Rotational Cues for New Batters

[Jake Patterson]

I have been tasked with developing a basic expected skill per age group matrix.

What would be on your list of initial cues for brand new hitters? (5-8 y/o)

[GFK]

Jake,

Cues are so vague to a youth hitter that they end up being interpretted in a million ways. I would suggest that if one is to use a cue, it be backed up with some video to show what the desired result is.

I have heard cues that I think coaches throw out because they want to feel like they are doing something but, IMO, neither the coach or the kid have a firm grasp of the desired motion.

Then with that little thing known as the action-perception gap, you have coaches demonstrating moves improperly. Best to use video to put a mental image in the hitters head to go along with the cue.

Besides, if the coaches / dads had to backup a cue with some video of a MLB'er doing the desired motion, it would weed out a lot of the crap.

[Jake Patterson]

Jake,

Cues are so vague to a youth hitter that they end up being interpretted in a million ways. I would suggest that if one is to use a cue, it be backed up with some video to show what the desired result is.

I have heard cues that I think coaches throw out because they want to feel like they are doing something but, IMO, neither the coach or the kid have a firm grasp of the desired motion.

Then with that little thing known as the action-perception gap, you have coaches demonstrating moves improperly. Best to use video to put a mental image in the hitters head to go along with the cue.

Besides, if the coaches / dads had to backup a cue with some video of a MLB'er doing the desired motion, it would weed out a lot of the crap.

Agree, but I am looking at this in the context of the new coach with limited experience at the 4-8 y/o level. I am able to get all our coaches together and it seems when we use a legitimate hitting instructor they become quickly overwhelmed.

It would be great to have these coaches in a position to be able to teach Level-1 (Whatever that may be) before recommending additional instructions. Most of the discussion here seems to be centered around those who have a basic understanding of the swing. I am attempting to train those who don't. Make sense?

[chesspirate]

teaching youth at that level may be the hardest thing for any coach to do. I commend you in your efforts.

As far as any real suggestions, i've been honestly searching for something that may be useful, simple and hopefully a 'cue' that is understood by many (if not all). So... the only two things i could suggest for the under 8yr old crowd would be the 'athletic stance' wich should be somewhat easily understood. And then turning their chests to the ball.

I'm almost afraid to say these things, but for that age group, this is where i would start.

[swingbuster]

Sorry this is long but I wrote this for Webball once and it might help coaches teaching this group.This is a very important topic


1. Keep the barrel / hands cocked( bat 90 degres to forearm and the lead elbow bent the same

2 Keep the lead elbow behind the belly button

If you look at the line from the shoulder joint, down the lead arm across the forearm and back up the bat it forms a U. We form the U then rock the U like a baby until the elbow tip is behind the belly button.
We relax and maintain this U until the front foot gets down. The rest is a no teach then.....Don't worry too much about lower body mechanics... try to keep them somewhere between the balls of their feet

See it and hit it


Keeping those two lever angles maintained and the shoulders back to foot plant( and they can see the elbow to belly button reference) will yield all the power you need at that level.

The loopy pitch will make forming a good front side base( moving the COG) hard as the pitch is coming down and ball fear is a factor as well. That why Epstein stuff works well in this group

They will " squish the bug" more and you would too if I sent you a loopy pitch coming down diagonally across your chest and I threw half the balls at you .

If you watch how many kids lose the hinge angle on the first move or never form it and then correct that only and watch the kids hit that keep those hands cocked until foot plant you will be amazed. You cannot release a hinge angle on the ball that is not maintained. Nothing else matters if you break the hinge angle down prematurely. We preload those angles and teach it in the set up. You can do that with this limber kids and not cause tension. If you expect them to assume these positions dynamically against a pitched ball then I want to play you next.


Proof

Hold you lead elbow over you lead pocket and stride to balance and rotate your hips...nothing happens so you must push and cast

Now turn the shoudlers back maintaining two eye contact on pitcher and get the lead elbow behind the belly button stride to balance and turn the hips left...your connected.

That is what happens with kids



That is all you can coach at that age. I have tested this pretty well over about 13 years

Cock it, cock it , cock it, cock it, 1000 times...Keep it cocked keep it cocked.....5000 times. Make them leave that angle intact as the stride begins and to foot plant. Even from the coaching box at first,,,cock it, cock it. THey must know what that means and you must even remind some of them on every pitch when the popcorn is cooking and the people are screaming....man that is fun

We won a lot doing that.

