Posted by: Eric (eritson@hotmail.com) on Wed May 4 10:27:23 2005

As an actual, real life, switch hitter that can routinely hit a 90 MPH fastball, I can say that you get on top of fastballs, and get underneath curveballs. There is no in-between. Bonds(lefty) and Pujols(righty) elevate the back elbow to get to the baseball as quick as possible with that top hand, on fastballs. They drop the head on the ball as quick as possible (linear) and turn off the ball (rotational). Short to the ball, long off the ball(with the bat head). Sure, there is a little rotation in the knee, hip and/or shoulder to load up, but you don't rotate to the ball, you rotate off the ball, on fastballs. Hitting a curve ball is more linear, unless the curve ball is really hung up in the zone. Eye/hand coordination and confidence are the most important things in hitting anyway. Thanks.
> Hi,
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> Youth ball around my way is dominated by (pseudo?) sophisticated coaches preaching the value of 'backspin' by hitting the back bottom of the ball. I think a bottom or top emphasis is a bunch of verbiage to make coaches sound like they have special knowledge. I don't think they have recently seen a good pitch and tried to hit it hard. Considering that top/bottom is plus or minus 1/2 an inch, THEY should try to jigger THEIR swing plane 1/2" before they bother their hitters with an attempt to do so. They will forever shut up about it. In effect they are saying that they could consistently hit a 1" marble thrown at them - but no(!), it would be a 1/2" marble because they want the bottom half!!!!
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> Sit down already with that stuff. Try to hit some four seam heaters before giving out such WORTHLESS advice that just fills kids heads up with impossible endeavors.