Posted by: Jon (jonwilliams@fuse.net) on Fri Sep 12 06:24:44 2003

My 9-year old instinctively learned to release his top hand as he completes his swing. He lets go well after impact and hits the ball with authority using this method so I've never tried to adjust it.
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> > > He went to a tryout for a select team recently and a couple of the coaches spent his entire hitting session trying to get him to complete the swing with both hands on the bat as, according to them, he's losing "40% of his power" by following through the way he naturally does.
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> > Good Grief. Ask them, since the ball is already gone, how does it know the hitter took one hand off the bat. Does it turn around, take a peek and lose 40% percent of it's speed due to bad aerodynamics while it's peaking. When the ball is gone, it's gone. There is nothing you can do to affect it. Baseball clings to verbal lore handed down regardless of slow motion video.
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> the concept, right or wrong is simple enough: swing "through the ball"...kind of like running all the way "through" the first base bag...otherwise, there is a natural tendency to sloww down just prior to the bag...

Yeah Bart, I understand your point. My concern was that if he was letting go after impact did that somehow slow him down before or at impact. If my son hit the ball weakly I would probably come to that conclusion. But he hits the ball hard pretty much all the time. Even though he's 9, he's a big strong kid. He's almost 5 feet tall and weighs 100 lbs. He tried out for an 11 yr old select team (he'll be 10 next spring) and he hit the ball harder than any of the other kids at the tryout. At least for the first 10 swings or so before the coaches started messing with him. Then he couldn't hit anything.