Posted by: MarkH () on Sat Aug 14 17:32:03 2004

I just started reading this site yesterday (ordered the video last night) so I'm pretty far behind the curve. A number of concepts here fly in the face of previous 'wisdom'.

Anyway... My 10-year-old goes to a cage once or twice a week. Goes back and forth from 65-45 mph cages.

I'm not really a big fan of cages, because I think they can really impart bad muscle memory. His front foot consistently moves outward away from the plate. The recovery time between swings isn't quite long enough somehow. And there is a tendancy to follow the path of the ball with greater and greater anticipation until one starts to pull the head up.

On this site, 'pulling the head off' is refuted to a degree. But my son swings over the top of virtually every pitch he misses. This is consistent with lifting the head. Everything else follows, just enough to swing over the top.

This is conventional wisdom anyway. What's the thinking here, especially adding the detail of swinging over most missed pitches?

Also, he likes to go into the 70mph cage for a challenge. Should he?

Extra credit. For some reason, he has stopped taking a back-swing this year. His hands start in a reasonable position, but then only go forward from there. He is strong enough to get away with it much of the time, but it makes an outside pitch impossible to handle. How to get him back to drawing the hands back before attacking? Is this approach to hitting a compensation for something? If so, what?

thx,
Mark