Posted by: Chip () on Wed May 22 09:47:47 2002

Went out and watched the local high school team scrimmage the other night. The coach instructs everyone to swing down and has them in this STUPID stance whereby they lean ahead and then lean back and then attempt to chop and "keep the ball in play". Humorously, very few of them kept it in play. The funny irony is that when you swing down at a pitch heading down, if you're off just a bit, you pop the thing up anyway (just like those awful "uppercutters" supposedly do). Which is exactly what several did, ususally righties popping out to first or second. The other thing is that many are so handcuffed they either can't get a swing off or take a pathetically late hack at it. The 2-3 decent hitters obviously don't swing down, even though they do it in practice swings.
The sad thing is the community approval of this. Our program is very successful because of pitching and defense (and the fact that other teams no doubt use this idiotic hitting method), so it's all, "Well, you can't argue with his success, blah, blah, blah..."