I had a kid that hit 7 HRS for me that I had to say "cock it" on every pitch. He never learned between at bats. Bat cocked at foot plant and he killed the ball. If he failed to form the hinge angle in the set up he casted. It is the difference between a " rocket and a fizzle"

[Chris O'Leary]

So... the only two things i could suggest for the under 8yr old crowd would be the 'athletic stance' wich should be somewhat easily understood. And then turning their chests to the ball.

I agree with both of these.

It seems elementary, but I have found that taking an athletic stance is not an automatic (and thus it's something that distinguishes a good hitter from a mediocre hitter). I see a lot of kids who have played baseball for several years still stand there completely stiff-legged with their feet too close together.

I define an athletic stance as feet shoulder width apart with the knees bent and the butt out.

Other things that better hitters do...

1. Proper positioning of the hands. Hands back. Ready to swing quickly. No huge hitches.

2. Proper positioning of the bat. Able to get into the plane of rotation relatively easily.

3. Swinging middle-out. Swinging from the hips, and not the shoulders (or the feet). Hips rotating (just) ahead of the shoulders.

[GFK]

Jake,

You may be better off giving them a list of cues not to use.

Hands to the ball
squish the bug
swing down on the ball

Would be the three big no-no's in my book.

Tell them you will beat them to within an inch of their life if they use these cues.

Best bet would be to find a clip of a really simple (static load no stride) MLB swing and let the coaches / hitters watch it. Then tell them to try to mimic the movements.

[Texas Aggie]

As a coach I like to use cues as things to look for to see if a player is performing the task effectively.

But it's usually not a very good way to actually teach a player how to perform the task.

[Jake Patterson]

I define an athletic stance as feet shoulder width apart with the knees bent and the butt out.


I would add the back remains straight with the head up, player on the balls of their feet.

[Jake Patterson]

Jake,

You may be better off giving them a list of cues not to use.

Hands to the ball
squish the bug
swing down on the ball

Would be the three big no-no's in my book.



And yet these remain three of the most popular.

[chesspirate]

And yet these remain three of the most popular.
I can't read/hear your tone.
Are you saying that they are still the most popular despite their shortcomings?
Or are you saying that people still use them for a reason?
Just looking for clarification, thanks.

[Jake Patterson]

I can't read/hear your tone.
Are you saying that they are still the most popular despite their shortcomings?
Or are you saying that people still use them for a reason?
Just looking for clarification, thanks.
Tone is a great flaw with on line communications.

I am saying that many still use those three cues as key instructional steps

[Sultan_1895-1948]

Good subject. Some good posts.

Cues are a tough thing since you don't know if it registers until you either see results or you don't. If something works you can build off of that. Sometimes kids surprise you with what they "get".

One thing...not sure if it has been mentioned, is to stay loose and relaxed. Kids sometimes feel they need to grip the bat extremely tight and their bodies resemble statues. Important for the kid to feel an internal rhythm...even a slight back and forth rocking from front foot to back foot, and some slight bat movement. Doesn't have to be like Sheff...even a guy like Pujols has very little hand movement but he has a rhythm when he holds his hands high, and then brings them down in three different steps before the pitch. Timing and rhythm, staying relaxed and focused.

[Ursa Major]

Jake said, "I am saying that many still use those three cues as key instructional steps" . . .... and I'm sure Jake meant to convey that it is unfortunate that they do.

Swingbuster's advice -- if distilled down a bit and converted into language appropriate for the age group is pretty darn accurate. Bravo.

I hesitate to think of cues as something that you give to coaches in the abstract. I think cues almost always have to be in response to what kids are doing that you want to change. Heck, "squish the bug" may be an okay cue for a kid whose stride and balance are good but just simply doesn't finish his rotation; the risk of course is that he'll spin in place.

For abstract guidelines for coaches and kids, I'd be more inclined to think in terms of "checkpoints" before the swing starts.
Feet parallel and squared?
Posture correct? (Nipples pointing at the middle of the strike zone?)
Hands back at shoulder, rear elbow up, box created?

Then, when the swing starts, you have to look at the most obvious flaw and correct it first, rather than trying to have a dozen or so potential "cues" -- that'll just mess a kid's head up. The basic steps are something like:

1. Reach/fall forward with closed front foot and inner-turned front knee, keeping balance centered (which seems contradictory but really isn't);

2. Start the swing with the the hips;

3. Turn the rear shoulder down into the ball while keeping the hands back near that shoulder;

4. Rotate like crazy, and release the hands when the shoulders are almost perpendicular to the flight of the pitched ball.

