Posted by: Major Dan (markj89@charter.net) on Wed May 22 11:24:15 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..."
>

Amazing how when the swing plane and pitch plane don't match, they just cross each other, that solid contact is not an easy task.
I don't know what HS baseball is like in your area, but it is pretty weak here and kids with flawed fundamentals start in the infield and are 'stars' pretty much because they are athletic and the last ones left standing (still playing) from Little League days.
I see them in the batting cages in March practicing their flaws.
Somehow our band of leftovers is 9-5, 5-4 in conference dispite having no real players.