Load or no load?

[Stand an]

You need a load to maximize power and speed. Think of Newton's first law of motion - an object at rest tends to remain at rest. If you don't load, you're going to expend a lot of energy just getting the body in motion.

The analogy I generally use is hitting a hammer with a nail. Ask the coach to make a fist as his imaginary hammer. Put your hand out in front and tell him it is a board with a nail in it. Ask him to pound the nail in with one blow. If he doesn't take the fist/hammer up rather than going straight down toward it I'd be mightily shocked.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the load occurs before you need to get going quickly. It is basically a pre-motion, like a pitcher winding up. As long as it occurs before the hitter has to start her swing it really doesn't take up any time for the swing.

Amazing the stuff that gets taught.

That's a good one with the hammer analogy. I have used a punch analogy with girls. I put up my hand and ask them to punch it. Then I ask them to really punch it hard. Almost always the hand goes back before it goes forward for the really hard punch.