Mechanics

Question
I have a 6 year old son and he loves baseball. I want teach him about the game, specifically the how's/mechanics of hitting and catching. Can you give me some tips/suggestions on how I can help him improve?

Answer
Tim,
        I just recently finished writing an instructional book about hitting that should be published by the end of the year.  This book is about 300 pages long.  You can see that I could write for days and not even scratch the surface to answer your questions.  My advise to you is to go get some baseball lessons from an instructor that teaches rotational hitting mechanics.  I will answer your question and touch on the most important aspects to the stance and swing.  
        First, the stance starts with the feet.  If you line your front foot up with the middle corner of home plate you are a good depth.  For distance, put the end of your bat in the middle of the plate, lay it down across the middle corner, and put your front toe at the end of the knob.  The back foot should be parallel to the front foot.  Toes should point straight ahead or slightly pointed in.  The weight should be balanced in the middle and on the balls of the feet like someone is sliding a piece of paper under your heel.  If the weight goes too much to the heels you will become a defensive hitter and not likely to attack the baseball.  
        The knees and hips should be slightly bent and relaxed.  Just make sure your knees don't knock inward.  
        The grip of a baseball bat is taught many different ways.  After speaking and working with many major league baseball players their in one way that seems to be the best.  The bottom hand is the power hand.  This hand should hold the bat slightly firm and slightly behind the last set of knuckles toward the palm.  The top hand is the control hand and should be held slightly behind the middle knuckles and held loosely.  When the hands are together the middle knuckles of the top hand should line up between the middle knuckles and big knuckles of the bottom hand.  The wrist of the top hand should cock back with the palm toward the pitcher to get this line up.  
        It doesn't matter where your hands start in your stance.  It only matters where your hands end up when you take your initial step.  To make things easier and to avoid excessive movement start your hands chest to shoulder high.  Front elbow should be down and the back elbow should be up higher than your front elbow but no higher than your top hand.  The angle of your bat should be about a 45 degree angle about an inch above your back shoulder.  When you set up like this you should see a square.  The square is made from your front shoulder down to your front elbow, across your forearm to your bottom hand, up your bat to your shoulder, and across your chest to your front shoulder.  
        Your head should be looking towards the pitcher, making sure that you can see the pitcher with both eyes.  Make sure your eyes are level with your chin up.
        That will make up the basic stance.  Now I will get into the start of the swing and into the finish after contact.
        The weight should start like I explained before on the balls of the feet and in the middle.  You shouldn't have to think too much about weight shift as long as you stay balanced and stay behind your front leg.  Once your take the step your weight should go slightly back.  The step should be short, quick, and light.  The step should land on the ball of your foot and maintain balance.  As you step your hands will load.  Again, you don't have to think about this too much because your hands usually go opposite of your feet.  If something goes forward something must go back in order to keep your balance.  The hands should go back slightly and maintain the square as I described above.  The bat angle should also remain the same and not wrap around the back of the head.
        Now you will be ready to make your movement toward the baseball.  This is where the rotational mechanics will start.  Rotational mechanics is a way of saying that the hips will rotate the hands around the body to the baseball.  
        The first motion to the baseball starts with the back foot.  The back foot will rotate on the ball of the foot, followed by the back knee, hip then shoulder.  The entire back side will rotate toward the pitcher.  As this process occurs the back heel should start to lift and point behind you.  The axis from the back knee to the back hip and to the back shoulder is your axis of rotation.  This axis should be vertical and stationary.  Stationary meaning that it does not move toward the pitcher.  As long as this axis is vertical you will be able to rotate as fast as you possible can giving your hands a faster rate of speed.  While your are rotating the front foot needs to stay closed, meaning the front toe should point to home plate and not open toward the pitcher.  Also the front leg and knee should be firm.  This means that the front knee should be slightly bent but not beable to become loose and bend more or be too firm and lock out.  Locking out will make your front foot open up and you will pull away from the baseball.  If the knee becomes too loose and bend your axis of rotation will not be able to stay stationary and your backside will start to slide toward the pitcher.  
        Once the rotation is done the hands will begin to separate from the shoulder.  The hands should be maintaining the square during the pivot and rotate around the body on the swing.  The bottom hand is the power hand an extends and lifts.  The top hand is the control hand and it will punch and tighten up as the swing occurs.  As you go through the contact zone make sure the top hand stays palm up and the bottom hand stays palm down.  Force your hands to go through the contact zone with out rolling over.  This will make your hands flip as you come up over your shoulder on your follow through.  Rolling the hands is bad but flipping your hands at the end is good.  
        Throughout this entire motion your head should be still and pointing forward.  You should always track the baseball with your eyes and not your head.  If you swing with your head down your hands will follow and you will swing down on the baseball.  The correct swing is a very slight upper cut.  I tried to cut and past pictures here but it won't let me.  Do a google search for MLB  hitters and you will see that as they swing the back shoulder will be slightly down and the swing goes slightly up.  This is very hard to explain with out pictures.  
        Improving your eye at the plate and your contact will come as you see more live pitching.  Use the batting tee and move it around to cover all the nine zones of the strike zone to train yourself to see the strike zone better.
        Power is a combination of strength and speed.  Strength comes from swinging heavy bats for practice and lifting weights.  I am currently making a training video with Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tiger using the Bratts Bat.  This video should be out by the end of the year.  In the meantime you can get a Bratts bat at any traing facility of at any online baseball store.  The bratts bat is a training bat your son may want when he gets older.  These bats start at 35 ounces which is too heavy for your son now.
        With catching, just get your son to be comfortable with the baseball.  Don't worry too much about catching the baseball one handed or two handed.  Make sure he stays in front of balls thrown to him or groundballs hit at him and gets under fly balls.  
        Other things to consider when hitting is to stay relaxed and let the baseball come to you.  Wait as long as you can and focus on hitting the baseball to the opposite field.  This will let you see the baseball the longest time possible and give you the best chance to hit the ball hard and with power.
        I hope this help and is clear enough to follow.  It's hard to explain some things without pictures.  If you need me to explain anything further please let me know, I am happy to help you out.

Good Luck,
John Priest
Nokona Batman
Nokona Baseball Factory
www.nokonawreckingcrew.com