Swing Coach
07-28-2008, 10:21 AM
Some interesting stuff here about which hand is dominant, which leads me into this thread: Am I right here?:
The reason a lefty swing looks so "sweet" is because most lefty swingers are naturally dominant w/their right hands. When they were young, their weaker left hands didn't get in the way of the barrell dropping and getting on plane with the pitch early. Why do you think the lefty's hit the low balls?
The right-handed swingers they grew up against were more top hand swingers..down at the ball and often never were able to tilt their shoulders and get the bat on plane early because that strong top hand wanted to whip the barrell straight to the ball. THis swing does not look so "sweet". I instruct grade-schoolers to college-age and not getting on plane with the pitch early is a major problem with righty's and rarely with lefty's.
This is very evident in my (scrawny) 9-year-old's swing. He is right-hand dominant and hits lefty. He is great at getting bat on plane and hitting low balls. But he is so weak with his top (left) hand he struggles with high balls and faster pitchers and strikes out a lot. I have had him do top hand drills once in a while just to get him to use it at all. Sometimes he wants to hit righty because he feels stronger, but I don't let him right now because I feel he is developing a mechanically sound swing and having fun playing. His batting average was around .200 this summer, but give him a wiffel bat (or hitting stick) and he can out hit every kid on his team.
Like most lefty's, as he grows and gets stronger, the idea is that his top (weaker) hand will get stronger and he will develop the balance needed (as stated in a previous thread about both hands needing to work together) without losing the good swing plane.
SO THE QUESTION: Is this the formula to how many of the left-handed hitters (but right hand dominant) in the mlb were developed and why they are often looked at as having "sweet" swings?
I think so...and this is why I always recommend to parents to have their right-handed kids learn early to stand on the "other" side of the plate.
The reason a lefty swing looks so "sweet" is because most lefty swingers are naturally dominant w/their right hands. When they were young, their weaker left hands didn't get in the way of the barrell dropping and getting on plane with the pitch early. Why do you think the lefty's hit the low balls?
The right-handed swingers they grew up against were more top hand swingers..down at the ball and often never were able to tilt their shoulders and get the bat on plane early because that strong top hand wanted to whip the barrell straight to the ball. THis swing does not look so "sweet". I instruct grade-schoolers to college-age and not getting on plane with the pitch early is a major problem with righty's and rarely with lefty's.
This is very evident in my (scrawny) 9-year-old's swing. He is right-hand dominant and hits lefty. He is great at getting bat on plane and hitting low balls. But he is so weak with his top (left) hand he struggles with high balls and faster pitchers and strikes out a lot. I have had him do top hand drills once in a while just to get him to use it at all. Sometimes he wants to hit righty because he feels stronger, but I don't let him right now because I feel he is developing a mechanically sound swing and having fun playing. His batting average was around .200 this summer, but give him a wiffel bat (or hitting stick) and he can out hit every kid on his team.
Like most lefty's, as he grows and gets stronger, the idea is that his top (weaker) hand will get stronger and he will develop the balance needed (as stated in a previous thread about both hands needing to work together) without losing the good swing plane.
SO THE QUESTION: Is this the formula to how many of the left-handed hitters (but right hand dominant) in the mlb were developed and why they are often looked at as having "sweet" swings?
I think so...and this is why I always recommend to parents to have their right-handed kids learn early to stand on the "other" side of the plate.