Posted by: THE HITTING GURU () on Thu Jul 31 17:00:53 2003

i'm going to be a jr. in high school this year,and i want to be at the top of my game by this spring. my question is my swing. when i swing with linear mechanics i make contact most of the time,but when i swing with rotational mechanics i have more power but the pitches i hit the most consistant are the low fastballs and curves. So should i work harder on the rotational mechanics or just take the easy way out and use linear mechanics. (when i throw my hands at the ball i usually inside out but with rotational i don't) I am a die hard baseball fanatic and my dream is to play pro baseball and i feel the only way i can accomplish that is to get maximum performance. If anyone can give me and opinion i would really appretiate it.




It is no secret that scouts look for players who can hit the long ball. But they also look for players who can make consistent hard contact. There have been a number of players who hit for average initially and then became power threats later on. (George Brett, Don Mattingly, Garrett Anderson.) As long as you are hitting above .250 I would say stick with the rotational. You are young and it is to early to tell what type of hitter you will eventually become. Since it seems as though you are having difficulty with the high pitch, I would suggest that you set your sights high (anticipate the high pitch and or fastballs and adjust to the other pitches) (See Mike Schmidt's book 'The Mike Schmidt Hitting Study'.) Pay particular attention to the illustrations where he speaks about leveling out the shoulder rotation for the high pitch. I would also suggest that you go to a batting cage as often as you can. Swing repition is very important. If you find later on that this is not for you, then go back to the linear approach. Don't forget to work hard on your defense as well. Many a player has made a team initially just off defense.