Posted by: Coach C () on Fri Oct 31 13:39:07 2003

The concept of hitting in professional baseball is taught from a number of different perspectives, but just like everywhere else, most everyone's opinions are shaped by their experiences. Throughout this site you find the commentary of Tony Gwynn on a Barry Bonds swing, his commentary illustrates my point. Gwynn tries to see Bonds through his swing and his experiences instead of looking at him objectively. Gwynn, a slap guy who was very very effective I might add, was seeing Bonds through his lens and his comments about Bonds were the things that Gwynn actually did in his swing (not saying that his comments are wrong).
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> I also must be very careful about what I say here since I am still trying to make a career out of this. I can say this (since he is no longer with us or associated with pro baseball): I had Willie Wilson as a hitting coach, and I must say first that this man was an incredibly talented baseball player. He won a Silver Bat and a World Series so we must have full respect for his accomplishments; however, his ability to effectively communicate the swing to us was not commensurate with his own hitting ability. He would just tell us "Stay Back & Use the Hands". That doesn't necessarily mean anything to me. What is "stay back"? And the more focus I put on the hands the more I lost my batspeed. I had another coach, Steve Scarsone, a utility guy with the Giants in the mid-90's. An excellent manager who helped me so much one day by telling me that I had lost my perpindicular load and that is why I was not hitting.
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> My point is this: just because they could swing it doesn't mean they can effectively communicate it. Half of us don't even realize what we do when we do it. Our big league hitting coach right now is Rick Schu. I had Schuey as a AAA hitting coach and as a roving hitting coordinator. This man loves video review and he understands the art. He helped me with my counterrotation problem and that is when I begin to develop a scap load instead. I was counterrotating so much that my back was almost to the pitcher (oops!). Anyway, just like everywhere else, there are men who know and men who don't. To me, the most important thing is that I know my own swing and have an inner circle of people that I trust with it.
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> To expand on my own struggles though, I will tell you that I am too tall at contact. I think this is a little man's complex, and it has often caused me to come down on a stiff front side which inhibits hip rotation. When I do this, I foul balls off to the right side and I pop up to right and first base. This also creates an extremely severe bat angle which I believe costs me some power. My goal this offseason will be to sit more down in my swing which I believe will increase the "L" in my back leg and the "L" in my top arm at contact, and it will stop that infernal popping up to the right side. I also want to maximize shoulder rotation. I'm not even sure where I'm at in that, but I will find out as soon as I start hitting again in a couple of weeks.
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> Hope that stuff is of interest!

Very interesting......and I consider your insight very valuable. I have a thought for you in your quest to sit more while you hit. I dealt with this issue many moons ago in college and for years after that I was extremely tall at contact. I often felt that I was playing into the pitchers hand when the ball was low, and it usally played out that way. In addition to that I tended to sway into a firm frontside........I too was very handsy at that time. It always made for good contact, but power was not there and often times I felt I was not completeing the swing (rotating through the ball). Here's what I did.........I spent a lot of time working on the high pitch (just below the letters). I wanted to dominate this pitch. This didn't take long to learn how to rotate throught this ball. Then rather than jackknifing to hit the the low pitch, I told myself to keep my head on plane (up/down) with the ball. For me it instantly dropped my legs into a better sit position. I will tell you that for the first time I understood what leverage was in the swing. I visaulized (in training) anticipating the ball at the waist and telling my self to take my head down to the ball, not by jackknifing, but by lowering my legs. There was no concious thought to lower my legs, but only to get my head down with the ball.

I think the thought of dropping the head at pitch release has been misunderstood. Just like catching a ball, I'm much more trusting when my eyes are on plane with the ball, as opposed to lowering my glove or raising it (of course this happens), but optimal position for throwing say from second base on a double play, would have me lowering my legs, so that I catch that ball at the chest and release. If I lower my glove, then I have to bring the ball back up and that takes time.

So for me a great swing thought is not, head to the ball, but rather head down to the ball. My body figured out the rest, it programmed by lower half much better. Jackknifing and incomplete swings went down ten-fold. Pitchers are taught to pitch down and not to make a mistake up. In order to master the low pitch I tried to bring it up a bit, by lowering my head.

In regards to pitch recognition....I feel it is much easier to see ball's up or down ,it's the outside or inside pitch that are more difficult for me to see, because I'm viewing it from an angle.

You may have already tried something like this, but in case you hadn't.......give it some thought. Lance Berkman has said "it's like carrying firewood", this is my feel. Can't carry firewood very well by bending at the waist, got to feel my legs get down to have leverage.


Coach C