Posted by: nativetrout (nativetrout at earthlink dot net) on Sun Jul 16 08:25:41 2006

You are right on, Melvin. I gather few got your post. You point out how absurd the reasoning is behind what so many teach (whether in baseball or softball ... and wether in youth leagues or high school for that matter). No disrespct to the many dedicated coaches (many who have been coaching since before I was born)but I am constantly amazed by what I hear shouted from the 3rd base coach's box at local HS and palamino games, to say nothing of my son's LL games!

What's encouraging in fastpitch is that you are now hearing tv commentators talking about 'power' swings, hands staying back, rotation etc (of course I also heard someone, Harrold Reynolds, maybe, talking about how Lance Berkman was going to "swing down on the ball to get more backspin" during the HR derby. Worked really well for him.).