Posted by: grc (grcrackel@yahoo.com) on Sat Aug 26 21:35:56 2000

GRC.. ANY THOUGHTS ON MY POST ABOUT HAND TORQUE. 2WE TALKED ABOUT STRIDE ;NO STRIDE.I AGREE THAT THE STRIDE IS A TIMING DEVICE BUT SO OFTEN IT SEEMS TO BE THE CULPRIT FOR WEIGHT COMING FORWARD OVER THE FRONT LEG, LOSS OF BALANCE, HIPS COMING OPEN PARTIALLY FROM OFF SPEED PITCH,CAUSING POOR SWING.I THINK YOUR RIGHT INYOU GET ALITTLE MORE POWER FROM STRIDING AS WELL AND IN WEAKER YOUNGER KIDS THEY MAY NEED THAT STRIDE TO GET THINGS MOVING.MY THOUGHT THOUGH ON STRONG KIDS MAYBE OTHERS AS WELL DONT KNOW YET, IS IF THE NO STRIDE CAN BE PERFECTED BY AN INDIVIDUAL WITH SOME KIND OF MOVEMENT THAT DOES NOT SEND HIS WEIGHT FORWARD EARLY ONLY TO BE FOOLED BY OFFSPEED,BUT GETS THINGS GOING THEN HE MAY HAVE MORE BALANCED SWINGS ,FASTBALL AND OFFSPEED,AND BE MORE CONSISTENT. MY LAST THOUGHT ABOUT IT IS IF SOSA, MAC., BONDS, ECT CAN HIT THESE MASSIVE BOMBS WITH A STRIDE 500 BUT MAY GET FOOLED WITH THEIR WEIGHT OUT FRONT THE NEXT 3 TIMES UP.COULD IT POSSIBLY BE AN ALTERNATIVE TO NOT STRIDE NOT GET FOOLED AND HIT MORE BALLS 395" IN THE GAP FOR HOMERUNS MORE RBI"S AND A HIGHER AVG.IF ALL THEIR POWER COULD BE USED IN A MORE CONSISTENT MANNER EVEN AT A LOSS OF SOME POWER IT WOULD CREATE A BETTER HITTER.THE BALL PARK IS ONLY 380 IN MOST ALLEYS AND YOU DONT GET MORE RUNS FOR HITTING THE BALL 500" ONLY MORE WOWS!!! RQL.....i agree thata homerun is a homerun....500 feet or 330 feet, it's still 4 bases....but tell that to my son....personally i'm more impressed with sosa's opposite field homeruns than mac's homeruns (not taking anything away from mac, though)....but...the kids love to see those bombs!!!!!....as for stride vs. no-sride, i am far from an expert & i don't know anyone (other than pretenders) who is.....no-stride is not widely used in the majors (maybe eventually it will be)....bottom line is, the theory has not met the test of time.....who can say if it works or doesn't ? ...but yet there is logic in favor of no-stride....more margin for error in timing the pitch is a huge plus....whether it saps power, i don't know.....i would say, though, that for a hitter who for one reason or another just KNOWS that he will never be a power hitter, no-stride would probably be the way to go.....i know jack believes a stride is not important....maybe if he could explain his reasoning in a scientific context we could all learn....respectfully, grc......