Cookie cutter hitters

[wild man]

This is my first post. I have coached Baseball and fastpitch for the last 10 years. A couple of years ago I started assisting at the local high School with the JV team. The head coach and I dissagree on one very important point. Hitting styles, Here's his theory : The hitter Must line up the Knuckles no matter what he says if they dont they dont play because they cannot hit if they dont. Second they must have the bat Kind of laid back with the top of the bat pointing at the back stop The flatter the better according to him. They Must lead with the knob of the bat pointed at the ball. They must be on the balls of their feet leaning forward toward the plate.
The bat must go directly to the ball with no cocking action at all And follow through is not nessary.

Now here's my problem, He is in charge ,He has lots of years coaching But I dont believe in this style And I will not coach it. His teams do not hit well. My youth teams always have.

So Is he right? Is this the correct thing and Im just stupid Cause his teams sure hit poorly.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I hope that your daughter isn't playing for him. Not just because of his coaching, but more his inability to research what he is teaching.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

This is my first post. I have coached Baseball and fastpitch for the last 10 years. A couple of years ago I started assisting at the local high School with the JV team. The head coach and I dissagree on one very important point. Hitting styles, Here's his theory : The hitter Must line up the Knuckles no matter what he says if they dont they dont play because they cannot hit if they dont. Second they must have the bat Kind of laid back with the top of the bat pointing at the back stop The flatter the better according to him. They Must lead with the knob of the bat pointed at the ball. They must be on the balls of their feet leaning forward toward the plate.
The bat must go directly to the ball with no cocking action at all And follow through is not nessary.

Now here's my problem, He is in charge ,He has lots of years coaching But I dont believe in this style And I will not coach it. His teams do not hit well. My youth teams always have.

So Is he right? Is this the correct thing and Im just stupid Cause his teams sure hit poorly.

At a glance, this sounds like really bad, indefensible advice.

And the results, or lack thereof, back this up.

 

[Ken Krause]

Yeow! This guy is all kinds of shades of wrong. Someone might want to point him toward this forum, or the USA Softball DVD set, or just about any other hitting information that's out there.

Hard to believe in this day and age that anyone would remain this ignorant. You almost have to go out of your way to do it.

 

[PEPPERS]

I run into this all the time, I try and get the best and most current information on hitting and you run into a coach or coaches who learned 20 years ago how to hit and are still teaching what they learned 20 years ago. We have a MS coach and her dad is a summer team coach, who teach level shoulders, hands to the ball, squash the bug and stand as close to the plate as the ump will allow. If you don’t hit this way you don’t make the team, sad to say many good players are discouraged and quit. I see this follow the players to high school where the lack of productive hitting continues.

If you say something it’s who do you think you are I’ve been playing and coaching 30 years, and you want to say well 30 is about the number of runs you scored in those 30 years.

I tell my daughter to ignore the instructions and continue what has made you successful. This weekend she was 7 for 13 and 8 walks in 8 games they lost the first three and came through the loser bracket to win the tournament.

 

[druer]

1. "The bat must go directly to the ball with no cocking action at all And follow through is not nessary" --- I don't see many boxers that look that way. Our natural motion for attacking something is to load up (coil) and then explode. Of course that's if you want to knock someone out. He may be more the "goalie" kind of person who just wants to protect the catchers mitt from being hit with the pitch. Who knows?

2. Knuckles - I'm a knocking-knuckle kind of person when girls need that kind of adjustment. Some have consistent line drives without it, and I'm sure not going to change something that's been working for them.

3. The odds that you change his mind are slim to none. However, one thing that I share with others all of the time is to try and get him informed in a subtle, friendly way out of love instead. Raise the money to send he and his wife out of town on a mini-retreat where there just happens to be some kind of softball clinic going on. No comments like "you suck and I sure hope you learn something." Just "You've put so much time into the girls this year and your wife has sacrificed so much by giving you up to the team we wanted to send you both away on a little retreat. While you are at this 4 hour clinic on Saturday we've booked her for some time in the spa."

 

[wild man]

Yes my Daughter will be playing for him. And no you cant change his mind. Many have tried and none are sucessfull. Several girls refused Varsity because of him. had a pretty good time at JV though. I am afraid I am at a loss here talking to him is futile, Because Yes he has been at it 30 years and will listen to no one Thanks for the Replies.

 

[CoachKevin]

Have the exact same deal at our HS. In fact it was even worse when the Varsity coach and I were together with a Fall team. He was showing the girls how to hit and turned to me and asked, "Don't you agree?" I had to say No in front of the team, which I didn't want to do, but I also couldn't say yes to the same method as the OP.

I even go a little further and asked if it would be possible to have Howard Kobota out to run a clinic. The response I got was, never heard of him, we don't need to spend that kind of money when we can teach defense. All the while the kids are booting balls left and right.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Coach Kevin .... If you do a Kobota clinic in Oregon, let me know. Love the guy's energy and drills.

 

[PEPPERS]

I recently purchased the Kobota tapes and although they were a few things I didn’t totally agree with my daughter and I got a lot of good tips, and some great drills from the tapes. He goes a hundred miles an hour and you have to watch it a few times to absorber all he shows and explains.

I would think a clinic from him would be better where you could stop and ask questions.