Posted by: Astro23 () on Wed Mar 17 06:56:13 2004

I was just wondering if hitting linear or ratational or both is different for every hitter. Can some people just not hit rotational? I play baseball myself and I have hit linear since I was 8 years old. Is it hard to change from linear to rotational?
> Thanks

One of the strongest arguments for rotational hitting is physics. The bat is swinging around your body, unless you're bunting. It is POSSIBLE to hit with a linear style, but you will never generate your maximum bat speed doing so.

In my opinion, the biggest problem with linear hitting is that most coaches teach a step-and-hit method that muddles the stride with initial movement of the bat. This causes the batter to do a number of bad, bad things. Probably the most glaring is getting too strong on the front side (the "weight-shift" that you DON'T want).

You probably aren't as far from attaining the rotational aspects pf hitting as you think. If you're already swinging the bat around your body (which you are), it's just a matter of making sure your hands are working in conjunction to apply the proper torque and adjusting your lower body to rotate instead of "shift."

Once you "get" rotational hitting, it feels much more natural than linear, because you're working with the forces generated by the bat's movement around your body, as opposed to exerting yourself to generate them on your own.