Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Fri Jan 10 17:53:23 2003

It's clear to me that most of you are still searching and that's O.K. My guess is that most of you teach hitting, but never demonstrate the technique yourself. It would be advisable for all of you to choose your method of instruction and apply them in game situations, under the pressure you must put your pupils under. Most of you couldn't hit your way out of a paper bag, yet you advocate certain principles that seem to make sense to you. I am not at liberty to state my backround and name (that's why I'm Coach C), due to the nature of this site, however I will tell you under different circumstances I would love to watch each of you face superior pitching at the highest level, so I could get a good laugh. I've got one boy in the Majors right now and another one coming, who's much better. I teach travel baseball now for kids because I love watching kids get better. I chime in from time to time because I love the game and love to hear the rederick. In my opinion we have very few similarities, but I still love to talk about it. None of my sons would have made it with the Epstein jibberish, Jack and I differ in our philosophy...in that I think the arms start the swing and the legs support the arms. I think it works because my Sons thank me almost daily. They are living the life I wanted for them... the one I wish I would have had with the proper instruction as a kid, instead I played golf for a living. I learned through my failures as a baseball hitter and passed on my lessons to the boys, as they grew older. Most of you have never fixed your own mistakes, and that makes you not qualified to teach hitting in my opinion.
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> The sad part is that most of you do!

Epstein seems to fit your necessary criteria,so how do you reconcile the fact that he was a successful major leaguer and you had to play golf for a living.Is the real requiremnt that your sons play in the majors and his don't ?

I still think if you are telling kids to keep the shoulders level and keep the elbows down you are doing the ones who follow this advice a disservice.

Even if you take this swing to the majors,it's going to be a long one.I would say Berkmann(your example) keeps the front elbow about as low as you can an turns it down right about contact,but he still has the elbow turned up until near contact.This means he has a long swing radius and tends to hit around the ball easily.Bonds has a short swing radius with elbow way up which allows him time and keeps the ball fair down the line without hooking it foul.