Posted by: Mark H. (mark_h45@hotmail.com) on Mon Jul 21 21:40:40 2003

Will someone tell me around what percentage of major leaguers are using rotational compared to Linear. I was watching Gary Sheffield and he looks like he is Linear.
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> > > What year was the rotation theory discovered and why isn't everyone doing this?
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> > > I've always taught my kid to "dive into the ball" and now goint into rotational.
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> > i think about a year ago or so i published some stats on this question...the answer is about 90 percent of the power hitters are rotational...i didn't study the linear hitters....
> > > Thank You Kindly.
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> THE ROTATIONAL THEORY WAS MADE POPULAR BY BABE RUTH. HIS WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO CONSISTENTLY DRIVE THE BALL OUT OF THE PARK. HE CHANGED THE WAY HITTERS APPROACHED HITTING THE BALL. BEFORE HIM, THE WAY AND THE STYLE THAT WAS USED WAS THE LINEAR APPROACH. THE LINEAR APPROACHED WAS USED TO PRODUCE GROUND BALLS AND LINE DRIVES. (LITTLE BALL, HIT AND RUN, MINIMAL STRIKEOUTS)
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> TODAY THE ROTATIONAL METHOD IS NOT USED BY EVERYONE BECAUSE EVERYONE CANNOT MAXIMIZE HIS SKILLS BY ITS METHODS. IF A GUY DOES NOT HAVE CONSISTENT HOMERUN POWER IT DOES NOT PAY FOR HIM TO HIT THE BALL IN THE AIR AND STRIKEOUT 100 TIMES PER SEASON. A GUY WHO CAN HIT THE BALL HARD AND CONSISTENTLY BUT DOES NOT HAVE BIG POWER CAN HELP HIS TEAM MORE BY BEING A HIGH AVG HITTER WHO PUTS THE BALL IN PLAY. (CAREW, GWYNN, BOGGS, BRETT) MOST SUCCESSFUL MAJOR LEAGUERS USE A STYLE THAT ALLOWS THEM TO HIT THE BALL HARD AND CONSISTENTLY. THE APPROACH VARIES ON THE PLAYER'S SIZE, STRENGTH, AND ABILITY. THERE IS NO ONE WAY. ICHIRO AND MATSUI USE A MORE LINEAR (SWING AND RUN-WOMEN'S FAST PITCH SOFTBALL) MOTION WITH SUCCESS. MAYBE THE LINEAR METHOD WILL MAKE A COMEBACK?
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I thought we covered this. Rotational has ZERO (see how I used caps only for emphasis rather than through the whole post) to do with hitting the ball in the air versus on the ground. It has to do with hitting the ball hard with a short quick swing which minimizes timing error, gets the bathead path roughly in line with the pitch path and harnesses the power of the lower body and torso to do so. Epstein does a particularly good job of covering the question of how does a singles hitter apply rotational principles differently than a power hitter. A short search on his message board should clear this up for you.

I really don't want to land on you hard because you seem like you have a lot of innocent infectious enthusiasm. But your posts combined with your chosen internet name have me very worried that you are trying to teach kids to hit. You are not ready yet. Spend the next six months reading EVERYTHING on here, mikeepsteinhitting.com and setpro.com asking questions and debating the whole way and MAYBE you will be getting close. Forgive me if I'm sticking a hole in your balloon but I'm more worried about any kids you may be working with than I am your feelings. Hopefully you will take this in the spirit it is intended. I believe if you take my advice, six months from now you will thank me.