Posted by: Chris Ward (chriswardusmc@hotmail .com) on Wed Apr 30 23:20:12 2003

Hi everyone,
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> It's hard to take players from a stride to a no-stride. First of all I totally disagree with your coaches/team hiring a hitting coach who only knows one way to teach hitting. The only way the team/players will see improvements is if they train/practice within the new range of motion, like there's no tommorrow, a practice here and there will not get the job done! Does this hitting instructor plan on giving individual lessons so the hitter can learn/focus on his teachings, our will that cost you more money to learn how "he wants" the hitters to hit?
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> I had a hitter last year, first year she played on my team, who had a stride of at least a foot! She didn't show this flaw until we had or first practice game (until she was under game pressure). She hit weak ground ball or struck out for several tournaments at the start of the season.
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> I tried to first shorten her stride. Didn't work, when she was facing a pitcher the stride would return. This also caused a bad lunging problem. She was listening and working on a shorter stride and trying to rotate more, trying not to push of the back foot etc, but it just wasn't solving the problem.
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> Finally a gave up, and used what she had to improve her mechanics. I had her work on pivoting the knees (hip swivel) as she was coming into her foot plant. Made sure she worked on and maintain a short compact swing even though (rotating the torso to swing) she still had a large stride.
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> It took some time, but all of the sudden she started to hit hard ground ball and then they turned into hard line drives. All this with her stride length. She learned how to keep the swing compact, how to swivel/pivot the lower body (at the right time) and how to swing using the torso instead of her arms.
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> After she started hitting the ball hard everything fell into place , she was confident with her mechanics. The line drives, doubles, triple increased every weekend, sometimes hitting around .500 for the tournament. Then out of no where , she crushed a HR, the first one she'd ever hit over the fence, next at bat , Crush her second HR over the fence!
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> The joy and excitement in that kid was great. I think she had allot of fun at the plate last year.
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> BTW, I'm talking about Fastpitch, 16U "A" facing good pitchers.
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> What is your "hired" hitting coach going to do when the kids are under "Game pressure"? Is he going to be there for all their games helping them learn how to control "his mechanics" under fire?
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> Just some thoughts.
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> I don't choose to teach a large stride. I do like to see a small stride taken, how small depends on the hitter and how well they can control the forces in the swing (leg muscles). Even in Fastpitch the stride hitters are the dominating hitters in average and power.
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> I would say that the hitter has to be "smart and mature" to make the stride/no-stride work. They have to put in the time, and more time, to make make it work, double that time if they previously had a stride. They have to be involved in every step of the process. Learning how to use the body/muscles in a small/new range of motion. I would also say that training within this new rage of motion is as important of practicing the swing. They have to learn and train to create bat speed within the new range of motion.
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> Shawn Bell
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> Gents,

I really enjoyed reading all of your points of view, concerning stride / no-stride. I'll be the first to admit, sometimes the more I read, the more I get confused, on what to believe or not to believe.

Honestly, after reading all your different views, I believe you all made me realize some important things. Even though I've been coaching little league / Junior Leaage baseball for a few years now I have been fortunate enough to have several first place seasons under my belt.

It has been my experiance that strong / aggressive batting above all else, is mainly what you need to dominate the game. Although I teach and believe that a funamentally sound defense is crucial, to compliment a strong / aggressive hitting as well.

However, I also heard that most hitting camps were teaching the "no-stride" theory as well. So at practice, I made my players spread their legs a little wider than shouler width apart, with knees slightly bent, (indicating no need for a stride), but to relax, load and explode on the ball, while placing emphasis on squashing the bug and exploding maximum hip rotation as well. I must admit, this really helped the players with their hitting regardless.

In general, I concluded for most players, a small stride is ok, but place more emphasis on squashing the bug and exploding the hips with maximum rotation. I found that focusing on effective, yet keeps it basic and simple for the kids. This seemed to allow the kids to be comfortable as well.

I also believe, that coaches who are'nt afraid to try new things, are the ones you really need to watch out for!