Baseball is our language Baseball is our gender Baseball is our choice of sport Baseball is our colour Baseball is our persuasion Baseball is our flavour Baseball is our tolerance Baseball is our orientation Baseball is our affiliation Baseball is our culture.  

"Me vería como un hombre indigno, si fuera capaz de asegurar lo que no estoy cierto de cumplir"

Simon Bolivar

Pedro Figueras writes on 2009-11-23 for AllExperts > Experts 
Keys to Youth Swing Development

Greetings everyone!

Drawing from my direct personal experiences as a player and coach, discipline and absolute determination makes all the difference in the world when it issues us challenges and, indeed, I fully agree with Coach Perl about the advice he gave to Paul Stevens in regard to hands dropping. Yeah! The tee ball drill will enable a coach to help young players to correct deficiencies in their swing while teaching them batting fundamentals that must be acquired in order to be a good hitter of the ball. It is of paramount importance that the correct grip of the bat and the correct stance are shown to the learner. Albeit the stance is elementary it is a very important issue in swing development. Feet just a litter bit wider than the shoulders, the knees bent, the hands must be at shoulder height and close to the body. The bat should be in a vertical position, the back elbow down, the head level so that the tracking eye has a clear line of sight to the ball and the bat must be kept still before the swing is executed. Certainly, a tee ball is not pitched to the batters and the ball must be hit from a stationary position, placed in front of a home base. A Constant batting objective is the shifting of weight towards the back leg before taking a short stride with the front leg while the foot, the front hip and shoulder remain closed. The hands move backwards and the leading arm stretches across the chest (Watch for bat wrapping and for hands dropping), turn the back foot at a 90 degree angle. Watch for front shoulder, and the hip opening, this should produce a strong hip rotation. The belly button must be pointing to where the ball goes after it has been hit and the bat should be driven by the legs and hips, not hands, ensuring that the player makes a solid contact with the ball towards the fielders. From the coaching point of view repeatedly hitting the ball off the tee will improve a player's swing and at the same time he will discover that there is a sweet spot on the bat at the end of the barrel when he makes a clean contact with the ball.

Pedro Figueras
Head Coach