Posted by: Joe A. (Mgtsupport@AOL.com) on Thu Nov 23 07:55:35 2000

Gentelmen,
> >
> > I don't beleive that we should be using professional baseball players as models for our teaching methods. Here are my reasons.
> >
> > Pros are the most gifted athelets in the game. They are the biggest, strongest and quickest people playing the game. They are in the 99% percentile in reflexes and have instincts for the game. They can do things most people can't do no matter how much they practice.
> >
> > They master the basics of the swing. And make no mistake they master them. Then, they start to adjust the swing to compensate for personel quirks and in some cases physical particulars.
> >
> > For example, for some reason a player is fast with his swing and pulls the ball foul. To compenstate he holds the bat over his head with his hands near his ears. This adds to the time it takes to get the bat into a launch position and "cures" his fast bat. Most people could never do this. But with the strength and speed a pro can.
> >
> > Another example, a player finds that the eye nearest the pitchers may be weak or have some problem. So, the player pulls his front foot back a foot or a foot and a half back to allow himself a full face, both eyes, look at the pitch. Again becuse of strength and quickness he can do it.
> >
> > Neither of these players would teach someone else to do the things they do. They can get away with using mechanics that are not the best.
> >
> > The pros are not the best models. The ones I know would not even make good teachers.
> >
> > Joe A. joe a......i wish to commend you on a very thoughtful and reasoned analysis.....having said that, though, i respectfully take exception to your overall premise which seems to be that pros made it to the bigtime because they are gifted & the other 99 % are not.....while i will agree that some have more natural talent than others, all that means is that some may have to work harder than others to make it to the pros.....good examples would be pete rose & maury wills.....to make it to the pros as a position player, you need 2 of the 3 following tools: exceptional speed, exceptional arm strength & exceptional hitting.....some or all of these tools can be further subdivided into other tools, but those are the basics.....this site focuses on hitting & i respectfully & modestly cite my extensive knowledge of hitting as qualification for pointing out that HITTING CAN BE LEARNED......some of the greatest athletes are football players but they can not hit......michael jordan was one of the all-time athletes & he could run, but he could not learn how to hit......teams have tried teaching track stars how to hot & were miserably unsucessful......bottom line is this: hitting can be learned, but the earlier age the better the chances of success.....take any olympic athlete or any tennis star.....they started practicing their sport at age 3......once again, while i truely admire the time & thought you put into your post, i have grave concerns that a young kid with big dreams might read your post, conclude that he is not one of the top 1 % of the top "gifted" athletes & not persue his dream........to that young kid out there, i beseech you, DO NOT GIVE UP THE DREAM!!!!!!.......if you do not have particularly exceptional "natural" gifts such as speed & arm strength, DO NOT LET THAT DETER YOU!!!!!........you can increase your arm strength & even your running speed.......pay lots of attention to defensive skills....and when it comes to hitting, LEARN THE CIRCULAR HAND PATH & do lots of practice, practice, practice!!!!!!!.........you may only be in the top 50 % right now, but with the proper amount & method of practice YOU CAN BE AMONG THE TOP 1 %!!!!!!!!!!.....respectfully, grc........

GRC,

You have taken the complete oppsite view of the point I am trying to make.

The fact that most people do not have the skills of pro atheletes demands that they learn and use sound fundemenatals. A player can inhance limited skills by employing the best fundementals.

This leads me to my major point. Because pros have exceptional abilities and apply those abilities more often they take the fundementals and customize them to their individual phsycal idiosyncrasies. Because of thier superior size, strength and other athletetic skills they can make the changes to the basics work.

As a result when we look at pros we are seeing a swing that is tailored to that individual. It is not a fundementally sound swing for anyone but the pro who is using it. To try and transfer this to young players is a mistake.

The pros mastered the fundementals then changed it for their own needs. Your looking at the "changed" swing and trying to learn something to teach someone else.

Don't worry so much about if a kid is going to be discouraged because he can't do what pros do. This question should never come up if someone didn't use pros as a model.


Joe A.