Is Switch-Hitting of Value?

Great question, to which I do not have a definitive answer. I agree with your point on breaking balls, and it is tough to be in a platoon as a right-handed hitter. I guess the question is what do you give up by not hitting from your natural side, and if you are a right-hander hitting left-handed, are you going to lose your ability to be effective from the right side?

Great question.

You normally see switch-hitting when they batter is a natural righty, it's a bit more rare when he's a natural lefty.

You also wonder how much time he's loosing getting out of the box and down the line when he bats righty. If he's a burner, he has obvious advantages hitting from the left side, but if he has average speed, the loss of time getting out of the box isn't as important.

I'd say let him keep his options open and continue to work on both, particularly in HS. Once he hits college, his college coach may move him full time to his stronger side, but there's not a really good reason to force him to stop switch-hitting now (unless he starts to struggle).

Obviously, he's going to need extra work in the cage to keep both swings grooved during the upcoming season. It will take an extra commitment on his part.

I don't have an answer to this excellent question, but I am very interested in hearing from those who do.

My 14 year old son is a catcher, very strong defensive skills. I brought him up batting lefty (he golfs right handed, throws right of course).

In the last few years he has started to switch hit. He is better from left, but he can hit from the right side. He has only had about a dozen in-game at bats from the right side, and got I think 5 hits. (He's about a .500 hitter from left). He is more comfy from left, and it was his practice last season when batting righty to switch to left if he got two strikes.

Last year he took some at bats against lefties from the left side, and late in the season while doing so he waved at a real nasty curve ball from one of the better lefty pitchers for strike three and told me "I'm going to commit to batting right all the time against lefties."

We are just starting pre-season hitting practice now, and he is really working on his right side swing.

So, I am VERY interested. Is it worth it? Is it considered a real plus if the kid can truly hit from both sides?

I feel that switch hitting is only valuable if you are good at it.......most of the major leaguers who were real good switch hitters started when they were very young like kb2610's son has.The only difference that his boy has from the big leaguers that have succeeded is that he is a natural lefty and all the guys I can think of that were real good were natural right handers.

You will get about 80% of your AB's from the left side, so if you change a boy over who is in his teens, he could struggle a lot. If you start him out switch hitting as a little guy, he will have the chance to progress along normally.

My opinion is that they should start at a real young age or not at all.

kb2610,

Welcome. Excellent well thought out question.

I’m looking to hear what others have to say as I am in a similar situation.

Both my oldest son who is 16 as well as my 12 year old is a switch hitter. They have hit from both sides since they were old enough to swing a bat. However if left to their own devices at that age, they both would have just hit right. My youngest is 6 and I left him as just a lefty since that is what he is naturally.

My two oldest have always alternated hitting right and left each at bat until my oldest got to high school. Now he bats according to the hand of the pitcher.

There were times along the way when the oldest would have rather batted righty because he had more power and could hit the ball over the fence easier. I told him I wouldn’t allow it and he could be mad at me then but he’d be thanking me later. And that’s what he now does.

It has served them well because they are willing to work on it and they have received good instruction. A couple times along the way I told them that it might be a little easier and they wouldn’t have to work twice as hard if they would just hit one way. It seemed to make them work even harder.

Having said this, I would recommend that unless there is a unique situation, I’d have kids just hit one way and lead it to be left handed from the beginning.

There really isn’t a big advantage facing a pitcher’s off hand until college. Until then, you generally don’t face many lefties and most high school pitchers really don’t have enough movement or velocity to make as big a difference.

While it is certainly easier for most players to face the off handed pitching and it is tempting for a player to want to switch hit when they first see breaking balls.

If they have not switch hit from the beginning, I believe they would be do themselves a better service by staying with their original swing. As a lefty sees more lefties, they will learn how to hit them.

Ask the kid if they were to become a switch hitter if they would work twice as hard. Of course they will say yes. In that event tell them that if they were willing to work twice as hard but not switch-hit, the odds are they will be a better hitter against all pitchers.

Now if the kid is a burner, they should consider hitting lefty but they should have considered this a long time before this.

If you can do it do it. Just one more reason for the coach to put you in the lineup

Left hand hitters have an advantage. (More RHPs)

While being a "good" switch hitter is a big plus, I think you've answered your own question.

