As Little League World Series Approaches, Controversy Still Brews Over How to Teach Hitting

A battle rages over whether a kid should hit with a "rotational" swing or a "linear" swing, often leaving kids and parents confused and frustrated.

Ventura, CA (PRWEB) August 13, 2006 -- "Throw your hands to the ball", "Don't Dip", "Squish the Bug", "Swing down on the ball". These are all things a Little League coach might say to one of their junior players.

The next coach he gets tells him all of those things are wrong, he's been watching frame by frame video of the best Major Leaguers and tells his kids that you need to "Dip the back shoulder to get on the plane of the pitch", "move your hands in a circular path", "point your back toe to China", "swing slightly up on the ball".

In some coaching circles, it seems to have come to a holy war, with each side deeply trenched in to their beliefs as to which is right.

There seems like there's no middle ground, which is probably correct, as it is impossible to swing down at the ball and slightly up at the same time.

So who's right? What happens if you have your child swinging one way and they get a coach that teaches the other way?

This is the confusion presented to many parents and kids. Many get so confused they don't perform their best trying to please more than one coach or style.

"Choosing either style and mastering the swing is better than getting confused and only doing a 50-60% effort of one or both styles", says Andy Collins, known as "the Internet Hitting Coach (www.theInternetHittingCoach.com), "especially at this age. They'll have time to make the pros later."

It doesn't hurt to get all the information you can, but it's difficult with the two sides saying the other is wrong, to know what to believe.

The coaches of the teams coming to Williamsport, PA, for the Little League World Series this next weak will have hitters of all types.

Collins calls the first type of swing a linear swing where kids hit the ball through the infield and line drives for base hits and with the short fences for some of these growing younsters, even home runs.

The other approach he calls a rotational style, which is designed to get more balls over the infielder's heads and thus more extra base hits and home runs.

It's been said that hitting a baseball is the single most difficult thing to do in all of sport, no need to make it harder.

Collins recently produced a video, "Rotational vs. Linear, Which Swing Helps You Hit Best" designed to provide coaches, parents and kids the proper way to hit both types of swings and discuss the pros and cons of each swing in hopes of leaving the viewers with an intelligent choice that they can then follow.

Which style will we see the most of this week? "The tide is turning toward the rotational swing, if the request for my free e-mail hitting lessons are any indication".

For more information or to receive the free hitting lessons visit Collins website, www.theInternetHittingCoach.com.

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