Posted by: Shawn (mariner0324@yahoo.com) on Tue Mar 28 16:48:04 2006

> I am totaly new to this site and relatively new to the art of hitting instruction. My 8 year old son is in his third year of organized baseball and he/we are going through a similiar problem with this years coach as the previous two. My son by all accounts (I hope I'm not just another blind dad) is avery gifted athlete. He is the tallest, strongest, fastest kid on his team and he is also the youngest and one of the least experienced players. He seems to have a gift for hitting a baseball and I take very little credit for his early success. I tought him the bare basics of hitting that I was taught: balanced stance, relaxed hands, short stride, eyes and hands to the ball. I knew nothing of the debate between rotational vs. linear mechanics. He naturaly finishes his swing high and lets go of the bat with his top hand.
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> The problem comes from all three of his coaches insist that he finishes the swing with both hands on the bat. His current coach said that he was letting go of the bat because of bad "linear mechanics". I had no idea at the time what he meant so I went home and jumped on the internet and discovered the whole big debate. I guess my son displays some of the characteristics of the "Charley Lau" swing though I never taught them, and his coach seems to be comming from the "Bat Speed" camp.
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> I guess my question (finaly) is why should I mess with his swing when what he seems to do naturaly produces incredible results and when I insist on him holding on to the bat with both hands he cuts his swing short and hits nothing. I know he's only 8 but with his good natural athleticism I would like to give him the best instruction possible to open doors for him down the road. Is it possible that his natural gifts are compensating for his poor mechanis or maybe is there more than one way to skin a cat?

Letting go with the top hand doesn't make him linear. Shifting weight doesn't make him linear.

Unless something was wrong while letting go with the top hand, I wouldn't change him for the coaches sake.