Posted by: Coach C () on Sat Apr 26 18:30:01 2003

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> > > My son is right-handed but always hit left, and I can definitely say that for years his top arm being the weaker one resulted in problems in pulling a pitch. Conversely, his stronger, bottom arm resulted in him being able to go to the opposite field & with power better than any youth player I have ever seen.
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> > I know the feeling and feel he is better to be in that catagory then to be pulling pitches and not the ability to go the other way, especially batting from the left side.
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> > Good Luck!!
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> I agree. He had an advantage when he was younger because pitchers were taught to pitch all hitters outside. Now that he has learned to pull, if and when he plays again (he is out of action, recovering from an acl reconstrution), he will be seeing more pitching inside, but he will be ready.On the other hand, it is a lot harder for someone to learn how to go the other way.
> You mentioned switchhitting...it's too late for my son now (he's age 20 & in college), but I regret that I didn't have him learn switchhitting at a young age....since he was already a natural right-hander, the transition would have been much easier than for someone who is a natural righthander to learn how to bat left (two completely different hitting systems).


Quick story.........A friend of mine has a Son who does everthing in the world right-handed......eats, writes, hits, throws footballs, throws frisbees, golfs, bowls, etc.....I mean everything. Except for one thing...he pitches baseballs left-handed. He might be the best pitcher in the state for his age. When the boy was two....the Dad saw that his Son was right-handed and told him to only throw baseballs left-handed....The End. (The Dad wanted his Son to be a pitcher.)

The body is an amazing thing, always adapting to the condition it has to. When I was about 14 I had a rib injury (tore cartilidge) that prevented me from throwing right-handed for about 3 months, but I could throw left-handed with no pain, so because I wanted to play pick-up baseball games with my friends, I practiced and practiced throwing left-handed. I can't throw near as good left-handed as I do right, but playing routine catch and some occasional long toss is no problem left-handed. In learning to throw left-handed all I can remember is that my hand didn't know where to go, so I spent all my time trying figure it out......once I figured it out then my body figured out what it could do to give my throw more umph.

I realize it's to late in your boy's life to try to work on the switch hitting, but the problem is that he needs more time. Remember this....Eddie Murray learned to switch-hit in the minor leagues, WOW!

I hope your Son does real well and get's healthy.....Good Luck!