Well, that's my advice, but it doesn't necessarily make for good "cues."

[EvanAparra]

What does Ursa Major mean?

[Ursa Major]

What does Ursa Major mean?

About what? I said a lot of things, with my main point being that "cues" as I think of them are little reminders to address one part of a complex series of body movements. Taking the example of swinging a bat, since you can't ask a kid to think about and address all parts his swing in the 4/10ths of a second that he has while th pitch is coming to the plate, you usually have to perform triage -- find the one or two biggest defects and come up with a reminder to overcome it.

Absurd example: In the movie Major League 2 there was a young catcher with a throwing problem caused by overanxiousness, but Jake Taylor (the interim manager) helped him overcome the problem by having him think of ladies' lingerie. Do we put that "cue" in Dave Weaver's DVD for catchers? No, but it worked for that particular player. (Okay, like I said, it's an absurd example to help make my point.)

So, of (say) 50 potential cues that you might give a kid depending on what flaws he needs to correct, you should stick with one or two at any given time with a particular kid. From his question, I don't think Jake wants to write down 50 cues, because most won't apply in a particular instance and may just confuse coaches who might apply them to the wrong kid.

Anyway, if there's something else you're referring to that I can clear, please let me know... if there's really enough meat to what I meant to say to make it worth your while to make any effort to try to understand it. Bear with me -- I suffer from a professional malady that impairs my ability to communicate clearly. (Jake knows what I mean... :lookitup )

[EvanAparra]

Oh god, after seeing all that you wrote, I feel kind of silly telling you what I meant...

[swingbuster]

UM

THanks for the vote of confidence and I will distill it further to what someone with credentials, Tony Gwynn, said

""When every good hitters front foot touches the ground the hands must come to cocked position""


THe swing is nanoseconds from beginning at toe touch and if the hinge angle is not formed you have nothing to hit with but an arm swing around the body with nothing to release, You must swap ends with that barrel on the ball

I would say ' You cannot fire what did not cock".

If you fix that in that age group you win.

I set the hinge angle in the waiting period to lead the knob. I know that cue is debatable but not in that group. They must cover too big of a strike zone and too may loopy pitches for you as a coach to try to control their weight shift too....just keep the hands back ( that is actually shoulders back) and the hands cocked. THey figure the rest out.

Simple

[chesspirate]

Swingbuster, not to take anything away from now Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, but if you asked other Major League hitters what needs to take place before the swing or in the load they would more than likely come up with more than just this one answer.

And that's the point here, we need to, as coaches, understand what is really going on physically speaking in the body and then, as coaches, determine what cues (and what Tony said could be seen as a cue) get the student to perform the appropriate actions.

And if you think i'm being silly, just ask your kids to get their hands to a cocked position when their stride foot lands and you'll find that there will be many different movement patterns and different positions all together, maybee not drastically, but different, and for optimal performance you know very well that little differences make big ones in the end.

So in the end, if you tell a kid to 'cock' something or 'load' something a coach better know what is really trying to be achieved, what the end result should be so that they don't plainly, dryly,and artificially just run around telling their hitters to "'cock' before you go" and then just leaving the kid while they may not be performing swing movements in the proper ways.

[ctandc]

I've read through this thread...and you guys must have be dealing with mensa kids. Most kids learn by visual cues. My just turned 10 year old started hitting rotational before he was 9. I didn't think of it as a 'high level swing' I've never used those words to him. I simply asked him if wanted to learn to hit the ball HARDER.

The majority of all the kids I see, even several of the kids on the team I coach who's Dad's still think "throw the hands to the ball" need physical and mental cues to make the connection to hitting with a rotational style.

Want the light bulb to go off in a kid's head? Try this...

Have him hold the bat like he normally would. Ready, in his normal batting stance, to hit the ball.

Now ask him what swings the bat...he'll say "hand" or "arms". Don't say anything.

Now tell him to try and hold the bat perfectly STILL and NOT to move his arms.

Know kneel down behind him and grab his waist. Rotate his waist with your hands. Then hold / freeze him at full rotation.

Now..ask him if his hands moved. Most times they will say "no" as they try to move them back, because the entire top half, hands were attached to the top half last time I checked, moved when the hips turned.

