Hello - I am looking for some hitting advice/perspective for my 13U son. He historically has been an outstanding contact hitter and has typically lead his team in average since he was 6yrs old. Last season he lead his Major level team in avg., OBP and was second in slugging. I have had many, many coaches (including a 5A head coach of a high school that consistantly goes to state in Texas HS playoffs and has had several 1st round draft picks from his program) tell me that Dereck has the quickest hands that they seen in a kid his age. He is good.
This season, he has made a very high caliber nationally ranked 13U major team and his coach has really been modifying his swing as follows (Dereck is a right handed batter).
* Initiating swing by driving right, rear knee forward, towards ground.
* Top hand follows knee and drives knob of bat towards ball.
* Keep body stacked and vertical.
* strong extension.
My son has done an excellent job incorporating some of the changes in his swing but has really been struggling keeping his body stacked/vertical through the swing. He has a natural swing tilt/angle and his left hip tends to lift a little.
His performance at the plate has really suffered and he has reached a level of frustration that I have never seen in him before. I am trying to encourage him during this period as much as possible and am trying to keep him focused...even shared that Tiger Woods revamped his swing while he was winning majors to get better.
Although I have confidence in his coach's knowledge, I really want to dig deeper into this and get some additional perspective. I am impressed with the thoughtful info sharing here and welcome your feedack & thoughts. It is killing me to see something that brought my son so much joy become a laboring task. I also recognize that sometimes one needs to take a step or 2 backwards to move forward. Baseball offers many life lessons, eh? :noidea
Thank you - Jim
This season, he has made a very high caliber nationally ranked 13U major team and his coach has really been modifying his swing as follows (Dereck is a right handed batter).
* Initiating swing by driving right, rear knee forward, towards ground.
* Top hand follows knee and drives knob of bat towards ball.
* Keep body stacked and vertical.
* strong extension.
My son has done an excellent job incorporating some of the changes in his swing but has really been struggling keeping his body stacked/vertical through the swing. He has a natural swing tilt/angle and his left hip tends to lift a little.
His performance at the plate has really suffered and he has reached a level of frustration that I have never seen in him before. I am trying to encourage him during this period as much as possible and am trying to keep him focused...even shared that Tiger Woods revamped his swing while he was winning majors to get better.
Although I have confidence in his coach's knowledge, I really want to dig deeper into this and get some additional perspective. I am impressed with the thoughtful info sharing here and welcome your feedack & thoughts. It is killing me to see something that brought my son so much joy become a laboring task. I also recognize that sometimes one needs to take a step or 2 backwards to move forward. Baseball offers many life lessons, eh? :noidea
Thank you - Jim
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