Golf Swing - Same as baseball???

Originally Posted by Daddys Cool

I am wanting to introduce my 3 1/2 year old son to golf. He does a lot of things right handed, but when we play baseball and I pitch to him, he swings left handed. If he just tosses the ball in the air and swings, he swings right handed.

When I get a club cut down for him, should I look at getting him a left hand club?

Is it better to learn to golf right handed so as not to interfere with the baseball swing, and vice versa?

As a former baseball player who also has a kid who loves golf and is about the same age as your son what I did was let him play with both a lefty and a righty club and note his coordination.  It became very obvious that my son is left handed. The baseball swing will not be affected by the golf swing and vice versa and they are not the same. It is very important that you let him show you what hand he prefers.

Originally Posted by dak4n6

I agree they are not the same, and that is the problem. They do affect each other. When I play with someone who takes a big OTI cut at it moving all over the place and ends up with the weight on the back foot, and I ask if they play softball, I am about 90% accurate. My son played baseball 4 yrs before he started playing golf, and after 2 years, he is finally getting his weight up onto his left side in a consistent manner. In my experience, the baseball swing is one of the worst golf wreckers. Look at the pros - all the good golf amateurs are pitchers...

Originally Posted by dak4n6

Very good points RtL. Yes, swinging from the ground up and the power accumulators are almost the same in both swings, but for many people that weight and balance difference is a tough one to undo. As I said, I see it all the time. I guess you are in the 10th percentile..

Played 36 and then a double header? When did you sleep? And lol at the explanation of pitchers being better golfersyeah

Originally Posted by Righty to Lefty

Well I was a pro level baseball player and I didn't have any problems playing 36 holes and then hitting homeruns in a double header later that day!  Maybe a softball player is attempting to forcefully generate power because the ball is moving so slow but a good baseball player knows that they don't have to do that, they have to generate power quickly.  A powerful baseball player is also knows that the hands don't have much to do with generating speed and know that the hips and core are the power factory bringing that power up from the ground which is a skill that is very important to have.  The production of the speed and power is almost exactly the same in baseball and golf.  A hockey player with a good slap shot have the same type of understanding. Kids aren't aware of alot of things that they do until they have been coached.  Oh and the reason that the pitchers are the better amatuer golfers is because they only work once every 5 days unilke the position players who have to work everyday!

Originally Posted by Rfordeagle

So what is a 'pro level' baseball player?

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Somebody who was a little bit better (OK, maybe more than a little bit) than I ever was. ;)

Originally Posted by tiger1242

Well there are lots of independent pro leagues in the US that are not the MLB, maybe he played in one of those?

Originally Posted by Rfordeagle

So what is a 'pro level' baseball player?

Originally Posted by Righty to Lefty

I played in many a semi pro and independent leagues trying to make my way to the big leagues until I tore up my knee so I always say pro level because even the semi pro leagues, where we weren't getting paid,  were set up exactly like playing in the big leagues.  We had an owner who drove the big nice car, a manager, two assistant coaches, even scouts to go look at the other teams. My coaches were even paid bonuses when we won a title.  And it was structured exactly like the big leagues so we always called it a " pro level" ball club. Guys could get taken and signed by the big league farm systems at any point in the season. They were structured to show how well we could play when we had to play everyday.