Posted by: Jim C. (jhconklinjr@comcast.net) on Tue May 3 07:03:20 2005

Hi,

Youth ball around my way is dominated by (pseudo?) sophisticated coaches preaching the value of 'backspin' by hitting the back bottom of the ball. I think a bottom or top emphasis is a bunch of verbiage to make coaches sound like they have special knowledge. I don't think they have recently seen a good pitch and tried to hit it hard. Considering that top/bottom is plus or minus 1/2 an inch, THEY should try to jigger THEIR swing plane 1/2" before they bother their hitters with an attempt to do so. They will forever shut up about it. In effect they are saying that they could consistently hit a 1" marble thrown at them - but no(!), it would be a 1/2" marble because they want the bottom half!!!!

Sit down already with that stuff. Try to hit some four seam heaters before giving out such WORTHLESS advice that just fills kids heads up with impossible endeavors.