my son has a new coach at his high school. his summer ball coach is a former major league player and scout - his report on technique for him was that his mechanics were sound and he only needed to get bigger and stronger. His style (from the research we've done) is a rotational hitting style. His idol is Ted Williams and he has watched and internalized "the Science of Hitting" over and over. Here's the dilemma - Cant really tell whats going on, but it appears that the coach teaches linear hitting, his approach is to "punch the ball" and he has this drill we've never seen before where the player hits the ball and then immediatly swings the bat backward with the notion that it will strengthen wrists. What its doing to my son is change the arc of his swing and eliminating the hip rotation and causing him to roll his wrists at contact. Now, this may be a drill that will help him, but we dont see it, and more importantly my son feels is harming him and causing him to begin popping up. Here's the question - how should he deal with this with the coach? How can we know whether this is a good thing for him? He's been in hitting camps for 5 years including college camps and we've never seen a drill like this one. Anyone with any experience with this or advice for this situation?

The problem with many Coaches is, if you don't do what they say to do they will punish you with a lack of playing time.........

So, you certainly do have a dilemna......From my experience, no matter what decision you make, I would let the player deal with the Coach....

it isn't our intention at all to interfere or to deal with the Coach - but our son has asked for help in the situation. He's a very coachable kid (per all of his previous coaches) , but he's been taught to be his own coach and do the thing that he thinks is right for him. this is one of those life situations where you learn how to address a difficult situation - baseball is full of those!

Hittersmon,
Rolling the wrists almost never causes popping up as the barrel rises as the wrist roll; ground balls is the normal result. Something else is probably going on such as the swing's arc that you mention. Is the coach preaching hitting down at the ball...if so, you can get alot of popup from that.

Never heard of this drill in over 50+ years being around this game. Can't imagine it meeting the desired purpose without causing other problems. Sounds like a drill a coach dreamed up in his head as something that "might strengthen the wrists".

Real problem is that the coach is just that..the coach. Ignoring the coach has it's own set of problems. Your son can just use his normal swing all the time and shrug off the coach to a degree....he had better produce results with his normal swing consistently.

I would advise your son to at least talk to the coach first about hitting philosophy and drills; also have the coach look at your son's swing and see if this coach is on the same page at the summer coach. Not an easy situation if the coach is stuck on "his way or the highway" instead of results on the field. Good luck.

Ask your son to ask this question after he gets on a one on one level with your coach.

Ask if a player has worked on rotational hitting style, does he want the player to change over to linear style of hitting?



drill

I would saying being a player and having this situation before, i would just work with it for a while. Usually, the overall change is for the better, while only at the time it seems to worsen the swing. However, if it is really affecting to his swing in games, then thats a tough one, but when his AB comes around go back to the original swing, i know it sounds really risky, but if he hits who can complain?

BUT THIS MAY APPLY HERE ALSO:
The one things that i have found being a High School aged player and playing on 3 teams over the course of the baseball season, and having 2 different coaches, is the conflicting advice. My coaches however, and lucky for me, are both very good people and One coach player MLB and the other played AAA and both separated by nearly a decade and a half of playing at those levels. So really i get two philosophies of the game and so it gets more knowledge into my head. But when they conflict advise, and this separates a good coach from a mediocre coach, is that one calls the other and asks what they have been working and they work out the contradiction. I dont think that this is an option in you situation, but if it is, just recommend it to your coach to call a past hitting coach.

This is a tough situation with many possible solution and I bid you good luck with it and a hopefully you will see a great outcome of the situation in the hitting department!

Good luck with everything... I'd hate to be in such a situation...

Last year my son's travel coaches tried to change my son's swing. He had been a very good hitter the year before, but tried to accomodate their teachings, the result being a poor year of hitting. To some extent I blame myself because I wasn't staying on top of the situation and took for granted that these coaches knew what they were doing. This year we started early reconstructing what had been a good swing, and the results look promising so far. We'll see what happens when he starts playing the regular season.

I have heard people who presumably know their stuff advise that kids caught in this situation smile at the coach and say 'yes sir', and then go back to their regular swing. Of course this only works if the kid has a good swing to begin with. Coaches can't ignore results.

My guy has done a drill for years with his hitting coach, it is called "dynamic pepper".

The instructer soft tosses the ball to the hitter. In one sequense the hitter is to make contact and freeze. The ball should he "sharply hit and jump off the bat.

Next, he will hit the ball and at contact "retract" the bat sharply, again if the ball is well hit it will jump off the bat.

Next the hitter will do a acomplete swing without using his legs, just upper half.

Lastly the player will make a complete swing.

The drill is adjusted with ball placement for inside pitches, middle and outside.

The drill will definately build wrist and forearms. My Son has worked harder doing "dynamic pepper" drills, then all other drills combined.

One major purpose of the drill is to speed up the hands. Carefull attention is paid to the front shoulder staying closed for a split second longer. The coach wants to see the hands go first.

My Son has had great success with this drill and is well respected for his hitting abilities.
Do not confuse this with a purely linear approach though.

Even when he is indicating to "punch the ball" he is really telling your son to "explode on the ball at contact". The rotational follow through is equally important, but he probably wants your son to drive the ball hard based on the location of the pitch.

If you wish to see my Son who has worked with these techniques for 3-4 years a video of him can be seen at www.getmynameout.com/ericgrabe.

BTW:My Son was a very good hitter before begining these drills. The drills have only made him significantly better. They were odd and uncomfortable and tiresome at first. But they work.

The Instructor played MLB for 10+ years and was in the World Series. He has worked with a large number of players that currently play MLB now and has taught for about 20 years.

I told my son that each coach will emphasize something different and/or teach differently. I also told him to give each new thing a decent effort and see the results or lack thereof. As you can see, the responses vary to your question. I like some of floridafan's response and he puts what the coach has said in a good light. What I don't understand is how one drill is causing your son to change so many things. I would recommend getting him to a batting cage on the weekend so he can straighten out his swing and get his old form back. If you can't do that then do wiffles. Is it possible to get with his summer coach on the weekends if he can't straighten this out himself?

Tim Robertson

I want to thank everyone for all of the thoughtful responses. My son has read them all...and BTW the drills from FloridaFan sounded interesting, but thats not what these were about. We were all very concerned about the situation but it seems to have worked itself out. My son somehow has managed to avoid doing the drills he felt were harmful, and spent extra time in the cages working on the basics with the other coaches. The coach stopped trying to get him to do the other drills and started talking to him about some minor adjustments and some fundamentals and they are now at a place of mutual respect. And he parked one out the first game.

quote:

Originally posted by hittersmom:
I want to thank everyone for all of the thoughtful responses. My son has read them all...and BTW the drills from FloridaFan sounded interesting, but thats not what these were about. We were all very concerned about the situation but it seems to have worked itself out. My son somehow has managed to avoid doing the drills he felt were harmful, and spent extra time in the cages working on the basics with the other coaches. The coach stopped trying to get him to do the other drills and started talking to him about some minor adjustments and some fundamentals and they are now at a place of mutual respect. And he parked one out the first game.

Congrats! It was a tough position he was in, glad it worked out for you guys, they don't always turn out so positive.

quote:

Originally posted by hittersmom:
...And he parked one out the first game.

Fantastic! Hopefully the coach will move on to other hitters, as he has obviously already corrected your son's flaws