Posted by: t olson () on Thu Aug 23 10:58:53 2001

-------What do you do when your coach wants you to swing with bad mechanics? .....You guys are exactly whats wrong with baseball at the Babe Ruth level and below. You want to sit on the side and tell the players to ignore the coach or do what the coach says depending on what you think is right. Parents and other "know-nothing" know-it-alls like to be in the game without being accountable for what happens. So to you, the game is about winning or the personal seccess of a player. The lessons you would teach are about personal ego and to hell with the team. You are whats wrong with the game at that level. And the real thing is that you don't have the slighest clue that you are the problem proving you have no idea of what the game is about ---------

From my experience, the best hitters have an interested parent behind the scenes either doing the training himself--or are paying a professional to help their kid. I do both with my son. This happens over a long period of time and includes a large investment of time and resources.

There are many coaches that don't invest this kind of time in learning about proper swing mechanics. What they often substitute for this is a blind faith-based acceptance that how they did it, is the correct way for all kids.

Many kids will have several coaches throughout their playing career. Do you allow each one to change your kid to a different method? Most coaches will not devote the time and effort to developing your kid fully and may not see recommended changes through to fruition.

An example is a coach who believes in an open stance (like many ML players use) recommends this to a kid, and then does not close the loop by ensuring the player strides to a closed position--making a "step-in-the-bucket" problem even worse.

So, let's say in the interest of winning, a coach wants to use your kid to pitch a full game, and the next day schedules him to start again? Just because the coach has decided this, you as a parent are supposed to ignore the potential injury risks?

It would be nice if all coaches were perfect--but they aren't--especially at the levels (Babe Ruth and below) that you cited. Parents aren't perfect either--but most coaches will at least accept that a kid is hitting a certain way if he's relatively successful. I know of few coaches that would hold it against a well-performing kid if he made some suggestions that the kid didn't use. In reality, most coaches wouldn't know if a suggestion wasn't taken because as much as they think they can see--the swing happens so quickly that the reality of what they've seen is often undetected without the aid of video.