Posted by: Marvin (mhmjr@aol.com) on Tue Jul 25 19:55:56 2006

> >>> So your saying a college coach will keep a productive hitter out of the lineup because he’s not hitting the way the coach wants him to? I’m around college coaches all the time; I played at a high level, I’ve worked for MLB…hell, I make out lineups all the time, the one thing that I can uniformly say is that a coach will ALWAYS play the guys that hit! NO Exceptions!
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> The thing that most players don’t understand is that the swing that worked at one level in most cases will not work at the next higher level. (A little league swing in most cases will not work for frosh baseball, the lower level high school baseball swing usually will not work at a the varsity level…a great high school hitter will have to adjust to be able to succeed at the JC level and major college level.…you should get the picture.) You adjust and adapt to the rise in competition and level or you will perish as a ballplayer.
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> The most common adjustment that needs to be made as you rise through the levels of baseball is getting shorter and more and more efficient with your swing. The biggest fault with young hitters is a long loopy swing. If you are unwilling to adjust you will not make it. Most college coaches can see in a short amount of time the types of swings that are required for success at their respective level. As a coach that sees a fault in the players swing, its their job/responsibility to point it out and to start the corrective, re-teaching process. At what point does the stubborn player buy-in to the coaching, 0-20, no AB’s…? The very real thing about making an adjustment in one’s swing is that you will, in most cases get worse before you get better. Most young players don’t have the trust in their coaches coaching to stick with it, its compounded when they are not 100% committed to the adjustments and they have all pro, little league all-star dad coaching him at home as well…breaking out the little league video. Players at that stage want quick fixes, and immediate results, both of which DON’T happen in baseball.
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> It’s far easier for Dad and son to come to batspeed.com with sob stories about coach’s stubbornness then to face so of the hard truths about the ultra competitiveness of baseball at highest levels. Adjust, Adapt, and be coachable…do those things and you have a chance, don’t and you’ll be on the same lines of uncle Rico claiming he could have been all state.
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> The bottom line is that if you are trying to skin the cat and the cats skinning you, you'd better be ready for a new way. <<<
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> Hi Scott
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> I certainly have no problem with the values you attribute to good coaching. However, for a coach to make sound judgements of a batter&#8217;s swing, he must have acquired a sound understanding of what constitutes efficient swing mechanics.
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> During my 18 years of coaching, a good number of my players went on to play college ball. One of the main lessons I learned in those 18 years was to just leave the good hitters alone. It became obvious to me that the swing mechanics they exhibited did not match the linear batting principles we were given to teach. At the time, I did not understand why their swings were more productive, but it was apparent that the mechanics they had developed on their own were more sound than the linear principle I had to offer.
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> There was a time when a young Williams, Mantle or Mays developed his swing mechanics by countless hours of just playing the game without a coach in sight. However, today&#8217;s youth seldom take a swing except in practice or games under the control of a coach. I submit to you that there are still many flaws in the batting cues and truisms most coaches use in teaching and judging a batter&#8217;s swing.
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> Scott, in an earlier post you state, &#8220;If your coach is worth a dime, he has the teams, and your best interest in mind and I guarantee he will be open to you questioning his coaching,&#8221; &#8211; That implies that you would take an &#8220;open-minded&#8221; approach to a player who told you he placed a high value on the bat speed his swing generated. It is an accepted fact that how hard a ball is hit is the product of the bat&#8217;s mass times the square of its velocity (m=mvv) at contact.
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> Yet, you state, &#8220;Is batspeed the Holy Grail to good hitting, IMO its pretty far down on the list.&#8221; With that statement, you are actually telling your hitters that &#8216;how hard they hit the ball&#8217; should be &#8220;pretty far down on the list.&#8221; The bat speed a swing generates and how hard a ball is hit are inseparable.
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> I also take exception to your statement, &#8220;The thing that most players don&#8217;t understand is that the swing that worked at one level in most cases will not work at the next higher level.&#8221; &#8211; The same swing mechanics exhibited by the best MLB hitters are also found in the swings of the best little league hitters.
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> Jack Mankin

Hi Guys,
The mechanics of great hitters are absolutely the same at any level. It is ludicrous to suggest otherwise. A person's age does not change the laws of physics and a proper swing uses the laws of physics to snap the barrel of the bat into the ball.
Jack, I'm sure you will agree, I have seen very promising 8 and 9 year old hitter's technique destroyed by "in the know" coaches who have watched hours of youth coaching videos. I won't let these type of coaches ruin my son's technique.
I think the notion that a player's swing must change as he ages is sort of a justification of a coaches job. He has to do something to justify his position even though he doesn't have a clue. Then he has to convince his players and parents that they need this to be done. That's rubbish.
The changes great hitters make as they mature are refinements to already great mechanics. They become more consistent with their already great technique.
My son is ten, I tape some of his BP sessions, the balls he crushes out of our 11 and 12 year old field are all hit with good rotational technique. As he matures the consistency of this technique will increase, but it will still be the same technique in high school that he exhibits now.