there be a delay in results if the adjustment is towards more sound mechanics? It may take one pitch or two to get the mechanic correct, but after that you should have better results with a better swing. A better swing makes it easier to hit, so there shouldn't be an adjustment period where you have to "get used to" the new way. It's like if you are at the drag strip and upgrade your car with a bigger engine. You put the petal to the metal just the same, but the new engine always makes you go faster...from the first race, no adjustment period.

How do you ever get better?
By learning the proper mechanics and how they feel to you. You don't become a better hitter by challenging your athletic ability with worse mechanics. You get better by learning the major league pattern and adopting it into your swing. For me, improvements have always come in "AHA!" moments where all of a sudden something about the swing just comes into focus and I'm a better hitter, right at that moment.

The rest of hitting practice is fighting bad habits and ingraining good ones. I think a lot of hitting is just maintaining a good consistent swing, rather than improving on it. I will admit, I don't get better at hitting everyday. My goal is to not lose the good habits and get worse, and every so often make those good adjustments that improve my mechanics and make me think, "wow, that feels good, now THAT'S how I'm supposed to hit!"

greenmachine,
Interesting post, especially on adjustments having immediate results.
Maybe we are talking about different things, which is easy to do with hitting.
The impression I had from the original post is that the HS coach was remaking either the swing, the approach, or both. My guess is he is being asked to hit the ball further out in front to generate more power/more HR's.
That was the type of "adjustment" I was commenting on as being difficult, feeling awkward and taking time.
As one illustration, one of our son's friends in Milb was a 5th round pick after an all SEC year. During his second season in Milb, he was hitting .198 in late May. His swing was just too long and he was getting pounded inside by fastballs and could not adjust to good breaking balls with the long swing.
So, they went about remaking and shortening his swing and approach to the ball. I can tell you it was work, about 30 days worth of extra BP before and after every game, but finally he got it and ended up hitting close to .300 from July to September. That hitting coach salvaged his career.
There was nothing quick about the process and the player clearly had been highly successful at every step of his baseball career, until better pitching and wood exposed and found the holes that had been hidden.
Those situations happen more than we might think in college and in Milb.

infielddad


Just another major reason why HS and college should go to wood