I know it's just an assumption, but if a hitter hits .400 from the left side... He's a .400 hitter. If he hits .330 from both sides... He's a .330 hitter. Of course, that's just taking today into account when the most important thing is the future.

There are a lot of right hand throwers who hit left or switch hit. Not so many left hand throwers who hit right or switch hit. Best of luck.

Absolutely!-- a coach at a major univ. said he would take a switchhitter over one side every time if given the chance. Switchhitting.com

Simply put, no hitter will ever reach their potential if they switch-hit......Right-handed pitcher or left-handed pitcher, who cares?.......Can you hit?.....Or not?.....

BlueDog:

How about this: Left hand batter averages .400, but is .500 against righties and .200 against lefties.

Wouldn't it make sense to switch against the lefties?

I can draw on my own experience

My son was RH and ran like a jackrabbit and they talked about him switchhitting and he said NO-- he felt that he saw more RHP's that LHP but he was so used to them it meant nothing to him-- AND he was afraid of screwing up what he was doing as a RH.

It is all a mindset--he just wasn't comfortable with hitting from the left side -- for him the negatives outweighed the positives

It also means double time in BP

Baseball is such a mental thing. You can't predict any single player based on "the averages". Look at the player. Look at his success. Don't assume. It may be good for some, bad for others. "Conventional Wisdom" is for the conventional person and your son may not be a "conventional" ball player.

But, IMHO (well I have trouble at times with the "H" part, but a lot of posters on this board do) don't make a decision based on any recommendation you read on this topic. Get to a good hitting instructor and let him guide your progression.

Thanks for the responses!!!

Blue Dog and Rob K, you both make good points. I've never kept actual stats on my son to be able to compare him from side-to-side. Who knows, if he concentrated on the left side, facing lefties as a left-handed hitter, he may have hit .270, and not EVEN the .330 he hit last season. If he faced a lefty's curve as a left-handed hitter NOW, never really having seen one from there before, his legs might not just buckle...he might fall down! At this stage of his career, the "die is cast" and he sort of is where he is.

My question was more one of: Does a college coach see any additional value to a switch hitter, or is it strictly (as Blue Dog suggests)a numbers game. If there is no perceived value to the "skill" of switch-hitting (and no switch-hitter reaches their "hitting potential" as Blue Dog states), is it a mistake to start? If there IS some value, what might it be? Overall, is it worth it?

This discussion launches me into another topic I'll keep in this forum, but which I'll start under a different thread: "Specialist" v. "Generalist."

To be more specific to your question. Being able to hit from both sides of the plate is certainly another weapon in a players arsenal if it results in the player hitting better than a comparable player.

Just being a left handed hitter playing up the middle could differentiate a player also since most are not.

My 11u is working on it. He and I have an agreement....if he plays in the neighborhood with his friends, he will hit LH. (He had a bad habit of trying to lift everything when he hit RH with his pals.) With all of his LH swings, he has gotten pretty good from that side of the plate. This is something he wanted to try and know he views it as a challenge.

Last fall, we let him hit LH in games and he went 2 for 2 against some weaker pitching. He wants to keep working on it and understands that he has to work harder than everyone else to master it. We'll see how it works out.

My main concern is that he is a natural RHH. 80% of his ABs (if he were to switch hit) would come from his unnatural side.

"BlueDog:
How about this: Left hand batter averages .400, but is .500 against righties and .200 against lefties.
Wouldn't it make sense to switch against the lefties?"

Rob, I guess so......But, I don't see the relevance to what I said.....

quote:

Simply put, no hitter will ever reach their potential if they switch-hit......Right-handed pitcher or left-handed pitcher, who cares?.......Can you hit?.....Or not?.....

BlueDog:
It seemed to me that your response implied that switch hitting would hinder a player's ability to reach his potential, and that it doesn't matter which side a batter is on, the question is simply: "can he hit".

I was trying to point out that the question "can he hit" might very well be "yes and no." That is, yes, he can hit lefty against righty, but maybe not as well left against lefty.

In which case, it could very well make sense to switch, if he will do better against lefties.

