Switch hitting

You may want to visit Switchhitting.com. Valuable resource. It is never to late to become a switch hitter.

4ThGen has always been a switch hitter. He was a right handed thrower so when he was 2 or 3 I had him swinging from the left side. It was easy for him to learn to hit right handed after that. It requires lots of work to keep two swings in shape and he prefers to hit left handed becasue he gets so many more at bats from that side. He hates to hit, even in BP against a same side thrower so I guess he'll always be a switcher.

One thing I've seen done that may help is to have a young kid just alternate at bats without regard to the pitcher.

quote:

Originally posted by Switchhitting:
You may want to visit Switchhitting.com. Valuable resource. It is never to late to become a switch hitter.

Thanks for the tip. But I'm not looking for "how to", I'm more interested in why. To substantiate my curiousity as to why it's so important, I looked at the rosters of 8 of the top 10 preseason Top 10 teams according to BA. From those 8 teams there are 295 players listed on the rosters. Of those 295 players, 12 are listed as switch hitters. That's only 4%. If it's SO important, why don't the top teams have many, if ANY switch hitters? Is it because they don't exist? Is it because they're not that good of a hitter from spending their time TRYING to learn to SH?

Beezer

Let me use my son as an example if I may

As a HS player he had great speed, 6.6/6.7, and was a superb right handed hitter--some suggested he be a switch-hitter because of his speed--- his answer was a simple "WHY?"--He hit .568 in his senior year in a huge school conference and with line drive power

If it aint broke why try and fix it-- just my thoughts

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
If it aint broke why try and fix it-- just my thoughts

I agree. But I hear many times about the importance/value of SH. Even on the switch hitting site mentioned above, in one of the "endorcements", a Texas College coach said how "every college coach prefers as SH" yet looking at the top 10 rosters, they don't have many.

My point, SH seem to be "****" but not very realistic.

The importance of switch hittng usually lies in the percentages. Remember that most pitchers are right handed. The righty arm angle is a little further away from a lefty hitter hence giving him a longer look at the pitch. I would say that optimally, your young righty may want to learn lefty and then if he's good, keep him on that side of the plate. Lots of rhh in college and in the minors, but they like those Lhh the most when they draft, based on talent of course.

Beezer,

At 13 y/o, you son is at a critical age when learning how to swing equally well on both sides of the dish.

I recall a 15 y/o, ten years ago around here, and mentioned to one of my best friends (Coach Gottlieb), that kid will be the best switch hitter (if he stays healthy) that ever played the game! And he just signed for $6M this year, and $9M next!

cheers
Bear

Thanks for the input. I'm still not convinced it's the best route to take but I'll give it some thought. More importantly, it's up to him to decide. Like I said, I'm trying to get a better understanding why everybody raves about them, yet nobody has them.

The only analogy I can think of is to share this story about my oldest. She's a golfer and finishing her sr year and being recruiting to play in college. One of the schools courting her made the comment in a letter along the lines of "we're looking for girls who shoot par". Not that the school was her top choice but it made her feel inferior. So we hopped on-line to check out their tournament stats and low and behold, their best golfer was averaging about 81, 82. Well no wonder why their only recruiting scratch golfers....because they don't have any!!!

And I understand because of the plethora of RH pitchers, coaches like LH hitters. But, using random numbers, wouldn't they prefer a RH that hits .450 versus a SH that hits maybe .300?

Like I mentioned in my earlier post, some of the schools had some L/R listed. So instead of being a SH, maybe they switched to LH at an earlier age. But that was only another 10-12 players. So on 8 of the top 10 teams, only 8% of the 295 players are SH or MAY have switched to LH (natural RH). Still not very convincing numbers to be to considering it. Sure, there are exceptions like Bear cited. But I think the vast majority of players are R/R or L/L.

And just to clarify, I'm not trying to position him to be drafted. We'll let the powers to be worry about THAT. I'm thinking more along the lines of HS and hopefully college.

I used to switch hit, but I realized that all I was doing was convincing myself that it was making me better, and that is the only reason why I hit well. I stopped switch hitting and I definattly don't regret it.

quote:

If it aint broke why try and fix it-- just my thoughts

TRhit

If I may, as a hitter, it is very difficult to hit from side of dominant eye. The left eye being dominant for RHH, the right eye for the LHH.

