Bat Speed -- Baseball Hitting Forum

Posted by: Guy Dumont (guy.dumont@jus.gov.on.ca) on Thu Mar 31 00:48:39 2005

I've been playing baseball my whole life. Fast-ball, Hard-ball and slo-pitch. In my younger years (3-12) my coach taught me the Paul Molitor short compact swing. Which consists of resting the bat on the back shoulder, feet wider then shoulder width apart and chin against the front shoulder. An old school looking swing which is what I was by a Montreal Expo scout when I tried out for the Ottawa Lynx a couple years ago. With this swing I was a contact hitter with "ok" pop. It was defenitely a Linear swing. I was a solid number 5 hitter. FYI Im 6'2 200 and I do squats, deadlifts and bench press once a week. I guess Im a reasonably strong guy. I then discovered this site. I've been reading Jack's advice and research religiously including these forums. I have now adopted a copy of Ken Griffey Jr.s swing and focused on rotational mechanics. And let me tell you, the easier I swing the more pop I get. I've hit some 460 footers with a wooden bat that I thought impossible for myself before. I remember one particular bomb that I hit with a contact swing. I was only trying to poke it over the shortstop and the ball ended up 450 plus. So I guess my question is why is it the less I try the further the ball goes? Im baffled!! And has anyone ever noticed that Griffey's top hand pulls a total of maybe two inches on the start of the swing? Why is that?

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> I've been playing baseball my whole life.  Fast-ball, Hard-ball and slo-pitch.  In my younger years (3-12) my coach taught me the Paul Molitor short compact swing.  Which consists of resting the bat on the back shoulder, feet wider then shoulder width apart and chin against the front shoulder.  An old school looking swing which is what I was by a Montreal Expo scout when I tried out for the Ottawa Lynx a couple years ago.  With this swing I was a contact hitter with "ok" pop. It was defenitely a Linear swing. I was a solid number 5 hitter. FYI  Im 6'2 200 and I do squats, deadlifts and bench press once a week.  I guess Im a reasonably strong guy.  I then discovered this site.  I've been reading Jack's advice and research religiously including these forums.  I have now adopted a copy of Ken Griffey Jr.s swing and focused on rotational mechanics.  And let me tell you, the easier I swing the more pop I get.  I've hit some 460 footers with a wooden bat that I thought impossible for myself before.  I remember one particular bomb that I hit with a contact swing.  I was only trying to poke it over the shortstop and the ball ended up 450 plus.  So I guess my question is why is it the less I try the further the ball goes?   Im baffled!!  And has anyone ever noticed that Griffey's top hand pulls a total of maybe two inches on the start of the swing?  Why is that?

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This is known as hitting for the cycle in a game?
   Single, double, triple, homerun
   Four singles
   Three homeruns
   Three stikeouts