I have hit him w/ the tennis balls. We even play a game where I let him try to hit me. (Of course, his smirk when he's about to try gives him away. )

But as he says "Dad, of course I'm not afraid of the tennis balls; they don't hurt!".

Time for some toughening up lessons!

Sandman

quote:

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Would it be cruel of me to convince him to just let ME plonk him a few times? Like once or twice per practice session? Learn to realize that it just doesn't hurt THAT much?

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I wouldn't go there, because it DOES hurt. Just keep pitching, he's very athletic and he'll figure it out. DON'T SWEAT IT!! He's fine. If it makes you feel any better Boomer (who is afraid of nothing) looked just like that until he got used to it. Don't make a thing out of it. It will take care of itself with reps. More reps is all that he needs! IMO.

R.

You can always do what my old LL coach did... If he bails like a "sissy" make him do pushups.

I wouldn't hit him. Like many others have said I believe he'll get over the fear and no matter what you do he's the one that will have to make up his mind to quit being afraid. Failure at the plate will help him with this decision believe me. Just get him reps and try to limit the discussion around fear.

It's amazing what happens to the mind when you try not to think about the things you're constantly talking about.

Jason

I finally shot some video today of 10 year old Boomer:



Comments appreciated.

Thanks Ross.

Ross,

I usually type away too quickly after seeing a swing. This morning I watched for a good 10 minutes the animated gif you posted.

I see the problem at launch. He appears to have a Bonds like top hand torque thing going on at first but he isn't pulling it off....few can. Bonds pumps, flattens the bat and raises it back up to a higher launch point at toe touch ...Boomer doesn't. Look at his lead arm at toe touch. It is too straight. Also launches way to low...see hand height at launch compared to this clip

http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/tejadaside.mpeg

This hands are moving to the ball with the hips frame by frame . The hips need to turn through ahead of the hands to get torque. In order to do this his hands must stay back and lead elbow bent going into toe touch.

http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/L._Gonzalez03.mpeg


I say bent because we want a circular hand path around the spinal axis. His hands are going outside /in and his head/front shoulder is pulling the bat. That is a cardinal sign of no hip/shoulder separation and a slow bat. His bat needs to stay centered and his shoulder loaded ( point of elbow behind belly button with a bent lead elbow until toe touch). A short radius swing is launched with a bent front elbow and a centered bat . It optimises the x angle effortlessly.

http://www.skilltechnologies.com/XFactorStretch.htm



Jason has a CD with sequence of the upper body loading and arrows pointing from front toe to rear toe. Maybe he could make a GIF to show this basic concept.

Boomers swing can get simpler and better. He has pretty good lower body mechanics but the upper body is working against it. Gwynn said that " every batter must come to a high cocked position when the front foot touches the ground"
Boomers' upper body positon at toe touch is the culprit IMO...such it is with most people

quote:

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Originally posted by swingbuster:
I see the problem at launch. He appears to have a Bonds like top hand torque thing going on at first but he isn't pulling it off....few can. Bonds pumps, flattens the bat and raises it back up to a higher launch point at toe touch ...Boomer doesn't. Look at his lead arm at toe touch. It is too straight. Also launches way to low...see hand height at launch compared to this clip

http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/tejadaside.mpeg

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Swingbuster

After watching the clips last night with Boomer, we saw exactly what you pointed out with regard to the hands being too low at launch and also discussed the hip/shoulder separation for more power. We went to the tee and bag in the garage and worked on both for a while. We are headed to the park again today and will film some more. Thanks for your input.

Ross.

Sandman

Thanks for the clips. It makes it very easy for Boomer to see exactly what Swingbuster is referring to. Also, third party sources give dad a little more credability!!

Thanks Ross.

Note: Without the video, it is hard to see what is going on with the swing from the mound. Particularly when he is pounding the ball off the fence. His goal is to get the most power possible and we both feel that with his size and frame he should be putting more over the fence and not just into it. He is loving this!

Thanks again!

Swingbuster suggested that I add to this pic to show the relation of the bat's sweet spot to the hitter's body.

Sandman ...again great service to those who are working at it. Great opportunity to discuss what happens to the sweet spot when the arm bars out instead of staying bent...you get an unintented lowering of the sweet spot on the bat. If I raise an ax above my head and drop it into a log and you raise one 1/2 the way up then mine will have more force. This has not been shown or discussed anywhere to my knowledge. Group efforts at HSBBWEB are useful and will help kids. Thanks for your efforts to keep the focus where it belongs.

Glad to help swingbuster.

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