Also, as TR points out, if something is already working, why change it. Of course, some who have failed when progressing to higher levels of competition might beg to differ about complacent attitude.

Shep

I have studied this for a long time. I find that switch hitting will benefit really athletic youngsters, cause they generally have the balance, body control, and repeatable swing from atbat to atbat to maintain the consistency necessary to be successful.

Bear (above) is referring to Mark Texiera, Texas Rangers. When Mark came to my Astros tryout camp at the age of 15, his summer coach Jim McCandless told me that Texiera may end up being one of the greatest hitters to ever come out of MD. His observations were based on Mark's athleticism and the fact that his swing from either side of the plate looked like mirror images of each other.

I have coached a number of switch hitters over the years, some of them didn't start until they were 15 or 16. As a former gymnast myself, I found it very interesting that many of the kids who played for me who switch hit, also had a gymnastics background. I think we can all agree that gymnasts are terrific athletes with great body control.

Thanks again for the input everybody. I'll talk to him and see what he wants to do and will keep you posted.

Eye dominance doesn't necessarily follow whether the person is LH or RH. Most RH people are right eye dominant, but not all.

Perhaps the question for Beezer is "Can your son be as good a LH hitter as RH?" And that would take some time to determine. If so, then maybe rather than switch hitting he should just become a lefty. Closer to first base, easier to hit the RHP's curve. Another option.

Texan - excellent question regarding whether or not he can. He's a pretty solid RH hitter and currently going through some changes to be more effective at the plate. Like mentioned previously, he's "dabbled" with switch hitting but never really trained for it. I'm not sure how well a 13 yr old psyche takes the "Hey, forget how well you do the next couple years at the plate. You're only hitting LH" talk but he could probably handle it knowing what it might ultimately lead to. The problem as you pointed out though is how good would he be? No way to tell at this point and I guess the only way to find out is get in there and give it a shot. Or at least do both for now so he's still got a sense of security.

Also, I suggested that as a possibility in the stats I mentioned above; some of the players listed were L/R and probably WERE RH originally but switched to LH permanantly at some point.

My son and I have been over this question multiple times. He bats R but wishes that I had started him out hitting L when he was young. (Who knew then that baseball was going to become the dominant factor in his life!)

One of the books we read on hitting made the case that hitting is one of the few activities that is not controlled by genetics, but by repetition. According to this author (I wish I could remember who wrote it but my son took it with him to college ...) it takes 10,000 swings to convert from one side to the other. For a college player taking 300 swings per day, to be an effective switch hitter means not doing 150 from each side, but adding an additional 300 swings per day. That would be a lot of work no matter how you slice it.

My son decided he needed to get better where he was rather than trying to change or switch.

My son started out as a LH hitter but, by the age of 8, he had already started dabbling at switch-hitting. By about the age of 9 or 10, he was switch-hitting in every game. Frankly, at first I was very much against it because, starting from the LH side, he was already where most hitters would like to be. I heard of no one who started as a LH hitter who began to switch-hit.

However, he perservered, working on it largely by using a full-length mirror. He'd stand there for an hour at a time, watching his LH swing and then trying to duplicate it EXACTLY from the right side. Ultimately, He became very accomplished at it...in fact, I've not seen another player (in any of his age groups)do it as well (he's now a junior in HS). For years, now, his swings have been, quite literally, mirror-images of each other. Other kids I've seen who've SAID they're "switch hitters" seem to really mean that they're RH hitters who can bunt from the left side, or chop down enough on a ball from the left side to beat out an occasional infield hit. Personally, I don't consider that comparable or, in the long run, very worthwhile.

Down side: His hitting coach says it's literally twice as hard to become a proficient switch hitter. Just in practice, for example, if you'd ordinarily hit 100 balls off the tee in a practice session, as a switch hitter, you must hit 100 from EACH SIDE/EACH SESSION, or you've only done 1/2 as much practice as you'd have done hitting from just the one side...you can't get better that way. His point was, it's hard enough to develop AND MAINTAIN a good swing from ONE side, let alone, from BOTH sides.

