By Justin Stone
Because I primarily work with older players, parents of youth players often ask me if would be appropriate to have their athletes work with me.  My response is always similar, “It’s the same swing. We just get more attentative to detail as we get older.”
Saturday night, while with my family, I received an email and a text from two different players I work with, coming about 20 minutes apart.  The email was from a 10U house league all-star player’s dad and the text was from a NCAA Division 1 player that was drafted out of high school a few years ago.  The subject of the email/text was exactly the same – players that felt sequencing improvements and were excited with the results.  Same flaw, same coaching points, same results – two totally different ends of the playing spectrum.
Both players had sequencing errors stemming from upper bodies that were “slotting” early.  The reasons were different – the house league player was rushing his tempo, not allowing the upper body to complete the “loading” process.  The D1 player had been struggling and starting “feeling” for the ball causing him to be a one-piece upper body and lower body that was firing at the same time.   In both cases, we had to get the body to sequence the loading process correctly – lower body continuing into the upper body, with fluidity.
With both players, we worked the scap load during the coil/advance and continuing to pull back even as the lower body began to fire.  I was able to work this with the youth player in person and the college player via Skype.  The results:  The 10U players first home run – an oppo shot (which made me smile even more) and the D1 player had his first collegiate 4 hit game.
Here are the emails/texts:
10U player’s dad:  “…He hit his first home run.  Down the right field line.  When I gave him a high five in the dugout, he had a big smile and the first thing he said was “scap load…”
College player text: ” 4 for 4 today.  Could feel the scap load really good.”
Same flaw, same coaching points, same results – two totally different ends of the playing spectrum.