Posted by: () on Tue Dec 30 14:26:59 2003

I am currently coaching a 9 and 10 year old team. We have been working on preswing movements to get into a proper loaded position. My questions is, would you teach a young hitter to load the same as a college or professional hitter? Or should they use a simplified version?
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> If you were working with a 9 year old that had never received any instruction on the rotational swing, how would you describe the load to him?
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> Thanks in advance for any help.
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> Have a great day.

My suggestion would to you is to keep it simple. Most young hitters do not even understand what you mean when you talk load. I run a training facility and I talk to them about the different types of loads but the one I stress or teach mainly is the slight inward turn of the front knee. I tell my hitters to simply lift up the heel of the front foot and slightly turn the front knee to the back knee. This allows the front hip to coil ever so slightly. When striding I teach them to take their hands straight back across their chest with a small inward turn of the front shoulder. By doing so it puts them in what I like to call " the power position" or "launch position".

The biggest problem I run into when teaching young players the load is they generally have a tendancy to straighten their front leg which causes them at times to stand tall and to transfer most of their weight to the back leg. So make sure that when you teach the load that your hitters are keeping their legs flexed until contact at which time the front leg should be fully extended or almost fully extended.

Hope this helps!