Posted by: Doug () on Fri Jun 6 17:40:18 2003

i was watching a game the other day and i noticed that hitters dont usually take violent swings to hit the ball hard, hitters like griffey adam dunn and matsui have smooth swings, now hitters like sosa have violent swings, my question is how do hitters like griffey get such good distance on the ball without using a violent swing like sosa?
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> I don't think Sosa or any other MLB hitter regularly takes "violent" swings. But that depends on your definition of violent. Being the great athletes they are, every swing they take is very hard/fast/quick and more than any "normal" person could do. But, I believe they don't normaly try to swing hard. When you think "swing hard" your body tends to tense up. You may swing hard, but you lose precious miliseconds when your body tenses up before swinging. Thinking "swing hard" can also cause a break down in your mechanics, because your body is trying to get extra power from muscles you shouldn't be using very much, such as your arms.
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> MLB hitters may have hard/fast/quick swings that most people cannot duplicate, but I wouldn't call them violent. I believe you should be relaxed at the plate and do what comes naturally. You have to execute the mechanics correctly and to do that often requires you to swing at less than 100%.

There are many fine major league hitters who swing very hard. Violent, I don't know. The thing they do as great athletes, is stay balanced from the start of their swing until the finish and they swing as hard as they can, as long as they can stay balanced. If they lose balance, they back off a little.

Doug