Posted by: Bart () on Sun Mar 2 08:19:21 2003

I have been looking at my hitters in slo mo and find that often on balls middle out that they drop their back shoulder in a waythat keeps it facing the plate longer and subsequently makes their arms appear to go forward toward the ballbut it also seems to get them under the ball more,fouling it back or popping it up.However on quality swings at this pitch it appears that the front[anterior] of the rear shoulder begins driving and turning faster toward the pitcher which allows the top hand to drive the barrel toward the ball better and more perpendicular to the ball,as well as keeps them on plane with the ball better.Has anyone noticed this in swings with hitters,it seems to me the back side is more important on the o.s. pitch and this is a flaw that is common on this pitch.
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> rql-
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> I have been fooling around with this since you mentioned the "loading back more" description and elbow in slot further away from body for outside.I think keeping good rotational mechanics for the outside location is a challenge.Overall you get more separated/stretched/loaded.You have to execute with more "THT" and less torso turn.The "good" feel is more hitting with the back shoulder(Nyman likes this cue)than pulling with the bottom hand(which I like for inside stuff).I think the key is how the handpath/launch gets started with the longer swing radius/loaded back further.If I think of this as the whole body being more stretched/bigger with elbow wider in slot,then more hitting with back shoulder,this feels better/more solid/less likely to get under ball(?late vs dropping bathead past power plane).See if any of that feels right to you.

RQL...My son drops his shoulder a bit more on an outside pitch. The reason he does this is that it somehow makes it easier for him to hit the "inside" part of the ball on an outside pitch. I can't explain the details of the why/how, and I know this conflicts with batspeed's theory of how to hit an outside pitch. Nevertheless, all I can say is that this approach of dropping back shoulder/hitting the inside part of the ball (os pitch) helps him get more power and elevation.

Of course, he is a right-hander who bats left. Since his top hand is the weaker hand, I think this may explain why Batspeed's theory won't work with him.