Throws right, but batting left-handed?

No its not weird at all. I have seen alot of kids that throw right and hit left. Usually they are very good hitters as well. It is nothing to be concerned about thats for sure.

I kick myself in the butt for not having my son hit lefty when he was younger.

By the way, I have 4 kids on my son's team who bat left/throw right.

Agree with Coach May and redbird.

The weird thing would be if he was a natural lefty and batted righty.

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Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you don't have a leg to stand on.

This has a lot to do with theories about the dominent eye and then, naturally, they have to have some skill from that side. If I can, I would make one suggestion if your son pitches, get an elbow protector or at least have them wear some rubber sleeve on their elbow. Your son might come under some criticism but then again, their throwing elbow will not be exposed to injury at the plate.

"There comes a time when you have to stop dreaming of the man you want to be and start being the man you have become." Bruce Springsteen

All sorts of interesting combinations are out there. My father does one-handed tasks (eat, write, etc.) right-handed. He does two-handed tasks (golf for example) left-handed. My older brother is the opposite. My second son does everything right-handed except two things: he throws left and he shoots a basketball left-handed. Everything else such as batting, writing, eating is right-handed. Go figure that one out!

I dont know if any of you have seen this one but I did a couple of years ago at a AAU tourney my son was in. Kid is in left field throws from the right side. Gets up first time hits from the left side. Later in the game goes into pitch and changes gloves and pitches left handed. The very next game toes the hill and throws from the right side and hits from the right side. The crazy thing is his mechanics were fairly good both righty and lefty from the hill. He didnt exactly throw gas from either side but he threw pretty decent. He hit well from both sides of the plate. I had to do a double take on this one. Craziest thing Ive seen.

Thanks for your replies. I just wondered if having two boys showing the same characteristics at the plate was interesting. I know his coach is thrilled to see him go left. On his jr. high team there are no left-handed pitchers and only one other lefty batter. When my oldest was playing in high school(for the same coach), their team was blessed with 3 lefties. The coach enjoyed putting every other batter a lefty in the top of the line-up. Now on the high school team he has no left-handed pitchers or batters.
CoachB, my son is a catcher. He tried some pitching last summer but didn't really like it. He prefers being behind the plate. Thanks for the advice on the sleeve.

"Every member of our baseball team at West Point became a general; this proves the value of team sports." --General Omar Bradley

Nothing can be better than a kid that throw right and hit left. As a righty he will have more positions to play, an as a lefty hitter will be more appresiated.

"Peace is, the respect for the other people's rights".
Benito Juarez

quote:

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Originally posted by FrankF:

The weird thing would be if he was a natural lefty and batted righty

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I'm a natural lefty and I bat righty. Once there were three of us on the same team.

I may be wrong, but here is my understanding of the whole situation. One, look at some of the best major league hitters of all time, George Brett, Rod Carew, Carl Yastremski and others. All of them right-handedthrowers and "left-handed" hitters. Two, in analyzing the swing, which hand is the most important? The bottom or top hand? Most hitting theory I have run across is that although the top hand plays a role, the bottom hand is somewhat more important and for a right-handed person that occurs when hitting "left-handed" or vice-versa for a left-handed person. So why is "right-handed" hitting called right-handed? My understanding is that it comes from the early days of the game when hitters were hit by pitches more often or there was a fear of getting hit on the throwing arm more often that led to hitters to hit from a side of the plate that protected their throwing arms and not from the side of the plate that made the most biomechanical sense. The batting "right-handed" or "left-handed" is merely a traditional labeling (still maintained by a lot of coaches) that is not based on biomechanics or modern hitting theory!!!

our youngest son is a lefty hitter but throws right and has been since t-ball also...we tried to get him to switch, but he does not like to hit right handed...hitting lefty was his recruiting strong point...the schools didn't seem to care what position he played but that he was a lefty batter...btw, had the highest BA for our hs team this season...he also shoots lefty as does my husband...think it is a dominant eye thing

6 out of 12 of our LL all-star team hit left handed. Only two throw left handed.

I think its genetics in our family, I bat left throw right as does my sister, mother, 2 uncles, as well as both of my grandfathers and great grandfather when they played. My father is the only R/R in the family basically. My son is three and appears at this point to be a l/r.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by InfieldMom:
My oldest son threw righty, but from the first bat in t-ball he naturally batted left. He was a power hitting lefty, but no power right-handed. Fast forward to youngest son(14 years old). He has always batted righty until this past summer. He is a huge fan of Mantle and toyed with the idea of switch-hitting. His coach said it was worth a try because he had picked up some awful looking mechanics right-handed. Wow his swing was perfect left-handed. This spring his coach has told him stay lefty. He is hitting curves and making great contact from the left side.
Is this something weird or he has been a natural left-handed hitter all along? My oldest would sometimes go right to work on mechanics and then back left. It worked for him.

Infield Mom,

One of the biggest misconceptions in baseball is that batting is a "handed" activity. Throwing is, but batting is not at all. Batting is akin to chopping a tree with an ax--think about it. People just seem to assume that batting is handed. What is important in determing batting is the dominant eye. About 85% of people's dominant eye is the same side as their handedness, i.e., most righthander's dominant eye is their right eye and lefthander's, their left eye. The dominant eye should be closest to the pitcher, allowing them to "see" the ball clearly from the time it leaves the pitcher's hand. If the dominant eye is the right eye, they should bat left. If it's the left eye, they should bat right.

Players who have batted one side or the other and switch will complain that it doesn't "feel right" and the conception will become that the side they batted on was their "natural" side. Not so! They've just become accustomed to that side. A player 12 years old and older who switches to the other side needs roughly about 10,000 swings to become as good as the original side... and from that point will become better. A rule of thumb is that players batting left will almost always progress one level higher (according to their ability) than they would have batting right. Look at many coach's sons--a disproportionate number bat left. That should be a telling sign.

Another poster here said what would be weird is if a player was a lefthander and batted right. That would be Ricky Henderson.

It's a tough myth to dispel, but the truth is that batting has nothing to do with handedness. Throwing does, but batting does not.

One thing that will help a young player in batting is to get him or her a tee... but don't put a baseball or softball on it. A kid's natural inclination is to try to get a dramatic result and therefore they'll many times develop an uppercut swing to get that result. Instead, place a volleyball or basketball on the tee and I think you'll find they'll figure out the right swing automatically, i.e., keeping the weight back, etc. They'll have to to be able to drive the ball. Just make sure the tee is at their front foot instead of equidistant between their feet as they are wont to do, and you won't have to tell them a thing--they'll figure out the right swing on their own. Try it and see what you think.

Hope this helps.

Blue skies...

Ive seen many kids throw right handed and bat lefty, but never seen someone throw left handed and bat right handed (that isnt a switch hitter) But it is quite common for right handed batters to switch hit and then drop the right hand side and hit soley from the left.