Posted by: Jon (jonwilliams@fuse.net) on Wed Jan 19 13:53:30 2005

My 9yr old has been taking individual hitting lessons for a while now and I'm curious about some instruction he's received. I'm mildly familiar with the rotational discussion here and the terminology differs a little with what I've heard from the instructor.

For instance, my son is told to take the knob to the ball. That sounds linear to me. He's also told to squash the bug. He's also told to keep a slight bend in his elbows and keep his hands close to his body through the swing. I'm not sure if the instructor is trying to get him to stay inside the ball or what. What is the effect of keeping the elbows bent? What about keeping the hands close to the body? That would seem to restrict his ability to have a circular hand path. Should the elbow of the bottom arm straighten approaching contact?

The thing is, he's hitting the ball better than ever using these new mechanics. Should I be concerned? Thanks for your input.

Jon