Posted by: John (chippero20@hotmail.com) on Sat Apr 19 08:42:53 2008

The first thing I would ask is how many coaches have told him to 'make contact in front of the plate'? Unless you really look at the scientific principles of contact, you may never realize how incorrect this teaching concept is. I had the same problem with some high school hitters back in 1990. Luckily, I learned the concept of 'square contact' that Rob Ellis was teaching at Michigan State. Visualize this: if you are standing next to the plate and you try to make contact with every pitch 'out in front', look at the angle of the bat compared to the incoming path of the pitch. The pitch will be coming at a 90 degree angle (generally within a few degrees) compared to your stance. However, if you make contact with every pitch 'out in front' the angle of the bat will be between 100-165 degrees (plus or minus). If you remember the scientific laws of reflection, the object striking a surface (in this case a bat head) will reflect at the corresponding angle. Thus, any ball hit out in front of the plate MUST be pulled to the hitter's strong side. The correct understanding of this is to realize that the concept of 'square contact' means that we should hit the ball to the corresponding angle that it is coming in at. This is clearly illustrated in that the 'best hit' is the one driven right back up the middle. Think about the angles. If you make square contact, the ball is driven right back where it came from. Keeping that in mind, you have to realize that the degrees change depending on the location of the pitch. If the pitch is inside, the contact must be made farther in front to make 'square contact'. If the pitch is down the middle, the contact is actually made almost at the front edge of the plate (depending on where you stance is). For the outside pitch, if you make square contact, contact is actually made from the front of the plate to the back. We don't change the swing, we only hit the ball later to make 'square contact.' We worked on this for about 3 weeks. The result was a lot more opposite field hits, more successful hit and runs, and actually more opposite field home runs. As a coach, take five baseballs and lay them out across the plate from inside to outside. Look at the bat contact angles and determine where you would have to make contact for it to be 'square contact'. You will see what I am talking about. For those who say that this will teach weak hitting, it does not. You still teach attack but it needs to be done at angles of the incoming pitch. You will lose some power due to the 6-10 inches of acceleration you use by hitting later on the outside pitch but it is negligible.