Look away and React In Ruins Careers

"Look for something that you have the most time on and react to the thing you have the least amount of time on" The trainer tells his boxer, "Look for the knock out punch but react to the JAB" The teacher says, "rush through the hard questions and take your time on the easy ones." I think you get my point. I'm not sure when or how but in baseball it has become taboo to teach a kid to pull. Going the other way has become the holy grail like you get two hits if you hit a single to the opposite field. Everyone says, "stay inside the ball" even though I still have no clue what that actually means. I honestly feel like pitching coaches have disguised themselves as hitting coaches to make hitters easier to get out. My college coach used to have the last round of bp be an opposite field line drive stick round which even as a 21 year old kid I knew was wrong, like my line drive (as a LHH) to right doesn't count and also it guarantees that my last swing in bp is a bad one. I really like a feel good round to end bp. Once you hit a ball on the barrel get out so you can always end on a quality swing. Coaches are teaching kids to try to hit the ball to the opposite field and I don't know why. Good hitters hit the ball to the opposite field when they are late the right way or taking their knock on the ground through the hole. The worst part about this universal fetish for hitting the ball the other way is it is messing up kids mechanics. The majority of young guys I coach step closed because youth coaches tell kids to look away and react in. I am going to do at least 2 more posts on this topic with video so I am being very vague right now. However, for now I want to address two "fatal flaws" that more guys should try to do. 1. STEP IN THE BUCKET! 2. UPPERCUTS ARE GOOD! Pitching and hitting are very similar with the lower half but in hitting someone said you are suppose to land with a square/ closed front foot. Whoever came up with that must of been a pitcher. Tomorrow and the next day I will get into this more with video proof but this is good for an introduction. I will finish with the simple statement. Whatever your hitting philosophy is make sure that the big leaguers do it too. The biggest misconception I hear over and over is that amateur hitting coaches say, "that's big leaguers.... you can't teach a kid to do that" MLB hitters have to hit the best pitching in the world so their mechanics will work in the amateur world. Coaches are just not willing to teach it. Baseball is the only major sport where hitters look more like little leaguers mechanically then big leagers. This is because most hitters spend their whole career trying to prefect the first swing that was taught to them. The best players in the world are always looking to find a new mechanical edge, are you?