Posted by: Melvin () on Thu Feb 13 08:10:17 2003

well, i have heard alot of coaches teach alot of different things. enough to know that just because your name has coach infront of it doesn't mean you know what your talking about.
> > i would go over the mech. of the swing from start to finish for you right now but it would take me about an hour and about 6 to 8 full typed pages. so i'm just going to point out a few things that got under my skin.
> > 1st the use of ken griffey jr. as a rotational hitter...if there ever was a weight shift hitter it is griffey. and the bat picks up max tork when it changes direction from a grad. downward stroke angle, to an even plane for as long as a hitter can hold it, and then to a high finish. a perfect example of this approach to a stroke angel is griffey.(if the hands start at shoulder height and a hitter contacts a ball that is mid thigh high, the bat must travel downward. and nobody finishes higher than griffey)
> > 2nd, anybody who has ever toed into a box and let it rip at any level knows that the hands work together. all this talk about 5/30 of a second is proof enough, nobody is capable of staring one hand first and then the other and having them do 2 seperate things, all this while ready a 83 mph slider, in a split second. hitters are not quite that sophisticated, alot of it is pure reaction.i'm not going to break into your theory anymore. it actually has some good points to it, it just needs to be cleaned up. you sound like a scientist not a hitter, although i do beleive hitting is a science. the whole thing is, none of us invented hitting, it has been going on for years and it is very individualistic.
> > the things we should be talking about are the absolutes, if you will. stride down for timing and load the hands and body wieght. backside leg must push and trigger, this violent hip rotation is what allows the hands to stay in easily. head and chest must stay locked on point of contact to maintain vision and plate coverage. you must know generally where the points of contact are, hitting is timing, so you better know where your timing to. all this while maintaining balance. there is more but alot of it is personal to the hitter. this is the single hardest thing to do in sports, we are not reinventing it. we must teach it properly for the future of the game. please respond, i enjoy talking hitting.
>
> Explain why you think Griffey is linear. How do you define linear and rotational?

Folks

I think Hank has drunk deeply from the well of Gary Ward.

Melvin