Try it again. Then have him LOOK where his hands / bat are now, after rotating. Ask him if he tried to move 'em, he'll say no. Most times he'll say "I couldn't hold them still like you said, because you turned my body.."

BINGO.

Each kid needs different cues for whatever they are trying to learn, because each kid is different. To me, that's the most challenging part of TEACHING these kids is finding out what WORKS FOR EACH KID and keeping that in mind.

I've got a couple of kids that I tell "hit the ball with your BUTT!!!!" and they GET THAT..others don't. That's the difference...again in my lowly opinion.


Our team recently ran a clinic with the local college coach / his staff and several of his players. He videotaped each kid hitting in the cage to live BP.

All of out kids on the team where there. These coaches were drooling waiting on a nugget of wisdom that would turn their kid into the next HOF'r. Do you know what he said?

"These kids are 10?"

Perception is everything. Personally, I want as little on my hitters' minds when they step into the batter's box as possible. Each has a different cue they focuso on that helps them. I promote that. "see the ball", "wait on the pitch", "trust your swing", "hit it hard somewhere" etc etc.


By no means am I saying I know how to 'teach the high-level swing'....hell maybe it's pure luck that our team routinely has the strongest offense in every tourney we play. But first and foremost they are NOT timid at the plate...they are aggressive and want to hit it HARD.

I played into college then got hurt. So I've played a bit of baseball. I know some about the game. And I have a hard time trying to follow some of these conversations and terminology. Guess that makes me stupid. But I wonder how many 10 years olds....or 12 year olds can follow any of it.

I'm sure that the guys here who teach the kids don't come across like they do here...but I wonder how much clearer and shorter these posts would be if the guys who do successfully teach kids how to hit better, simply relayed the info to adults like they do to the kids..


Just my 2 cents..

[joof]

Swingbuster

What Tony Gwynn doesn't address in this quote is how hitters achieve this goal. IMO, therein lies the problem with many cues.

front foot touches the ground the hands must come to cocked position

What I see is that many cues amount to emulating observed movement patterns that are really reactive in nature - resulting from some other movement pattern. I believe the pattern you like(could be offered as a cue ) and I think does occur naturally when loading the scapula is BHUT. You can execute this positioning with hands and arms or let it be a result of scapula loading.

What I am saying is that many cues are based on observed "form" without stress or teaching the underlying function that produces this "form" in a reactive manner. There are several examples of these:

front shoulder down and in at end of stride, tipping the bat, front knee down and in with raised heel during loading of hips, locking out front leg in concert with hip rotation and, loading hips by actively counter rotating hips ......

all of these can be produced reactively or proactively(single focus cue)


Thanks, joof

[swingbuster]

What Tony Gwynn doesn't address in this quote is how hitters achieve this goal. IMO, therein lies the problem with many cues.


Quote:
front foot touches the ground the hands must come to cocked position


I think Tony offered it as an absolute not a cue. The how is up to the coach. But if the above doesn't happen the swing is doomed.

It can be done in the vertical plane BHUT, the 45 slot, points in between, preloaded or at scap load...doesn't matter .

It just must happen and based on my past LL time it doesn't very often.

SO it is a goal of a coach for his hitter no matter how he gets it done.

I guess that is my point

[jbooth]

Swingbuster

What Tony Gwynn doesn't address in this quote is how hitters achieve this goal. IMO, therein lies the problem with many cues.



What I see is that many cues amount to emulating observed movement patterns that are really reactive in nature - resulting from some other movement pattern. I believe the pattern you like(could be offered as a cue ) and I think does occur naturally when loading the scapula is BHUT. You can execute this positioning with hands and arms or let it be a result of scapula loading.

What I am saying is that many cues are based on observed "form" without stress or teaching the underlying function that produces this "form" in a reactive manner. There are several examples of these:

front shoulder down and in at end of stride, tipping the bat, front knee down and in with raised heel during loading of hips, locking out front leg in concert with hip rotation and, loading hips by actively counter rotating hips ......

all of these can be produced reactively or proactively(single focus cue)


Thanks, joof

I agree with you, and what I'm about to post is not directed specifically to you, it is a general statement pertaining to this thread.

You can't teach with "cues." By definition a "CUE" is a hint, or reminder, or prompt to help one remember what to say or do. A performer on live TV has a prompter with "Cue cards" that help him if he forgets a line that he supposedly had already memorized. Live plays have a prompter that gives an actor a "cue" to help him remember his line if he forgets it.

