Posted by: Graylon (g_dunc@hotmail.com) on Sun Jan 6 19:01:44 2008

> > George,
> >
> > Point of contact should be measured within the relationship of the ball and the hitter, not the ball and the plate.
> >
> > Hitters depth in the box varies as does stride length. So to say about a foot in front of the plate is misleading.
> >
> > Where do you think point of contact should be in relationship to the hitters body?
> >
> > Jimmy
>
> hello, jimmy!
>
> my observations show that when hitters sit at the back of the box & away from the plate, ala frank thomas or paul konerko, the pitcher looks in there, & sez "this guy is so far off the plate i can throw a breaking ball knee-high on the black that he will not be able to do anything with other than get the smallest piece of the ball, resulting in a popup, or fouloff or missing completely... that will be my out pitch when i get 2 strikes on this brickhead." i have seen it happen HUNDREDS of times over the years while watching the whitesox.. i look at them, i KNOW SURE AS DEATH what is coming with 2 strikes... but do they?? no! they don't move up in the box, or get closer to the plate, THEY NEVER MAKE AN ADJUSTMENT!! RESULT: strike 3, go lay down...they leave themselves vulnerable to a certain pitch in a certain spot...& never make a change..this is the kind of thing that fries me when i watch these overpaid brickheads make the same mistake time after time... baseball is a game of adjustments.. but they never make any.. & go back to the dugout scratching their heads wondering why they keep striking out on the same pitch..hilarious!
>
> i am a firm believer in being centrally located so that you can reach
> an outside pitch without "falling off the ledge".. stepping forward toward the dugout rather than straight at the pitcher, & then bending your back or dropping your power hand off the bat & reaching out over the plate & turning into a backhanded tennis player... this slows your batspeed to the point you might as well never mind... this is the pitcher's pitch & since in my world you are positioned close enough to the outer edge to reach the pitch with your normal swing, you're better off to leave it alone.. i tell my hitters, "if you start to bend over to reach the pitch...STOP!! you're where you're supposed to be, so if you have to reach..IT IS NOT A STRIKE!!.. SO LET IT GO!" that is the difference the winners & losers is not going after a pitcher's pitch that you can not do very much with in the first place..
> centrally located means placing the rear side of your lead foot even with the front edge of the plate... now bend your front knee slightly & reach out with your front arm straightened & touch the end of the bat to the ground on the far side of the black.. from this position you are located to catch a fair piece of a pitch just off the black without lunging or reaching.. now you have an automatic "swing-don't swing" mechanism in place for outside pitches.. since you are set upto catch the pitch on the black, if you feel you have to reach at all for the pitch, you STOP!! drives me nuts when i see an MLB hitter get in the box, then drop the bat end on the middle of the plate.. basically he's telling the pitcher, "go ahead & work me outside, cuz i'm gonna be lugning out there if you throw something out there.. you clet me help you get me out."... HUH??? as a hitter, i don't give the pitcher NUTHIN!!! i know he ain't giving me no breaks, so i'm not going to help him... this is war!! you don't help the enemy!! hello?!?!
>
> there are those morons who say the farther back you stand in the box the more time you have to decide whther you should fire.. to these people i ask.. "ok great! but how much time are we talking about, & what is the tradeoff? what is the downside?"
>
> ANSWER: assuming 90 MPH, the ball is traveling 132ft/second.. to stand a foot farther back in the box will get you an additional..(are you ready?) 0 . 0 0 7 seconds!! wow!! that's 7 thousandths of a second!!that is 7/10 of one hundredth of a second!!! so now...where you going with that extra time? you're kidding yourself if you think that infinitesimal extra time is going to make you a winner instead of a loser..not.
>
>
> DOWNSIDE: they call the balls & strikes where the ball crosses the plate.. NOT WHERE YOU WANT TO STAND!! this is your territory that you must protect.. in order to hit a pitch as it comes over the plate, you must be within a reasonably close position to the plate... sounds very basic.. but i see guys who want to stand outside the box like frank thomas & whine about the pitch wasn't a strike from where they were standng.. RIGHT! unfortunately, they don't call the strikes where you stand.. they call them where they cross the plate.. so it is incumbent upon you as a hitter to be as close to the place where they call the balls/strikes so you can reach the pitch no matter what the location... to stand back off the plate gives the pitcher an area where you cannot hit the ball solidly.. DON'T GIVE HIM AN ADVANTAGE!! HE'S NOT GIVING YOU ANY BREAKS, SO WHY SHOULD YOU GIVE HIM A SPOT TO THROW WHERE YOU ARE HELPLESS? DON'T HANDICAP YOURSELF. HELLO?!?!?