So I was wondering, if this is indeed the case, does this benefit outweigh whatever detriment you believe comes from trying to switch, as far as reaching potential as a hitter.

Rob, I believe everyone has a strong side.....Find that strong side and spend all your practice time developing your swing from that side.......Left or right handed pitchers don't concern me.....Develop your bat quickness so you can hit speed......Then, you will have time to look at pitches longer.......

An MLB hitting instructor asked my switch hitting son: How many cuts a day do you take from each side? Now, how much better could you be if you took all those cuts from the left side, instead of splitting them?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by BlueDog:
Simply put, no hitter will ever reach their potential if they switch-hit.


Why not?

Because your strong side will not develop as it should.......

Why not?

This is a great question. I still don't think we have found a definitive answer, especially from a scouts point of view. I started my son off in T-ball batting left handed (does everything else right) only because I needed someone with power hitting to RT field. This turned out to be a blessing when I started teaching him the rotational swing because he was able to pull with his strong side vs overpowering with his backside. He is now wanting to start learning how to bat right (I let him play around in the batting cages right handed and he does pretty good). I have told him no for now (he is only 11). I told him if he can perfect the swing he has now he can pursue switch hitting. Well he is getting pretty **** good at his swing right now, so I don't know if I can hold him off any longer with his ambitions. I am curious, just as many of you are, does it pay off in the long run to teach them to switch hit. Most successfull switch hitters I can think of are not what I would consider pure-hitters. Meaning, can hit for both power (number one priority for my son) and average. I know some of them can carry a 300+ average against so pretty good talent but don't have the best slugging percentage in the world. I think I would lean more towards having a higher slugging percentage and close to the same average from just batting from the left side. Is this wrong or would he be more marketable if he switch hit?

KC

He is only more marketable as a SW if he is good at doing it.

Thre is more to it than just being a switchhitter--- how well does he run? contact? power?

Whether a player switch hits or not he has to be a GOOD HITTER?

KC Dad, you're absolutely correct.....It's about reaching your potential as a hitter......

Ted Williams said everyone has a side they will hit better from.........Their strong side.....He didn't mention pitchers when saying this, neither........

TR,
I understand what you are saying about the other variables in being a good offensive player but that being said let me put it in a little different way.
I think I put my son already in the best position for getting to first by just being a lefty hitter ... his speed will increase as he grows older but I don't think that is really a consideration in my scenario. To use an example given earlier, if my boy could had a .400 AVG, hit .500 on RHP and only .200 on LHP and had a slugging pct. of .800 would it be better than a kid that had a .400 AVG, hitting .400 from both sides but only had a .600 sluggin pct. The reason I am asking it like this is because I strongly believe that if I allow him to learn to swing from the RT side he will inevitably lose something from his swing LT side (power specifically). Maybe not loose anything but inhibiting him from perfecting the swing from the LT side and his stats would not be what they could be from that side. So which would you rather see as a scout, Kid A or Kid B.

Anyone can answer this by the way, not just TR

KC

I want the kid who is a solid hitter --it matters not whether he is righty or lefty

I like to think that , as in my own sons case, if it ain't broke do not try to fix it

Most of us have played baseball at a high enough level to know that if if we are a righty, we had more success against lefties. If we could have turned around and had equal success against righties, we would have been a better hitter.

Shouldn’t be any argument here so I find it silly for some to question whether a switch hitter has an advantage and especially over only batting right.

So the real question is whether a player can find a way to be an equally good hitter from both sides and do so with being as good from their stronger side as if they weren’t switch hitting.

One thing is that you need a player to do is to start switch-hitting as soon as possible so they never consider one way their better side. I already mentioned in an earlier thread that I had my two oldest sons alternate swings from the time they could swing a bat, which was probably around 2 years old. They never knew of anything different.

Texan mentioned a coach told him that a player could instead take twice as many swings from one side if they weren’t a switch-hitter. I also mentioned this in an earlier post. While it sounds good in theory, there are only so many swings a player should take before their arms get tired and their fundamentals start breaking down. When this happens a player should quit but a switch-hitter would just switch to the other side.

My conclusion is that while in theory there is an advantage to being a switch-hitter, very, very few players would be able to do what it takes to turn it into the advantage it should be so they should hit from one side and preferably that side would be left.

