Posted by: Bart () on Thu Sep 12 13:05:50 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:
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> 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.
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> 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.



Thanks Steve. To the extent that he's only getting the kid to get the "feel" as you described I withdraw my complaints about how/why he teaches this.




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