Posted by: Sandman () on Mon Nov 10 17:14:44 2003

Yes, we did go.

As expected, the seminar was about the same as we've seen in the video, and definitely a tough 2+ hrs for my 9-yr old to sit through.

The 2-hr clinic the next day was GREAT though!

Mike may not come across in his video's as the most animated speaker, but in person, his passion shines through loud and clear. He's really a lot of fun to talk anything baseball with. His son Jake was also very good and fun to work with.

What we got out of it: reinforcement and better understanding of the drills. It's one thing to view the videos (several times even), but another to have its author there to tweak your attempts at it.

For me,… I learned that I seem to have the Torque Drill down pretty well, but I still have definite issues w/ the Numbers Drill. Specifically, I tilt my torso instead of just slotting my elbow and sitting on my back leg. This causes me to then stand up during my swing. I also tend to keep my head/chin down a bit too much, restricting good turn. I could see this tilt in my video, but didn’t really understand that “sitting on the back leg” would tilt my axis back to get on plane just fine, yet allow a more level swing without tilting from the torso. I’m looking forward to working this out in the garage.

For my son, … as we left the seminar Friday night and said g'nite to Mike, he said to Kevin "rest up that back leg tonight; you'll need it tomorrow!". And boy DID WE! We learned that 9-yr olds have a tough time supporting their weight during the swing on their back leg as much as Mike recommends. Legs were definitely a bit wobbly, w/ muscle soreness in the thigh and calf areas the next day. The natural tendency for someone this age seems to be to "take the weight off that which is not comfortable". Mike/Jake suggested to just keep doing the drills at home and even in our living room during commercials, etc. in order to build up leg strength. Also, Kevin tends to dip his head out over the plate, thereby tilting his head so that his eyes are not level.

At one point, Mike came over to me and said (referring to my son), “He could use some lessons.” At first, I took this as, “Hmm… I guess he’s not as good as I think he is”. But then Mike followed that comment w/ something along the lines of “most of the kids in here can barely tie their shoes”. And then he continued to discuss his travel plans and how we might coordinate this. Perhaps I’m incorrectly putting 2 and 2 together, but from these comments, as well as how Mike and Jake worked w/ Kevin, I concluded that he was suggesting that he seems to have the talent and attention span to handle the more rigorous 7-day lessons, and that Mike wouldn’t feel like he was wasting his time w/ him – despite his tender years. Or perhaps I was way off and he really meant, “Man, get that kid some lessons before he kills someone!”? ;-)

They didn’t bring any Personal Pitchers. The entire clinic was dry swings, due to there being 12 students indoors I suppose.

In summary, I was quite pleased w/ the seminar/clinic. I feel like I’ve opened the door a bit more w/ Mike and Jake and plan to keep in touch w/ them as Kevin and I continue our learning of the rotational swing.

Regards,
Sandman