Posted by: KSTEVENS () on Fri Mar 12 04:47:40 2004

My son is 12 years old and I am searching for techniques and devices that can be used to develop and reinforce excellent hitting mechanics.
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> > I am new to this board and would appreciate any feedback. Do hitting devices such as the instructo-swing and qswing reinforce sound and proper hitting mechanics. I am not a hitting expert, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
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> Hey Zach,
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> The instruto-swing is bad.
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> You need to SEE what a good rotational swing looks like in order to help your son. 1) buy Mankin's tape. 2) teach son Circular Hand Path and Bottom Hand Torque. 3) buy Epstein's tape. 4) teach son prelaunch stretch and front elbow up as front shoulder rotates up immediately on torso pull. 4) teach son Top Hand Torque and separation of hips and shoulders(Epstein does a nice job also). 5) now let son put it all together in a way that FEELS right for him. the end result will be a swing that is smooth, loose and ever-accelerating to contact.
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> You must learn to teach. it's your responsibility to teach your son. if there are aspects that are confusing ask on here and everyone will help. take the advice that makes sense to you. all the best, Rich



I couldn't DISAGREE more. First of all, it is not his responsibility to teach his son. Why should it be his responsibility? This is the reason why so many kids have screwed up mechanics. Parents believe that it is their responsibility to teach their kids even though they don't have the slightest clue how to do so. Chances are that if you were to buy Mankin or Epstein's video you would end up interpreting everything in it in the wrong way. Videos are great, but parents who don't have a background in the game often end up messing their kids up even more. My advice would be to talk to other parents of players in your area and find out if any of them know of any good instructors that you can bring your son to. Just remember... it is NOT your responsibility to teach your son how to play baseball. Especially if you have no background in the game yourself. Very few kids will thrive as players under the instruction of their parents. Simply becasue of the fact that your the one who tells him what to do on a daily basis, and the last thing he wants to do is to have you telling him what to do on the field as well. This is the major difference between baseball today and baseball thirty years ago. Back then parents did not get involved with teaching their kids the way they do now. That was left to the coaches, or for the players to discover on their own by going out and playing everyday. Hope this makes sense.