Posted by: rql () on Sun Dec 10 09:40:34 2000

I think now may be a good time to bring the discussion back to what the board was designed to accomplish - "A frank and open-minded discussion of the baseball/softball swing." It seems clear to me that discussing personalities can make little advancement to our understanding of the swing.
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> > So, I will ask a question about a batting principle that has bothered me for some time. -- Why is hitting the "inside of the ball" called GOOD while hitting the "outside of the ball" is Taboo?
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> > I am thinking of adding an article to my "Truism or Fallacy" list on the subject of hitting the outside pitch. Your input would be most helpful.
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> > Jack Mankin
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> I am no expert on this, but it is clear there are two related concepts here that get confused: the inside vs. outside surface of the ball and the handpath of the swing being inside or outside the flight of the pitched ball.
> For the sake of argument, put the pitched ball is over the center of the plate. From above, call the front of the ball 12 O'Clock, the back 6 O'Clock, the side facing a righty batter 9 O'Clock and the side facing a lefty 3 O'Clock.
> For a righty, inside the ball is 7 or 8 O'Clock, outside the ball is 4 or 5 O'Clock.
> If a righty hits the ball at 7 or 8 O'Clock (inside the ball) it will go toward right field. Hit at 4 or 5 O'Clock, it will go towards left field. The closer to 6 O'Clock, the straighter to center field.
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> Bat angle to ball at contact is the only significant factor in the direction of the hit ball regardless of swing type.
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> HOW the bat gets inside or outside at contact seems to be the subject of debate and deep thought.
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> Random truisms:
> - Many high average/singles hitters hit inside-out, keeping the hand path inside the ball and hitting opposite field or up the middle as their predominant swing. Carew, Boggs, Gwynn, etc. have made a good living doing that. Hand path is inside the ball, contact is on the inside half of the ball.
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> - Common teaching practices on hitting the inside pitch talk about turning on it to pull it, meeting the ball 2 feet in front of the plate, etc. For this to happen, the hands must get outside or at least closer to in line with the flight of the pitch, extend and get the barrel of the bat way out in front. If this happens, the bat will contact the outside of the ball and the ball will be pulled.
> Critics of this method cite the tendency to pull the ball foul.
> Hands 'outside' the ball, contact on the outside of the ball.
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> - Rotational practictioners combine the full hip and shoulder turn with a bat barrel lag - the body, hands and bat stay together through contact. On an inside pitch, the contact point is not as significantly forward, the arms are not extended and the contact angle of bat to ball is closer to the 6 O'Clock than the 3 O'Clock end of the outside of the ball. Balls can be hit with power, pulled and yet stay fair more often.
> Interestingly, to accomplish this, the rotational hitter must keep the hands inside the flight of the ball similar to contact hitters, but with significant upper body turn to create the bat angle that is outside the ball. This situation I think is the one that mixes people up - hands inside the ball and contact on the outside of the ball !!!!
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> >>.my last response got lost I'll try again.To teach to hit the inside of the ball helps teach the chp is false except on o.s. pitch.To say you can't hit with hands o.s. the ball is false ,however undesirable since to get the fat part of bat on ball means pulling it between the coaches box to dugout behind you.Major Dans 3-6-9-12 oclock idea is correct and with a tee I taught myself to pull past the 2nd baseman and how far back to hit a ball to go between 3rd and short consistently.May be called spatial hitting but learning to hit it where they ain't is why some get so many hits ,boggs and gwynn.however with them they try to go up the middle on a pitch down the middle hitting the back of the ball and they also look away a little if it is out there they just keep going after it but carrying the hands forward leading the barrel.If they miscalculate the middle pitch they do so by bringing the hands a little ahead of barrel hitting that single over short stop area.to me this idea does not induce the chp method more the linear hand method.A hitter who keeps rotating on the middle pitch can miss and pull the pitch very strong with just minor adjustments as boggs did oppositely to take it the other way.to hit the o.s. pitch the other way with circular hand path the ball must be away and hit far enough back on plate so barrel has not caught up to hands straight out which would hit the back of ball to center.I can hit the ball away on back corner of plate away and same pitch hit at front corner of plate with hands in line perpendicular to ball flight and go up middle.the hands however are starting to straighten out a little to allow a larger window of perpendicular contact or bat angle the same longer in that plane.If the chp was to keep rotating the same as beginning the barrel would release and propel ahead of hands.Some want this some don't and you can learn to do this either way on the middle pitch because of distance from normal persons body.However to try to pull the o.s. pitch when you do not have the reach of Mcgwire or power ability he can create so early will be poor percentage hitting and thats what its about.Just like you may feel a big adjustment on keeping the inside pitch fair as we talked about at setpro with Piazza but this is better percentage to hit harder since bat has more time to gain b.s. and your hitting more closely where it should go just barrel does'nt release as far as normal.Mcgwire can probaly handle pulling a ball on outer 1/3rd of plate like most handle ball down the middle.Jack it's not taboo to hit the o.s. part of ball only to cast your hands out their near the ball to get around to the other side of it,I think you know that but good point to bring up to have discussed and distinguish between