Posted by: Steve () on Thu Sep 12 10:49:52 2002

My 10-year-old son just finished a week of instruction with Mike Epstein, and Mike has done a wonderful job of reducing rotational hitting to a few straightforward cues so young kids won’t tune out. On several occasions my (highly inquisitive) son asked some “whys” and “wherefores” which Mike wisely declined to offer. His reason: If you get into the technical stuff the kids will think it’s even more complicated than it is – and it’s tough enough to learn without the extra jargon. BTW – Mike had very nice things to say about Jack Mankin.
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> Steve, I'm just curious. I know that Epstein is a firm believer in the fence drill. Was this covered in your sessions?
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>Hi Bart:

No, Mike didn’t use the fence drill at all with Greg. Don’t know whether it was an individual decision or a change in Mike’s approach.

On another topic, I notice that you’ve questioned Mike’s torque drill as being unnecessary. During the lessons, it was my impression that Mike uses the drill to get the young hitter accustomed to a new and initially awkward body position. He believes it is helpful for a kid to “feel” this position in order to accelerate the process of getting there naturally. In point of fact, Mike said on several occasions that if everything is done properly from launch, then the rest will follow automatically – much as you have suggested. But Mike seems to believe that if a kid has been trained as a linear hitter, his tendency to cast the bat outward and extend his hands too early should first be rectified.

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> > Too All,
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> > > I have noticed that many posts to this site have an opinion about the smallest body movement in the swing. Most of this is not relevant and they are poor coaching especially for kids 10 to 15.
> > > Here are my reasons.
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> > > 1. Most of this stuff is not relevant. Some of these points such as what part of the field the toe of the front foot points, position of the knee, how far from the back shoulder the hands should be, where the bat is in the stance prior to the pitcher going into the windup and all the other attention to the finest details only serve to make coaching more complicated. Most of these "fine points" have very little to do with good hitting.
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> > > 2. Young people do not have the control of the body that allows them to even think about where their knee is or where their toe is pointing. Even if these points are relevant, which I don't think they are, they should be added after the kids learns the major elements of the swing. Further, many of these little "quirks" of the swing are picked up from watching tape of the "pros." Many of them are created for some special need that the pro has because of some quirk in his swing. In some cases, it has nothing to do with anything and they pro doesn't even know he does it.
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> > > 3. Guess what, THE KIDS ARE NOT LISTENING. By loading up coaching with many minor movements of the body many of which kids do not understand, undermines the credibility of the coach. This also distracts the batter from the major elements of the swing. These minor elements tend to take on the same importance as the really important ones when they are talked about and taught. They confuse the kid and soon he shuts the coach down. Most kids don't openly rebel. They just don't listen any more.
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> > > F. J.