> also when you stand back a foot, you give the pitcher an extra foot on his breaking ball to play you.. the farther away you stand,the more the ball is breaking either away from or down under your reaching bat.. you are helping the pitcher get you out!! the closer you stand to the pitcher, the leass break on the pitch..when you are a foot closer, you will hit the ball when it is going straighter than when you stand a foot farther back..
> also when you stand a foot back, your ability to see whether the breaking ball is on the edge or off the edge is not as good as when you stand up a foot farther.. you run the risk of misjudging a breaking pitch in that gray area.. if you are up on the plate, even an extra foot you have a better look at the outside pitch..
> so all you guys who want to exchange .007 sec. reaction time for
> giving the pitcher another foot to play you on breaking balls, & diminish your ability to judge pitches on the outside corner... have at it!
> the point of optimum contact is going to be different from player to player.. height, arm length, bat length & location of the specific pitch are all factors.. i made a general statement that most of the
> giant HR's you see the hitter makes contact looks to me about a foot in front of the plate.. about a foot in front of your lead foot..
>
> don't get caught up in the minutiae of breaking down the swing & the contact point & arguing incessantly about one action in the swing which takes about .007 second to execute..where i think the contact point should be is the LAST thing you can do anything about... it's all the homework you do PRIOR to that instant that determines whether or not you get to that perfect point of contact..knowing where that point SHOULD be & getting there are two different things.. you know it when you do it.. don't you?. more importantly is the stance & swing you implement which determines whether or not you ever get there..that perfect point is where it is.
> all these guys want to make me out to be a 3-headed idiot...they are all fixated with the swing..they don't realize that the stance has a great deal to say with whether or not you are successful..to say otherwise tells me you are going down the wrong path, & there is no hope for you.. at all. my theory embraces a short closed stance with the arms & hands up as high and far back as comfortable.. then a short stride, & start torqueing from the ground up, keeping your hands in tight... this generates the greatest batspeed..my theory is not all that different from the conventional..however,you guys are endorsing what has evolved..hitters didn't always buggywhip..this batting style is the bastard son of the pursuit of ungodly money...
> it only appeared when the juice appeared, & the HR became the golden idol of MLB.. sacrifcing BA & good batting technique for more HR's..
>
> it is a fact that too wide too open stances do not utilize the lower body torque to best advantage.. since the leg is at least 3 or 4 times stronger than the arm it is stupidity not to use your legs..today's hitters are mostly all arms & shoulders. buggywhipping post pitch release, generating batspeed with arm & hand movement rather than starting from the ground up.. combine the wide, open stances with the softball windup swing results in HR's with lower BA..
> all i am saying is close up & generate power from the ground up, & eliminate the softball swing which uses only the arms & shoulders... rather start forward right at the ball.. you will not hit as many HR as your buggywhipping buddy, rather you will get your fair share.. after all, when you hit it on the button, it goes.. you will also have not just a better BA than buggywhipper, you will have a SUPERIOR BA, & will also have a much greater success rate at crunch time.. last 3 innings you will shine far more often
> the buggywhippers have been popping up, fouling off, or missing completely far too many pitches they should be driving.. my theory
> gets you started sooner,THEREFORE YOU GET THERE SOONER, getting you to more pitches on time.. simple enough.. my theory sez eliminate those things that you THINK you have time for , but don't..
> there are a lot of hitters in MLB who do not endorse the buggywhipping style.. so i am not the lone voice in the wilderness you make me out to be..there are many others out there saying this is not a good thing.. especially for younger players.which in fact, it ain't..


George,

Have you ever seen slowed down video of TED Williams, he is opening his front foot and front hip prior to toe touch. Was he a "buggywhipper". This style of hitting has been around forever.

Watch a young kid swing a bat hard for the first time, they generally have pretty good mechanics, unfortunately guys like you coach it out of them.

Graylon