![]() To make it worse, I have seen guys that played college and/or pro ball teaching this craziness to kids. Would have loved to have been there when you guys gave the T drill a shot. It makes you wonder if coaches even attempt these drills before they teach them. I have been coaching Travel baseball the last 5 years and see these kinds of things being taught by other teams in practices and pregame warmups way too often. On the other hand, a hitter who dropped his bat in the zone early and was able to keep the barrel in the zone for a longer period of time posed a tougher challenge." - Justin Orenduff I threw a sinker, and a late-breaking slider two pitches that posed to be tough for hitters who were swinging down. Regardless of size, potential, and current statistics at the time, I knew I had a competitive advantage over the hitters whose swings resembled the path of swinging down on the baseball. "As a former professional, I would go out and watch BP on the days of my start to gain a perspective on the hitters I would be facing later that night. Drills that directly disallow that should not be practiced.and there is no real use for them in training purposes other than to fix a DRAMATIC uppercut and even then there are simply better ways to accomplish a better swing path. As stated in our Pitchers vs Hitters article, we know the pitcher is throwing the ball down so we must get our barrel in the way of the baseball and keep it there a long time. But I do expect the ideas and drills they have the kids do to make sense. I do not expect youth coaches to be experts in the baseball or softball swing. It makes me mad when that kid tells me he's had dozens of lessons and PAID for that information. What would happen to the 'high back tee' in that swing? Honestly, it really makes me sad when I see a kid come into my building with that downward trajectory in their barrel. Think about the advantages of seeing what's happening so hitters across the country can benefit from more accurate teaching and more drills that make sense. Remember this clip from the 2012 world series? Really LISTEN to the announcers' voices and how they're excited about debunking the myths and finding out what really happens in the game swing of MLB players. Coaches also do drills putting kids on one knee, again, taking all stabilization out of the swing (which makes no sense) and forces kids again to create an 'arms and wrist dominated' move, simply because they have no other choice. ![]() The best kids with the best patterns naturally keep their hips moving, and more often than not, can hit more balls in number and hit more balls hard. We do this drill in our evaluations to see what kids 'eliminate' in their swing in order to hit the balls. ![]() Coaches will spread hitters out really wide and force wrist isolation as well with more ' speed toss' drills which consist of repetitive arm motion to swing the bat across the chest instead of hip driven turning. I don't really have a problem with that in moderation as its a great strength and coordination building movement, and can be fun for kids to make games out of. Many coaches will 'isolate' the hands with top and bottom hand drills. I keep hearing the same complaints that some of the drills they are being forced to do are against what makes sense in the swing. ![]() Many players are getting ready for tryouts at their high schools and some are doing 'preseason' workouts for their 12 and under travel teams. ![]()
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