Don't Listen To These Seven Very Popular Baseball Myths!
Posted: Monday, February 08, 2010
by Larry Cicchiello
Larwenty Online Enterprises Inc
Some extremely popular baseball "tips" that are given out today are total myths! You very well may be a "victim" and I don't want you to listen to them, no matter how many hundreds of times you might hear them. They are very popular and they are also very wrong! This article will list 7 of those that have caught on like wild fire and have no place in playing excellent baseball today.
" Come on Johnny, keep your back elbow up." The reference is to the height of the back elbow when hitting. You will very often hear this hollered to a young player by a coach, manager or one of his parents. Some young players raise their back elbow up by their back ear. This is not a comfortable position for most hitters. It's much more efficient to have the back elbow just below the height of the back shoulder. If a hitter wants to make an adjustment up or down, only then should the back elbow be raised or lowered.
" Never get beat on your second best pitch." Let's say that a pitcher's best pitch is the fastball and the batter is a very good fastball hitter. Let's say that the pitcher's second best pitch is a good curve ball and it's a known fact that this hitter has trouble hitting curve balls. It would make no sense for that pitcher to get beat on his best pitch, the fast ball, with the game on the line. Forget this myth. Use the curve ball as your out pitch.
" Don't look at the ball, just run." I got news for "these guys." All good base runners DO look at the ball. This is not to say that if you hit a grounder to the infield you should be looking at the grounder while running to first base. On the other hand, there are many, many times where you should be looking at the ball. Good base runners very seldom need a coach to guide them while running. They watch the ball, the fielder and watch the play unfold. The infamous quote of, "don't look at the ball, just run" should be changed to, "don't just run, look at the ball."
" Come on Jimmy, level swing." Many young players hear this hollered out so often that as soon as they start their swing, they try to make sure it's level. This is one of the worst baseball tips on hitting they will ever hear. On the other hand, one of the best baseball tips on hitting you will ever learn is that the proper baseball swing is not level at all . If a hitter levels out his swing at the very beginning, he can be virtually guaranteed he will be late on every fastball because he is not being short to the ball. The swing starts out going downward with the back of the bottom hand facing the pitcher and not facing the sky. One of my favorite baseball tips on hitting is that only at the point where you are making contact should the swing be level, with one palm facing up and the other palm facing down. Being a fraction of a second late when swinging the bat is an eternity!
" Catch the ball with two hands." This is often hollered out to a younger player who is catching a pop up or a fly ball. Baseball gloves have come a long way in the last few decades. They are much bigger and better. Putting your bare hand next to where the ball is going to land in your glove when catching pop ups or fly balls has been proven to be more trouble than it's worth. It can easily interfere with your catching the ball with these very good, modernized gloves.
" Touch the bases with your right foot when running." The concern used to be that if a base runner touches a base with their left foot, they may trip over the base with their right foot. That is obsolete now. It makes no sense whatsoever to stutter step and lose precious time when running around the bases. To be thrown out on a very close play with the game on the line because you "stutter stepped" and lost a step or two is very hard to deal with.
" The perfect count to put on the hit and run is 2-0 or 3-1." Boy, does this one bother me! This started several decades ago is very played out. To have a batter be forced to swing at a 2-0 pitch that would be a ball and make the count 3-0 is senseless. The same holds true on the 3-1 count. To have a batter be forced to swing at a 3-1 pitch that would be ball 4 is an absolutely scary baseball coaching strategy!
In 95% or more of all cases, good baseball coaching tips of fifty years ago are still good today. There are a few things however, that have evolved and some that should never have been started in the first place.
If you listen to these myths, you better contact me because we need to have a serious chat! Unfortunately, they are very common and I truly hope you are ignoring them.
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