The Swing...

[deaconspoint]

If you were going to pick one player or swing clip to have a young kid try and emulate, who's would it be? There are a lot of "best" out there I know, but who's would you say shows good fundamentals, mechanics, and can be broken down most easily for the young guns out there. Not to mention the fathers who are trying to help them learn.

Thanks,

Tim

[Mark H]

I'd look for different models for different kids depending on physical charateristics, tools and movement pattern tendencies.

[chesspirate]

I know a lot may disagree with me here, but I like Adam Dunn. The way he rotates, keeps the bat in the rotational path of the body, uses posture to get to balls, i like a lot of his stuff, not a lot of extra pre-swing movement either.

I would like to see a clip of him from the oppsing batters box though (any clip libraries have that?)

if you take the hand pump out of it, Bond's swing would be easy to teach, the pump is necessary for him to get to where he needs to be, but i think it could be adjusted for teaching little ones more simply.

[MrUniverse09]

Most definitely Griffey. The smoothest, prettiest swing I've ever seen.

[chesspirate]

i don't remember ever getting a good explanation of why it's okay for Griffey to drop his hands during rotation.

Seems to me he makes more location adjustments with his hands, but still rotates the bat around the body.

Anyone have a nice explanation for me?

[dougmac]

If you were going to pick one player or swing clip to have a young kid try and emulate, who's would it be? There are a lot of "best" out there I know, but who's would you say shows good fundamentals, mechanics, and can be broken down most easily for the young guns out there. Not to mention the fathers who are trying to help them learn.

Thanks,

Tim

If you want to emulate a modern day player, John Olerud is the man. Very simple swing, stride, rotation. The whole deal and nothing complicated, just a great swing with no glitches.

If you have a real coordinated kid, then you could go with Ted Williams. More moves and actions to Ted's swing and it will take a better athlete to emulate him as opposed to Olerud, but if you can copy Ted's load, you will hit for more power.

[ncsouthpaw]

Cabrera seems to be pretty smooth.

Soriano gets alot out of his body, his swing must be pretty much optimized for his size.

[Williamsburg2599]

Depends for everyone really.What works for some won't work for most.Point in case:Ichiro:D.

[Jesse]

Ichiro has no place in this thread.:laugh

From what I've seen of him, I like Carlos Beltran. He's got a no-nonsense stance, a nice swing, and he hits right-handed like my son. We spent some time tonight watching slow motion replays of him hitting in the all star game.

[PullFactor]

I agree - Ichiro has no place in this thread.
Are you joking me? You would mention Ichiro, with the most awkward, difficult stance which, if misemulated, would do who knows what to a kid's swing? Who's AVG is lower than that of players like Alex Rodriguez, Joe Mauer (disregard following power statements for him), and the just past rookie Alex Rios (who's arm and fielding skill far surpasses Ichiro's), who hit for power, smoke him in Home runs and RBIs, and still beat his average? How about Pujols and Ortiz? Arguably the game's two best hitters at present?
The only reason Ichiro gets all this hype is because he's more than arguably the best player on the worst team in the AL's easiest division. That's not to say he doesn't deserve it - but he's nothing more than a exceptional leadoff hitter.