what should i do?

Question

i just made the high school baseball team. yesterday we were taking batting practice and the coach said that i am hitting fantastic but i need to keep the bat straight not like an angle. i mean like if you ever seen jeter swing a bat, is an angular swing not striaght across the plate. and my shoulder is "dropping" too much. i just noticed before how jeter swings and my shoulder comes down like his(i'm not trying to look like a pro or copy jeter). i have been doing fantastic hitting with my normal swing and it is hard for me to swing the way the coach told me to. should i tell him to look at the way jeter swings and tell him that i am more comfortable and hit better with my normal swing?

Answer 1

The biggest mistake that any minor league coach makes is telling players to keep their shoulder up. I saw a video with the Toronto Blue Jays hitting instructor a couple of years ago and he touched on this topic. Alot of big league players have very unorthodox styles-Sheffield-Counsell-Batista and even Pete Rose comes to mind. If it aint' broke don't fix it. If it is broke tinker with it. Do what you feel comfortable with because sometimes these coaches just heard something at some point and preach it whether it is good advice or not. This said , if you are on the bubble for playing time, then it puts you in the awkward position of not heeding your coach. If it nets results though, he shouldn't complain.
Also, this bugs me because alot of coaches ramble on about it BUT you need to drop your shoulder to hit the ball properly. If you don't, you will swing up through the ball and actually produce more pop outs.

Answer 2

I actually had the same problem u did. My coach wanted me to change my swing (i swung the same way u do), and i thought why fix what is broken, right? Well, I didnt fix my swing until half way through the season, my team nicknamed me homerun hitter (not cause i hit alot, although i did get one) but because of my deep swing. The thing with that swing is, when u dip down, its the natural movement for ur head to turn away, and that obviously hurts ur BA. My couch told me to "throw my arms out when i swing", and when i changed it, i improved my numbers all around. Idk if this is ur problem cause i havent seen u swing. Im gonna switch sports on u for a sec, to golf. A few years ago there was this guy named tiger woods (not to many people have heard about him, lol) he was the best in the world, but he took a look at his swing, and decided it wasnt right, so he took some time to learn it, and for a time he struggled with it, but after a while he mastered it, and well now i think he has something like 7 or 8 straight PGA wins, just to show u change isnt always a bad thing. But in the end, its ur choice.

Answer 3

You should always listen to your coaches, it helps get you on their good side and once you get over the uncomfortable factor of the tweak to your swing it could really help you. He's probably trying to help you avoid popping up the ball by avoiding dropping your shoulder and getting under it. If you keep your left elbow up it should correct your problem of dropping your shoulder too much, will most likely satisfy the coach, and won't tweak your swing too much. Also, if you tilt the bat to more of an angle at the start of your swing, it will make your coach happier and then when you load for your swing you can shift it back to how you like it because it will continue to be and look natural for you.

Answer 4

I'd usually say listen to your coach, but a high school coach is a lil tricky, if he seems to know what he's talking about most of the time and has a good grasp on the game, I'd just give it a shot, cause when it comes down to game time u have to go with what works for u, but he's just trying to make u better...but u gotta realize the pros swings have been tweaked to perfection every hitter has a certain way they go about it...jeter doesn't drop his shoulder, thats just what it looks like when he strides into the loading position...ur coach may be on to something, if u dip ur shoulder u will get under the ball and hit a lot of pop flies...you want to try and keep ur shoulders parellel to the ground through the entire swing, that will make u more likely to hit the middle of the ball, and make solid contact more often...and when he says swing straight across, first off that will fix itself when u get in the habit of not dipping ur shoulder anymore, but whats he's saying is, u need to make more of a level swing, i wish i could show u an illustration but ill try and explain, if ur bat is level across the entire surface of the plate there are many points of contact that are possible, when u swing with a downward or upward angle kinda like it looks like griffey does, ur bat changes contact points every inch and its much harder to make solid contact...what i mean is if the bat is 5" off the ground through the entire contact zone, and the ball comes in about 5" off the ground u have the entire swing to make contact, but if u have an upward swing ur bat starts around 4" off the ground and while it crosses through the zone it gets farther from the ground say up to 6" so if the ball is coming in at 5" off the ground u only have a small area where the bat is at 5" off the ground and ur chance of contact is less! Hope u got all that...now ur probably wondering why ken griffey swings with such and upward swing, first off, he's got great hand eye cordination so he can pretty much swing however he wants and he'll make contact but what griffey is really doing is swinging inside of the baseball, so if u watch him, he usually pulls it to right field, but if he misses it, it drops into left field... just wait until ur headed for the show to try and get fancy with ur sweing, just stick with a flat swing until u get better at it...

Answer 5

Try not to argue with your coach it shows a sign of disrespect. But if you are hitting the ball well and you drop your shoulder then just stick with it. The only time you have to worry about it is when you start to hit everything in the air. Look at Jim Edmonds he has a straight upper cut swing and he gets it done so just keep doing what your doing.

Answer 6

the main thing you need to realize is that you're still in high school. i can't picture derek jeter's exact swing right now but i would imagine that he doesn't dip his shoulder a very large amount. but, if he really does, you have to realize that he is a major league player and they might have flaws in their swings but they have perfected those things through millions of swings. right now i would say listen to your coach 1) because at your age you need to just focus on fundamentals and get a good basic swing going and 2) a lot of coaches will be displeased if you suggest that they look at someone else's swing or just disagree with them in general

overall i would say at least give your coaches methods a good try

Answer 7

one thing you gotta understand about high school is that the coach makes the lineups. if you bring up the way derek jeter swings when hes tryin to fix your swing, coach probly is gonna like that. so try to do what hes tellin you and make him happy so u can play. when u make millions of dollars to play baseball, swing however you want. but while your hitting coach makes the lineups, you might consider trying to make him happy.

Answer 8

Depending on the credentials of your coach. He may be helping you in the long run that is why we have coaches. They see things that you can not. He is trying to help you improve for the long haul. You are being resistant because it is human nature to avoid change. Give his advice a chance a real chance try it for a couple of weeks and see if his advice is helping.

Answer 9

i've been on school teams for 4 years now. i finally went for lessons for pitching over the winter and i had a great instrutor. he told us if you ever have any disagreement w/ the coach just simply ask "why?" to their tips. if they give you a good answer then... i'd follow it... but if you get something like "cuz that's what your supposed to do" then he can't be that great of a coach

Answer 10

You can't argue with results. If you are hitting that well with your normal swing, then I don't see how he can ask you to change it.