Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Mon Feb 17 12:12:08 2003

While I appreciate the great chatter back and forth. I fear something has been lost. Our research and test is designed to show an athlete not how to have the perfect swing in comparison to McGwire, Bonds, Griffey, Garciaparra, or any other athlete. It is merely a guage to identify exactly what the athlete is doing. What ever you teach as an instructor, shows up, linear or rotational.
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> > Each athlete has specific strengths and weaknesses which impact their ability to swing a bat, throw a ball, or kick a soccer ball. Most players and coaches learn to master a movement without improving weaknesses, instead capitalizing on their strengths.
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> > As a former athlete and having spent over 15 years developing strength and conditioning programs for athletes including some of the worlds greatest in many sports, and personally touching almost 50,000 athletes during that time span, I can assure those of you who do believe Kinesiology and exercise physiology as a science, that it most definitely is just that.
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> > Supported by the fact that thousands of articles and research papers, books, and journal entries focus on the physiological factors necessary and present within specific sports activities.
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> > The assessments by O'Really, are well supported by his journals and reseach articles.
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> > I also understand the process each researcher goes through to reach their findings. And it is a tedious one.
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> > My assessment of the swing clip was a combination of a few things. #1 being I am seeing good and bad swings in my sleep, after spending the last year analyzing over 10,000 swings. #2-Having a basic understanding of anatomy. #3-Experience in working with athletes to achieve a desired outcome.
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> > So O'Really is right to a point. It is impossible to view that poor swing copy, unless you know what to look for. I specifically looked for strengths and weaknesses in the swing, because that is what I have trained my self to do when working with an athlete. After identifying those weaknesses, I must work with the athlete to minimize thoses weaknesses. That's what strength and conditioning coaches are supposed to do. (a hitting instructor should also do the same).
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> > Sorry to disappoint many of you, but I am not a scientist. I am an athlete and coach, just like many of you. The difference is that my job (thanks to Kinesiology) gives me the opportunity to pay special attention to the detailed movements and required movements of an athlete whether that is throwing a ball or swinging a bat. If I did not do so, I could fake it and athletes would get a little bit better, but that is not our goal. We must minimize the athlete's weaknesses.
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> > And I can assure you (even O'Really) that if you spent even one week looking at some of the data of what is actually happening. You to could have made the assessment as I did (based upon the education and research it sounds like you have done). As I said in my previous post, "It's a good thing Mark is big and strong, because otherwise he would not have hit 70 homeruns. Bonds (in case you didn't notice) has also gotten stronger in the last 2 years. Sosa (et tu?)
> > The bottom line is that in addition to the strength of the athlete, the typical homerun hitter is stable at contact and immediately following.
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> > Our findings are this every athlete does something different on every swing. As Rick mentioned in his analysis of one of our swings, there are ideal ranges where most of the best athletes fall in terms of acceleration/deceleration, posture (spine, pelvis, head, shoulder angles), and so much more.
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> > As a coach, you can do one of three things: #1: Teach all of your athletes the same swing. #2: teach your athletes a different swing tailored to their physical strengths. #3-Improve the athletes strengths and weaknesses and teach them the most efficient way for them to swing.
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> > With respect to Epstein's "The perfect swings is an the adjustments the hitter makes to the pitch he gets." That is true! But the adjustment is made not in the physical characteristics of their swing. The adjustment is made to "Timing"
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> > I challenge some of the greatest instructors on this board to come to Phoenix in late march for a day. We will invite some of the hitting coaches from major league teams to come out and experience what we are talking about. It will be an open forum, and we will use the our 6D Research system including force plates to test some of the hitting theories that are out their.
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> > Especially Mr. O'Really (who doesn't have to identify himself), Jack, Epstein, and some of the top high school instructors in the country. It is interesting that amongst this great debate, we are missing contribution of Jack Mankin. However, based upon my assessment of his research and previous posts, one of the contributors sounds a lot like Jack (smile!)
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> > I agree that the bottom line is once we discover what the athlete should do, we must explain to the front line instructors, "How to teach" what will make the athlete better. Bonds and Big Mac, have shown that strength and conditioning play a huge role. Tiger has also shown many people outside of strength and conditioning that it how your body responds (negatively and positively) to your repetitive sports motion, that can be impacted by how your body is prepared.
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> > The problem is that in the US, we focus way to early on specificity of sports. 3, 4, 5, and 6 yr olds are taught to swing a bat or golf club, throw a ball. Keeping in mind that we still have the best in the world in many sports, the rest of the world is catching up because our instructors are going to other countries to instruct their youth.
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> > The US led sports programs are gaining much more exposure in foreign countries. However, as they begin to catch up in instruction, the will always be ahead in discipline, dedication, focus and early physical preparation. We have the best basketball players, baseball players, track and field athletes, because we have been doing it longer, there are many great athletes in South America countries who could be great hitters and pitchers, just like there many great athletes on city courts who could be Michael Jordan. They just lack the support system that is available to many in this country.
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> > I look forward to seeing you in Phoenix.
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> > Until then, I will continue to enjoy your posts and great debate.
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> When can we see the swing clips?

Zig-

I would think Epstein's adjustment includes physical changes,not "just" timing changes(it would have to include both).Mike spends a lot of time on matching the plane as one of his universals.Do you think he is imagining what he really sees ? I don't.

The timing is substantially different for inside and out,so to begin with Mike recommends looking one way or the other(ignore situational effects on the plane for the pitch).In general,you would want as simple a method of adjusting to cover the zone because this would mean fewer motor swing programs to master and more consistent timing,and probably more reaction time.Jack proposes one way to explain the physical change which accompanies the timing change as you adjust inside/out,given his "absolute" that the handpath raius/circle needs to be set at launch.The hitter looking outside and getting what he is looking for(a good pitch to hit) will load/stretch/separate relatively longer(let ball get deep in timing sense,not necessarily spatial sense)."launch" (torso turn) is relatively delated,and once started is a "higher load" situation.On the other hand,while launch is relatively delayed as the handpath radius is increase,the "final arc" turning of the bat progresses more.This gives a combination of more "THT"(final arc),longer handpath radius with less torso turn(2nd arc) and puts the sweetspot at contact perpendicular to the pitch(permitting good margin for spatial/timing error).Inside pitch would be a combo of less THT before launch,tighter handpath,more torso turn before contact.Still ideally perpendicular to flightpath,although practically usually giving more of a "pull"(good thing to study with your stuff?).

I will continue in next part(computer acting funny).