Teaching the high level pattern

[Eric F]

I don't think this thread has helped anyone with all the bitching and complaining back in forth. Newer guy commenting from a far.

How about all the legit coaches/instructors here, make your threads and then give information to help kids...so you can give something they can take, adapt and work with. Then we don't get the messy "my way is better" garbage filler.

The guy who started this thread is a legit coach/instructor, and is sharing information about what he teaches with his students, how he teaches it, and why he teaches it. I don't recall another time someone has been this illustrative about their methods.

There are some people who don't agree with what he teaches, and voice their opinions about it - such is the nature of discussion forums. Some of the back and forth comments between people are rooted in differences of opinion that go back a lot further than just the age of this thread.

 

[_MIA_]

Hitting is 40% reps, 50% natural ability and 10% instruction..

 

[Shawn]

Off speed has to be anticipated and recognized. You gotta load w the intent of hitting a fastball later. Then the body should be able to ‘stay back’ long enough to wait if something slower comes. I mentioned this in a post a few pages ago. Timing should be dictated by your situations/counts. With 2 strikes you concede ‘out front’ and back the ball up. If you happen to get an inside heater you gotta get to it earlier via the front foot or foul it off.

I don’t teach to stretch more. I find that just makes things to long throughout the course of the sequence. I like Ted and Bonds approach where the stride is shorter, the weight shift is tighter. They both gather back first then stride. More Controlled imo. Does that answer your question?

Think fastball hit change up. It just takes a tick.

Let me find Griffey making an adjustment, to me he had one of the greatest stretches ever and he could adjustment that stretch. You might think he is hitting two legged while making that adjustment. He holds the stretch, which yes he has the hands back farther away from the shoulders, front arm straight. Yes, you can hit that way just look at Ohtani, also great stretch.

Also, not all adjustments are as pretty. You can inside out the ball to right field, right into the HOF, Pudge, Jeter. That was their bread and butter.

But, What if you attack oppo, out from and adjust. Like the inside pitch, you can get the hands in front of the chest and let pitch come right into your arc. You don’t have to extend to hit an inside pitch.

Let’s dig deeper, huh?

 

[FP26]

Hitting is 40% reps, 50% natural ability and 10% instruction..

I think you are overestimating the value of instruction

 

[Rolling Hard]

Stretching the core eccentrically and concentrically. Disassociation. Getting the bb behind the hips.

English please. Maybe photos of video?

 

[Rolling Hard]

I don't think this thread has helped anyone with all the bitching and complaining back in forth. Newer guy commenting from a far.

How about all the legit coaches/instructors here, make your threads and then give information to help kids...so you can give something they can take, adapt and work with. Then we don't get the messy "my way is better" garbage filler.

example : I agree with the first couple minutes of this video BUT I don't agree with all of his stuff.

 

[Work=wins]

Mike tends to understate how much difference he made with Maddie's mechanics. There are some things that were outside of the HLP box that Mike and I both agree on. In my observations and discussions with Mike, he uses HLP as his framework, but stepping outside that framework isn't an issue if that's what's going to help that particular hitter.

I tried to help Maddie with hitting when she was young, but there came a time when she and I could no longer work together in a coach-student setting. For the years previous to Mike, Maddie was getting hitting instruction from her TB HC, much of which I didn't agree with (push the knob, etc.). During that time, Maddie and I discussed some concepts, and some of them made sense to her, but I wasn't directly instructing her. It was also during that time that I was sorting out what I believed about swing mechanics. Maddie's work with Mike, and the discussions Mike and I shared, helped me gain a lot of clarity about what the HLP is, and why it makes sense.

Again, my point is that a "system" - HLP, or something else - is only "cookie cutter" if the teacher isn't adapting their lessons to the individual needs of the student, and how that student processes and applies those lessons. The end goal may be a swing that has a lot of common mechanical parts, but may or may not look the same. If I recall from the clips you have shared of your DD and another hitter you have worked with, they both have some common movement patterns and some similarities in their appearance. Such is the nature of things when you're working from an established set of beliefs about what is involved in high-quality swing mechanics.

EDIT: One of the things I admire most about Mike as a teacher is that he is constantly learning and trying to become a more effective instructor.

The more you learn the more you realize that there isn’t one way. There are a few absolutes. Not many. I teach loading in the s plane and in the frontal plane as well. Dependent on whether the kid can rotate effectively. Mike teaches ‘around the rear leg which produces vertical force but not much rotational force. I teach both.

These things aren’t available w the HLP pattern. You must do it this way etc etc. this is why Maddie needed a toe tap before. Things like this aren’t even considered w HLP. You went off and found that yourself. The system confines things.

The more you’re one legged the more you gotta TTB. Get it? This is what I meant by limp concepts. There’s nothing effortless about HLP. It’s all violent actions bc nothing flows.

 

[_MIA_]

I think you are overestimating the value of instruction

I was trying to be deferential to all the illegitimate coaches on here

 

[Rolling Hard]

Hitting is 40% reps, 50% natural ability and 10% instruction..

If natural ability is timing, eye/hand/barrel coordination and core strength, I would up that % to 70. For example if you get a young gymnast or marshal artist your instruction becomes so much more natural.

 

[_MIA_]

If natural ability is timing, eye/hand/barrel coordination and core strength, I would up that % to 70. For example if you get a young gymnast or marshal artist your instruction becomes so much more natural.

Sure but how many MLB’ers started playing baseball in HS? P5 hitters in softball? Not many…

I will say this , bad instruction can probably do more harm than good instruction can give benefit because bad instruction can rob a kid of their athleticism at the plate..