Posted by: Coach C () on Sun Jan 4 19:08:18 2004

Coach C wrote:
>
> For me the stride happens when the ball is about half way to the hitting area......certainly it depends on the pitchers velocity. I don't even call it a stride... I call it "setting the feet." Stride length varies from 1 inch to 6 inches, depending on how hard I'm going to swing, so in my case it's about 4 inches. However, the farther apart I set my feet, the more my head will drop during the swing (which changes the bat level)....it's a trade off.
> >
> > Coach C
>
> Hi
>
> Halfway to the plate? You must take a lot of soft BP and not play many games.
>
> Charlie Lau, whose work has come under a lot of criticism in the past 15 years or so, did one sort of scientific study as part of his famous book. He taped an All-Star game and found that every batter began his stride before the pitcher released the ball.
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> Also, Lau, Jack and many other batting coaches use examples from the observation of truly talented batters or from logical deductions that relate physics to hitting. Why do you always tell us what you do, without ever funrishing any proof of your expertise as a hitter? Heck, even Lau knew he was a .200 hitter in the bigs and avoided citing the methods he used to hit.
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> Just curious.
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> Melvin
>
> I hit pitches at 20 mph and have never played, but regardless of that, let's clarify the stride shall we.......the stride is not the lifting of the front leg, it's the forward move of the front foot. Should my front foot becoming forward at pitch release? You could have been a better hitter if the answer is yes.

When one picks up the front foot is irrelevant. Garciaparra, Dimaggio, Walker at times hit with no stride, so what do you say to that? Let me think....start my no stride when the pitcher releases the ball? Hmmmmm? Is the stride necessary Melvin? Has that ever occurred to you....my stride has the foot slide about 1 to 4 inches....that's it! If I did that at pitchers release, even at 80 mph...I'd be early. Guess I have more time in my swing then you.

As I said before, it depends on velocity at pitch speed anticipation.

Coach C