Up side: I don't think this really showed up until he started regularly seeing good "breaking stuff." However, he now seems to have at least one important advantage over those who bat from only one side: The ability to stay locked and loaded in the batter's box. He will never be given to having his knees "buckle" on a late breaking ball that seems to break just over his elbow...on him, it will ALWAYS start outside, and it will ALWAYS break down and in. He can afford to just sit and wait on it.

Certainly, I'm no expert (unlike many on these boards), but it seems to me, if you're hitting .500 from one side or the other, like TR suggests, why mess with success? However, if you're a .270 hitter struggling with the breaking ball (particularly, getting "happy feet," where you find yourself tempted to "bail out") it may be worth a try. But, don't think it's going to be easy...

First of all let me take a minute to express my appreciation for this site and the poeple on it. I have been observing, reading and learning since I found it 1 1/2 years ago when my now HS junior son metioned at the end of his freshman year of varsity baseball the he wanted "to play baseball in college." It has been invaluable. This is my first post because i never reall had anything to add before.

i was a natural left handed hitter and right handed thrower. So is my son. i tried to switch hit college at my coaches request because i had real trouble with a left handed pitchers curve ball. it did not work for me and i tried to get my son to bat right handed on occassion when he first started play (t-ball at age 5) it felt "too different" and i did not push it. After failing to get any hits and half his strikeouts in his freshman year batting left-handed against left handed pitchers, he said OK i'm ready to work on batting right handed. That winter he practiced only on right handed hitting. When HS practice began in Feb. his sophomore year, he again practiced batting left handed and right handed equally. The HS coach let him bat right handed against left handed pitching during that season. Although he is still a better hitter left-handed than right, he has more confidence against left-handed pitchers.

So my take on this is, 13 is not too late to start switch hitting but if your son is not motivated to devote significant extra time to it, don't start.

quote:

Originally posted by TW344:
So my take on this is, 13 is not too late to start switch hitting but if your son is not motivated to devote significant extra time to it, don't start.

Thanks TW344. We talked about it briefly this weekend waiting for his turn in the cage. He didn't think he'd want to do it this year and ironically said "Don't you think it would be better for me to work on getting REALLY good as a RH hitter anyway?" Weird because I had never shared that thought with him. So for now, it looks like he's going to concentrate on RH. His swing has been changed from more of an uppercut swing to a down-cut swing. So he's got enough on his plate for now. Maybe he'll change his mind though.

I started my son batting lefty though he throws right handed.He then saw a tape of The Mick and asked what a switch hitter was and when I explained he decided he would learn right handed hitting as well.Keep in mind he was only 3 or 4 at the time.We always practiced from both sides of the plate but the biggest problem is the vastly larger number of right handed pitchers that they face in the younger years.And like anything else he became more confident as a lefty because he had more chances there.Last year he was made a full time lefty by his coach and has now had success and he has abandoned hitting righty.

Great topic that can be defended from either direction.

In a nutshell, my arguement against it is "why dilute the number of repetions you get by working both sides." I prefer to do all my work on the dominant side. Would make the same argument about learning to throw from both sides. I don't agree that there IS NOT a genetic link (dominant side) in hitting or any sporting endeavor. Not that you can't be trained to be proficient from either side (proficient, is different than all you can be!).

My right handed son (trained martial artist from 4yrs. on .. we train both sides as do gymnasts) can hit left handed better than many lefty's we see. However, after much consideration, we abandoned the switch hitting notion to concentrate and strengthen his "Strong side." He takes swings every session, though, from the left side to promote balanced body development & hopefully help prevent injury but not with the notion to compete that way.

As for same side pitching, righty's deal with it the most and aren't as affected it seems, as are lefty's. The 10,000 number of repetions to achieve a measure of proficiency, does have "legs" from a number of studies that considered much more than just sports. Now you need 20,000 to switch hit... WOW!

I don't for a minute, believe Hank Aaron, Roger Hornsby, Clemente or any number of HOF rightys , would have been better off switch hitting.

Now I might answer differently, for a slap hitting, speedster as getting him nearer to 1B makes sense. He's not ever going to use all his genetic advantages in a kinetic, power generating swing anyway ... so not as big a deal in my mind. I wonder if the dominant righty great Switchers; Mantle, Robinson, may not have put up even better numbers if they had stuck with their dominant side?