Posted by: MTS () on Fri Apr 9 09:56:29 2004

I am not an expert, but my son has been to so many privates with experts that I feel I have some grasp on this.

My son (10) was taking too big of a stride & the instructors told him not to stride so that he could work on the hip rotation and swing. The stride comes later.

The key to this instruction is "small is big". There is no need for a big stride, keep it small. He's actually not stepping on, but making a motion with his foot which probably lands in the same spot. My son's stride is very small now & these guys are so impressed with his swing at his age they can't believe he's only 10. Of course, there is always room for improvement and correction so we keep working on that swing.