Making the switch from right to left

For those who have converted righties to lefties: Do you give any thought or consideration to eye dominance?

Have a good friend who converted everyone to left except left eye dominant righties.

DD switched from right to left in her first year of 12U. She was always the smallest and fastest girl on the team, so we decided to do it. There was a little reluctance from the other coaches because her hitting suffered for the first few months. I would not let them switch her back to the right side with two strikes like a lot of coaches do. We went all in on the lefty thing. She started in November I believe, and by the time the heart of summer ball rolled around she was hitting much better and looked like she belonged there. Her first year of 12U she swung away, and once she got comfortable with that she started some slapping the following season in second year of 12U.

I've never thought about eye dominance. I do know that DD is right eye dominant...not sure if that's good, bad, or indifferent for a lefty hitter.

mudrunner said:

I've never thought about eye dominance. I do know that DD is right eye dominant...not sure if that's good, bad, or indifferent for a lefty hitter.

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It’s a good thing- maybe even a really good thing. I believe it’s called “cross eye/hand dominance”. Hitters whose dominant eye is closer to the pitcher are supposedly statistically over represented in college baseball.

skychief said:

Anyone have any go to drills that they used to help in this transition?

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First, I don't think there are, specifically "transition drills" to do.

What I've learned here is that drills should be used to correct flaws or teach a new concept. I think those who are much smarter about hitting than I am would ask to see video of her swing before they'd give any advice on specific drills to improve.

Thanks everyone for all the input! I believe my daughter might be right eye dominant, from the tests we’ve tried. I’ve read mixed things on this though, and honestly, her hitting was so bad at the end of this last year, I wonder if she even had her eyes open at all, lol! Things went a little smoother tonight and I think she’ll get the hang of this sooner than later. One thing we did try is I had her swing from one knee, taking the legs out of it, and that helped her upper body move more smoothly and helped her get a little more lean. It’s such a foreign motion to her that I think she was getting stuck worrying about all the moving parts at once. I wonder if breaking this up into upper and lower halves might not be a bad idea until this motion doesn’t seem so strange to her?

My 8 year old dd always does a couple of rounds at the batting cages from the left side and actually hits decently. Maybe I should let her work a little more at it and see how she does, it was her idea anyway.

MikeP said:

My 8 year old dd always does a couple of rounds at the batting cages from the left side and actually hits decently. Maybe I should let her work a little more at it and see how she does, it was her idea anyway.

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Check her eye dominance. If her right eye is dominant, my advice is: Yes you should. And never look back.

Coaches at all levels like right hand throwers/left hand hitters.

Skychief: just saw your post.

I’m surprised there isn’t more info out there on this issue and I’d like to see a study on mlb switch hitters. That is an amazing talent.

My really, really unscientific survey was pretty surprising when I surveyed some 12u hitters several years ago. There were some kids who really stood out above others, they were left eye dominant righties who started hitting 3-400 machine balls per week at an early age, (10u). I think this was a training effect, an early adaptation. This all happened one day when I tried to teach my righty dd to shoot a BB gun and she tried to put her head across the stock to line up the sights with her left eye.

Some people just have crazy abilities- my dad knew a guy who was a fantastic wing shooter, he could shoot a shotgun at moving targets very well from either shoulder. Most are average at best from one shoulder! His brain worked differently than most without a doubt.

Westwind said:

Check her eye dominance. If her right eye is dominant, my advice is: Yes you should. And never look back.

Coaches at all levels like right hand throwers/left hand hitters.

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Maybe I'm overthinking it but her biggest issue with hitting has always been that she's late. Lots of fouls or hits straight to first base. In eye dominance tests that are best or just google and use whatever I find?

I would setup eye exam and just ask, in general they are pretty smart.