Posted by: Major Dan (markj89@charter.net) on Fri Mar 22 07:29:22 2002

I am new to this site but thank goodness there is no talk of hitting down!!!! My son has always been our power hitter since little leauge [not bragging plenty of home runs]it came natural.I just left him alone and also he hardly ever struck out.Could hit consistently over 300 ft at age 13.Now he is a freshman and the coach told him fly balls were just long outs and has him hitting down off a tee.Since then he chops to infeild or pops up everything. He told me all his power is gone[obvious].It seems he is getting his hands before his hips which causes him to chop middle and inside pitches foul or miss.I have started working with him off a tee having starthis hip first and hitting the ball staight or slightly up into a net.Will this help or hurt[dreaded uppercut?] Also any other drills that might help? thanks for any help?

The only truth to what the coach says is that with big outfields, high flies get caught more. The adjustment is not hitting it on the ground but going for rising liners rather than high flies. Small adjustment at most.
Ask the coach if he has his pitchers keep the ball down and work the batters to try and get groundball outs. If so, why would he want his hitters to help the opposing pitcher?