Posted by: Donny (donnybstr@aol.com) on Sun Apr 18 04:54:33 2004

My son plays in a 12 year old competitive league. He has a great swing, but his hitting problem generally is that he swings too soon, and we have been working on this.
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> Tonight he had his 1st scrimage with his new team & the coaches told him he needs a heavier bat because he is swinging too soon. These coaches, while I appreciate their time & effort I don't believe have played since their H.S. days a good 25 years ago.
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> He gets privates from current college players and they have taught him to wait on the ball to his success and I agree with their viewpoint on hitting. When he waits, he creams the ball, when he doesn't he either gets out or strikes out which is what happened tonight at his scrimmage.
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> The coaches on his team told him that his bat is "too light"....I was always taught, the lighter the better and have always bought him the lightest bat on the market. My thinking is if his coaches have him hit with a heavier bat(which is what they did tonight), this will slow down his bat speed and his hitting will be less effective. He is not a big, muscular kid & needs all the help he can get with power and bat speed at the plate. I feel that these coaches are basically trying to slow his swing down so he can make contact....I'm feeling this is counter-productive to my son becoming a good hitter and increasing his bat speed.
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> Thoughts?....and if anyone agrees with my thoughts on this, how do I let the coaches know I don't want my son using a heavy bat without seeming like a pain in the neck parent. Right now he uses a 31/18.5 (-12.5 drop).
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I do not subscribe to the heaver bat to correct timing issues. Is it possible that he could be striding out front on top of his lead leg instead of striding to a balanced landing? Many kids push off the back side hard extending the rear leg and try to hit the ball too far out front. He must establish a positive base from which to launch the bat and separate the stride from the actual swing. THis means get the front foot down early and turn/rotate into the ball in a location inside the front foot.