Posted by: () on Wed May 14 20:05:59 2003

I know you are now a full-fledged convert to rotaionalism, outside as well as inside pitches. However, if you could harken back to your playing days, I have some questions as to what you DID THEN.I especially seek your experiences since you was a righty who hit left.
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> On the outside pitch, did you try to hit the inside part of the ball?
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> Did you try to "push" the ball the other way?
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> What specific techniques did you use to try to get elevation (on the flight of the batted ball)for outside pitches?
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> Any other details/techniques you used pertaining to the outside pitch.
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> Thanks, Bart
> Bart,I grew up with linear mechanics,not by design but by being drilled every day by my dad to knock the pitcher down with the ball,thus I did what I needed to hit it up the middle which often was inside out,linear.As I got older scouts said we don,t care if you hit 400-500 every year your a catcher and you hit no homeruns,you will struggle in college.Well I hit over 300 as a freshman and it was much harder at div. 1 ball but I decided to learn to pull inside pitches.It took 2 years to convert but I only converted partially.My thought was I can hit all pitches where they are pitched but my power was to pull.So when ever I got in a situation to look away and react in or I thought look away only I reverted back to my linear ways.Outer 3rd to middle I could take up the middle or away depending on where the ss played me and o.s. corner I just took it the other way.Now when they came inside I just exploded my hips open fast [and through my hands,I thought]What I realize now is that my barrel was snatched around by shoulder rotation and torque[ which is what I thought was my strong hands were doing swinging the bat.This combination gave me my senior year a 404 avg,a doubles record and double digit homers more than twice the homers I had in my entire career.I also had only 6 strikeouts in over 250 at bats which I prided myself on nearly to a fault[to defensive sometimes] but still a tough out.I was the top hitting div 1 catcher in the country that year but I now wonder If I had thought of rotation more as I do now maybe I could have doubled my power #s.I never hit 1 h.r. the other way but a few doubles were hit in the gap and down the line the other way,maybe 25%.My technique for the away pitch was probably best described as driving my hands hard inside the ball and ahead of the barrel[pure linear]fortunately I was good at center ball bat contact as was Boggs and gwynn,other wise I would not have carried the avg.I thought it was a good combination for a long time but I knew my weakness was the ball down the middle because I would have to decide which mechanic to use,linear or rotational,and all to often my out was a ground ball to 2nd that I decided to pull to late.Now the middle pitch should not be your weakness.As A catcher 15 more Ks and 15 more homers would have looked even better and I still wonder how many of those balls down the middle hit to second would have been homers if I had just set to pull middle in and hit the os pitch on the back of the ball.You have to play with it alot and just take what you know at the time and see what works best for you ,just practice it.PS I do remember at times when my timing was early or my barrel was starting to come around on an os pitch If I let go with the top hand about in the lag position I could keep my barrel back longer leading with the bottom hand and hit a linedrive between ss and 3rd,that may just be an instinct though,don't know if you teach that.
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