Posted by: DM () on Wed Aug 1 21:37:30 2001

My son is 9 - big for his age & has loved baseball since he was 1 year old. He has always hit very hard - this past season he got into the habit of hitting safe. Nothing wrong with that! But poking at the first pitch when batting in the 4 spot does not help when he is almost 5' tall & 135lbs - does not make the coach happy or help the team. When I make him mad & he decides he wants to hit he can hit very hard & deep to outfield. A local hitting instructor found the same thing with him (I was feeding the p. machine @ 65mph / 46ft to plate & the instructor was talking to him & finally raised his voice to him & told him to HIT IT HARD & he lined it past my head & hit wall behind me & one bounced back & hit him at the plate. The instructor said with his bat speed(avg.68-74mph) & strength there shouldnt be a field that would hold his ball. I know it doesnt help when he sees ESPN & watches that smooth stroke & the balls just fly out of the park with little effort / I just wish they could capture that teeth gritting - body torqing -arm vibration it actually takes sometimes to hit those balls.My Question what do you tell a 9 year old without yelling & making him mad so he will hit hard at each at bat.