Watch An MLB Playoff Game With Your Child …learn the fundamentals of the batting swing

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The Major League Baseball Playoffs have begun.  This is a time of year when the best teams in the game are playing almost every night in prime time giving us a chance to sit down with our kids and watch a game together.  Today’s analysts are so knowledgeable, and we have great technology allowing us to see the game so clearly.  Pitching and the batting from various angles; and constant replays in high definition, slow motion.  Right in front of us and our kids is the opportunity to learn and better understand the game.

 

Help Your Child Learn About The Batting Swing

Pick out a game and sit down with your young ball player and watch together.  From the standpoint of learning, it is not necessary to watch an entire game.  Just a few innings can do the trick.  Let us take this time to help them learn about the batting swing.  What?  That is complex stuff; how can that be done in a few innings?

 

Legs Are The Power Source For The Swing

In most athletic actions the legs are the power source for, and initiate, the overall body action.  Ask your child, “What does a batter use (which part of their body) to swing the bat?” The logical answer is a batter swings the bat with their arms. After getting that answer, tell your child, “Ya know, I’ve been told that batters swing the bat with their legs.” That will likely get you and odd expression from your child followed by something like, “Well that person sure is dumb.” Your response, “Well let’s watch and see.”  

 

Replays Are The Teaching Moments

On replays, you and your child agree to only look at the batter’s body below their belt.  Your child will see an aggressive powerful turning movement of the batter’s legs. In slo-mo replays, you and your child may be able to pick up how the legs start their turn a hair sooner than the upper body and arms. …The legs power the swing …Hitters ‘swing the bat with their legs’.  The simple recognition of how important a role the legs play in the swing is a major step forward in them being better the next time they pick up a bat.