Posted by: CoachBryan09 (seattlebaseballguy@yahoo.com) on Tue Aug 10 12:44:55 2010

Chris, I am new to the site but I have been training batters from little league through professionals for the last 10 years and the one thing I have noticed in my experience is that people focus on the wrong aspect of their training too often. Swinging a weighted bat, getting used to the weight, hitting in the cage are all things we need to do but if the player doesn't have the proper strength developed they will be compromising their swing mechanics to actually swing the bat. A proper core strengthening program will dramatically increase a players bat speed in a short amount of time without diminishing their swing mechanics. So to sum it all up, while you are working on becoming a stronger player through core work, you aren't losing any technique by swinging a heavy bat and developing poor habbits along the way. Once you have finished a 6 or 12 week training program (without swinging your heavy bat) go back to it and you will be amazed at the improvement in bat speed. This is the perfect time of year to do this because tournaments are wrapping up and winter training doesn't start until November. Please feel free to email me with any other questions you may have!