Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Tue Jan 20 14:30:49 2004

>>> Sometimes the teaching is to achieve certain desired positions to speed up the trial and error process,and the drills use extreme/exagerrated positions at one end of the spectrum.

I suspect this is why Epsetin finds the very open foot(encourages 45 degrees) and the "proprietary" (very close to fence) fence drill useful.This will encourage Getting close to the plate and hooking the handpath and "handling" the inside pitch.You may have to grow up and get bigger to handle outside as well,but he seems to prefer the progression starting with the inside type mechanics. <<<

Hi Tom

I have not found it possible for a batter to generate an effective hook in the hand-path while standing very close to a fence. In order for the bat-head to miss the fence, the hands must be directed across the body (parallel to the fence) for some distance. The hook then occurs as the hands arc toward third base. In his instructional video, a frame-by-frame analysis of his students performing the “fence drill” clearly shows the bat-head does not come through until their hands have sweep (toward third base) well past a good contact position. I seriously doubt that a batter could hit a hard fair ball from that position.

Jack Mankin