Posted by: lclifton (lclifton@sandersonford.com) on Thu Jun 21 12:01:02 2007

Larry,
Something to take a look at is the preparation to hit.
If a hitter is rushed,,,(loaded late) the tendency is to swing early.
I used to think about this the other way.
As a result I would have hitters that were consistently early to delay their loading.
If they are facing pitching that is at the higher levels (in their age category)and the hitter is not prepared / loaded on time, there is a signal sent from the brain to the body that says,
"You are not ready, you better get something going."
(a very general description)

The reason I reference the "quality of pitching" is because IF they are facing pitching that is "loopy" or consistently SLOW, then they may want to delay the loading phase.

The other thing to look at is:
"Is the young hitter loading AT ALL?" If not, that would answer more questions.

These are suggestions as to what to look at/ think about.
Without video, I am only going on what I've seen with some of the kids I work with.

I have more suggestions if you are interested.

Sincerely.