You have to teach the hitter "what" he needs to do, and it helps to also explain "why" it needs to be done a certain way, and then he must figure out, with some help, "how" to do it. Then, once the student has successfully executed the move, you can create any one or more "cues" to prompt, and/or remind the student what needs to be done.

Teaching with a cue is like expecting an actor to recite a line he has never read, from a cue to the line. It can't be done. You need to define what movements the cue relates to, then teach the move, then use the cue as a reminder.

[GFK]

...Cues are so vague to a youth hitter that they end up being interpretted in a million ways. I would suggest that if one is to use a cue, it be backed up with some video to show what the desired result is.

I have heard cues that I think coaches throw out because they want to feel like they are doing something but, IMO, neither the coach or the kid have a firm grasp of the desired motion.

Then with that little thing known as the action-perception gap, you have coaches demonstrating moves improperly. Best to use video to put a mental image in the hitters head to go along with the cue.

Besides, if the coaches / dads had to backup a cue with some video of a MLB'er doing the desired motion, it would weed out a lot of the crap.

...You can't teach with "cues." By definition a "CUE" is a hint, or reminder, or prompt to help one remember what to say or do. ...

You have to teach the hitter "what" he needs to do, and it helps to also explain "why" it needs to be done a certain way, and then he must figure out, with some help, "how" to do it. Then, once the student has successfully executed the move, you can create any one or more "cues" to prompt, and/or remind the student what needs to be done. ...

What Jim is suggesting is goes along with my first post in this thread. If you can get the kid to perform some aspect of the swing correctly, then associate that motion with some buzz word, when he deviates from the correct motion, you can possibly bring him back by calling up the motion in his memory by use of the cue. If you want to use a cue, it has to call up a mental image of the proper motion or recall previous correct movement patterns.

Does this mean more homework on the part of the coaches and dads? Yes it does. Does this mean more work for the hitter? Yes it does. If you want shortcuts, I don't know of any. If anyone finds one that works, let me know.

Usually the guys coaching the lower age brackets are the dads or moms with little knowledge of mechanics but good intentions. In my "perfect world", the coaches with a firm grasp of mechanics and how to teach them would be teaching down in the lower age levels. If the kids can start off in the right direction, they will have to do a lot less un-learning / deprogramming. Un-learning / deprogramming is much harder than simply learning the correct mechanics the first time.

[NewbieBBDad]

There's a softball instructor at our batting cage and I have been watching him train many many girls there who all seem to be very good hitters.

He's pure rotation when it comes to the swing, the body, and maintaining the box. The funny thing I noticed was that all of his girls hold the bat the same way, none of them ever EVER load, none of them stride, and every head remains very still.

So I had to ask him why he teaches that way and he says it's the simplest swing he can give them, less was more to him. And his girls make very good contact and rotate very well along the perpendicular swing plane.

Maybe this is a good method to introduce to young kids, skip the striding and loading (for now) and just focus on the rotation and maintaining the box. Then add these other elements later.

To answer the original poster's question I think showing kids what the box is with a Tee is important. Because I see so many kids doing the power V at contact on a Tee. Crouching and learning to swing by dropping the shoulder down is another suggestion I would make. The problem I have seen is most Tees are too tall for most kids to do the crouching and dropping the shoulder mechanisms.

[MSandman]

ctandc,

You're not the first to insinuate that you have had great success w/ "this or that" cue/drill/instruction. And as I said in the other thread, I too have had a lot of success w/ my teams always being one of the top hitting teams in the league. Yet I have video of the whole team and most of their swings would get ripped apart far more than my son's (mostly by me ;)).

I suggest it's about time for you to post a video clip of one or more of your hitters. I seriously can't imagine many 9 or 10YOs w/ swings any different than the myriad of kid swings we've seen on forums over the past 5+ years. So I hope you'll understand my polite skepticism w/ your "you guys make this too complicated" inferences.

[Jake Patterson]

Does this mean more homework on the part of the coaches and dads? Yes it does. Does this mean more work for the hitter? Yes it does. If you want shortcuts, I don't know of any. If anyone finds one that works, let me know.

I don't disagree with any of the last few posts. The target group I am attempting to reach are those players who parents or coaches will not put in the time.

The situation is this- we make it manditory for our coaches to attend a coaches clinic. Our feeling is being a volunteer coach does not relinquish your responsibility to do the job properly. Most go to learn - a few go to meet the requirement. Unfortunate - yes, but it is what it is. Through our commitment to training the problem continues to get better, but we still have a few.