My oldest is a switch hitter, naturally a righty, and learned when he was 9 or 10 years old. When he played s****r, he kicked as well from the left as he did from the right and when he played football, he kicked field goals with both feet. Freshman year he hit 3 homeruns, 2 from the left side and 1 from the right. Had the teams best slugging percentage so I don't think switch hitting hurt his averages. But all of this he did on his own. He chose to learn hitting from the left side because it felt right as with s****r and football. No disrespect KC_Dad, but why were you worried about someone hitting for power to right field in Tball? I think maybe your son wants to hit from the right side because it feels good or perhaps natural. I also wouldn't worry about being marketable when he is only 11, let him learn and develop at his own rate but more importantly, let him have fun. My 11 year old said he wanted to try batting lefty like his older brother so we said go for it. Has had fun trying and who knows what he'll do as he gets older. JMHO, if he thinks hitting righty would be fun or he really wants to work on hitting from the right side, let him. You can worry about the rest of the stuff when he gets older.

I understand the point about just needing to be a good hitter. My son reached the "fork-in-the-road" and decided to switch hit. I always thought he demonstrated a unique ability in that regard...something that distinguished him from the "rank-in-file." My question wasn't whether we should/shouldn't have let him do it in the first place, or whether we should now make him give up right-handed hitting...rather, I wanted to know whether college coaches consider it a skill to which they ascribe some additional value...assuming it is done well. In other words, is it a skill that is marketable and worth adding to his baseball "resume?" It seems many here feel that it's probably not...a .330 hitter is a .330 hitter is a .330 hitter. The fact that one does it from both sides and another from just one isn't a serious consideration.

Heck, I'm not even sure the left side IS his "dominant" side. When he first started to swing a bat and throw (don't laugh) at about 18 months...he squared off from the left side. If I put a ball in his left hand, he threw it. If I put a ball in his right hand, he transferred it to his left and threw it. However, as I described him in the "generalist v. specialist" thread, he's as close to ambidextrous as I've personally seen. I DO know he's "right-eye dominant"...we discovered that when he started skeet/trap-shooting.

Only have one thing to add....

kb2610 ... you've started two of the better threads we've had lately. I'm glad you decided to start posting!!!!!!

I Ditto what HiHardHeat wrote,

Good post kb2610,

How's this for ambidextrous and strange.

My oldest son throws a baseball left handed, but if you give him any ball larger than a softball he’ll naturally throw it left.

You can watch him play shortstop one day and the next watch him QB left handed.

He would have thrown left but when he was a baby, he picked up my right handed glove and started using it.

Thanks, HHH and SBK, that's very nice of you to say. I have a much to learn and this site has given me a chance to ask you kind and knowledgeable people for information not readily available to me.

hitting is a work of art. i have been a switch hitter now for about 2 years. what i have noticed about myself and about my friends that are switchies, is that u have much better technique from ur new hitting side compared to ur original hitting side. when u start out just being a righty or a lefty, u try to hit the ball so hard. u want to hit a homerun everytime. when u start froma new side, u start with the basics and work on technique not power. when u look at ur kid hitting the ball from both sides, look at the strength and head movement he has. most likely the new side will will have better technique btu the original side will have more power

SBK

Are you tryimng to befuddle and confuse us?

I quote from you above Post:

"My oldest son throws a baseball lefthanded, but if you give him any ball larger than a softball he'll naturally throw it left"

Am I reading that right?

TR,

I did not try to befuddle you this time on purpose so let me try again. (I mean to get it right, not to befuddle you)

You are reading it right. I did not write it right. It should have been right.

I'll go back and edit it and make it right. Right handed that is.


I should have wrote... "My oldest son throws a baseball righthanded, but if you give him any ball larger than a softball he'll naturally throw it left"

I think switch-hitting is a tremendous value. I believe the reason to switch hit is the curve ball. The ball breaks towards you versus away from you. Also, many times you will see the righty lefty thing going on with pitchers and hitters, and this doesn't work for switch hitters because they can hit either way. I do believe that they generate more power from one particular side of the plate (which ever is the dominate hand), but being a great switch hitter is rare. Eddie Murray comes to mind, Pete Rose, but very few and far between.