The "Enlighten me" thread is closed

[Cannonball]

sluggers, so your from the Chicagoland? Ken as well. I'm "downstate" in the metro east (St. Louis) portion of Illinois. DD's 15 and a soph. We play a couple of times in Bloomington each year during the summer. While Bloomington isn't Chicagoland, it's still north to us.

Ken & Sluggers, I suspended myself for a few days due to my part in some of these arguments. I'm not innocent. I know some of these guys and they are great guys. We simply don't agree on hitting. Still, most would help anyone out. A lot of us here have been through several methods. I think the majority argue here because they think what they believe in is the best and only want to steer members to those ideas that they believe in. Unfortunately, we're all so "right" that we sometimes are "wrong."

 

[Mark H]

My DDs went to Mark Doran probably 10+ years ago. At that time, what he was teaching was pretty radical. Basically, the approach was weight shift, no stride, hands to the ball, finish. He emphasized getting the hands to the ball as fast as possible, so the hands would lead the body. I'm not sure what that means in the world of 'rotational, combinational, linear' batting.

You guys can debate whether his method is correct or not. He produces results. My DDs junior year in HS, she didn't hit when she pitched because she was so bad. After six months of lessons with Mark, she was named Chicago Tribune softball player of the week--because of her hitting, not her pitching.

Sometimes, we forget that coaching is teaching, and good teaching is more important than a perfect theory. Mark is a big BSer and teases the kids like crazy. The kids love him, so they work harder.

The important thing is your DD enjoyed herself. Scott has said many times that each of these systems, violently implemented, will produce results. I would add, the best of them haphazardly and infrequently worked at, will likely not produce results. If the question becomes who is teaching what the best do, everyone will have to answer that question for themselves as neither baseball nor softball has an accepted body of knowledge about what constitutes a good swing. For the average parent without biomechanical expertise and a working knowledge of physics, the best method I know of for making that decision is comparing what everyone says to slow motion video of the best hitters. Siggy's Hitting Clips - ImageEvent Having said that, if a kid is hitting as well as they want to at the highest level they aspire to, "don't fix what ain't broke".