Given the above how do we provide coaches' basic training that will allow players to further develop?

[cartersball]

Jake, just an idea here, but my LL used an outside source to teach some of the elements of hitting and pitching instruction to volunteer coaches. We used a couple of instructors from a local hitting facility. Now mind you, thier points of view on the swing may not be the same as yours or anyone elses for that matter. I guess you could check out the local facilities and get some idea of a teachers hitting philosophy. I totally agree with your statement regarding volunteer coaches. They should be taught in order to teach. I also understand your endeavor to come up with a plan of action to present to them. I too took on this endeavor until we as a league decided that it would be easier to find an outside source. The decsion was made based on the same thing I see going on here: too many different points of view. I have learned over the last year or so that although we may not agree on what we say, when we see it in real life we tend to find that we are in fact saying the same thing only with different words.

[Aussie Al]

G'day all

I have a different position on all this . I believe cues for kids under 10 is a waste of time. Most of the kids I coached responded to goals. one of the drills I used was to bounce tennis balls at them and tell them to hit me !!!

If the hitter was really bad I would swap the bat for a tennnis raquet. Gives instant feedback and results. Make sure hand alignment is in line with raquet face for best results. Works well on pitch plane for thier feed back as they can see the effects of hitting too far in front or too flat or when and if thier wrist rolls too early

If the hitter was o.k I would ask him to to hit to my left (for a righty) and give points for successful hits. Forces inside out and/or wrist unload. I would also pitch at the better hitters with tennis balls.

Let them find thier own way of trying to achieve thier goal.

They do try to cheat on these drills by turning,closing off to the pitcher or hitting softly but let them hit the goal first then bring in the rules, i.e. all hits have to be full speed or hit off a balance beam so they can't cheat.

Tennis balls also take away fear, only go distance if hit square and doesn't hurt when you get hit.

Just another point of view.

Alan

[Jake Patterson]

Jake, just an idea here, but my LL used an outside source to teach some of the elements of hitting and pitching instruction to volunteer coaches.

In addition to our coaches' training we are looking at providing training on weekend mornings for the players.

[Jake Patterson]

G'day all

I have a different position on all this . I believe cues for kids under 10 is a waste of time.
Alan

Hi Alan Welcome to BBF...

I am at the tale end (10 years) of developing a training process and am trying to reach the last few percentage of coaches who are more baby sitters than coaches. They do not want, nor in some cases able to put in the time necessary to learn how to teach.

Given this - I imagine a scenario something like, "Look guys, if you do nothing else get the kids to do the following three items..."

More of a "do no harm" mentality.

Hopefully Sandman will visit us this year and see what we do.

[cartersball]

In addition to our coaches' training we are looking at providing training on weekend mornings for the players.

As we have done also. We spent a tremendous amount of time this past summer dealing with the local colleges and area high schools to provide the players this past fall with as many camps/clinics as possible. I had never considered the LL level to be a "feeder" program for these places until I talked to some of the coaches at the high school level. They seriously consider our league as a feeder program for thier future. As do the local colleges, due to the fact that it is much cheaper to recruit within state than it is to recruit out of state. They were more than willing to provide a free or low cost clinic staffed by thier coaches and players. Again, the instruction must be checked out beforehand, but it is well worth the time investment.

[Chris O'Leary]

I don't disagree with any of the last few posts. The target group I am attempting to reach are those players who parents or coaches will not put in the time.

The situation is this- we make it manditory for our coaches to attend a coaches clinic. Our feeling is being a volunteer coach does not relinquish your responsibility to do the job properly. Most go to learn - a few go to meet the requirement. Unfortunate - yes, but it is what it is. Through our commitment to training the problem continues to get better, but we still have a few.

Given the above how do we provide coaches' basic training that will allow players to further develop?

If you taught guys just one thing, then I would teach them that the swing should start in the hips, not the shoulders, feet, or hands.

If you taught them two things, then I would teach them that a hitter's primary power source is the muscles of their torso, not the muscles of their hands, wrists, or arms. The same rule applies to the golf swing or the throwing motion.

IOW, swing with your body and not your arms (or your hands).

Also, you might get guys attention if you promised to teach them how to improve their golf swing; that means swinging from the hips and not the shoulder. Teach them that the principles of the golf swing and the baseball swing are similar.