Posted by: Basilio Ortega (heavyhitters_2004@yahoo.com) on Fri May 13 17:02:18 2005

> >>>Everyone has an opinion...here is mine. I have worked with kids for 11 yrs. and they hit the ball and have fun. I have read Ted Williams,Baker,Schmidt & Ellis,SI,3 of Lau's and Professor Adairs. When you teach pure rotation first you will pull the front shoulder open. They will not see the ball as well. Most of the coaches do not teach pitchers how to throw inside so most of the balls, if you lined up 7 balls on the front edge of home plate 1 being inside and 7 being outside,are 3 to 7 or 4 to 7. If you can't see it you can't hit it!Teaching a person to pull a ball is one dimensional, teaching a kid they can hit a pitch to the opposite field and advance the runner builds confiedence.I would rather teach a push/pull swing as they can relate to it and contribute to their teams RBI's and advance the runners.Take a bat and tie a string around the knob of the bat. Let the bat head hang down. Gently using a ball peen hammer, tap the barrel of the bat starting at the bat head working up to the towards the knob. Yow will feel the bat jump and vibrate and then it will start to ping on metal bats.Repeat it again and this time mark the bat. This is the sweet part of the bat.Next, using adhesive tape, wrap the barrel of the bat with one layer of tape.Try having the hitter stand in the exact same position away from home plate.Mark their toes with chalk. Set up a tee so the ball is over and lined up with the 4 ball.Have the hitter swing 5 times and look at the marks on the tape left from the ball on the bat,in relationship to the sweet part of the bat.Take a pen and mark the spots with a number 4. Next move the tee to the 7 ball postion(outside) which is where a lot of coaches pitch.Repeat the process and mark those spots with a number 7. Now move the tee to the 1 ball and repeat the process.My point is that your hands, not your shoulders must be relative to the inside of the ball.If the hands are in too close to the body on an outside pitch, you will leave marks on the end of the barrel. On a pitch down the middle, if the marks are towards the handle, your hands are casting away from you and the relationship and relative position of the hands to the sweet part of the bat was not there.Another important point is hitting the ball over the plate, not in front of the plate, except for inside pitches. When you move the tee to the number 1 ball, move the tee forward about 6 to 9 inches. In my opinion, anyone can pull a ball. However, if you want to work on timing in a cage, allow the ball to come to you, over the plate. Yes, you will foul some balls in the cage however, in a game adding in the elemnets of the pitchers mechanics, you will hit more balls than you foul. When the front shoulder opens too early or you teach letting go of the bat with the right hand, all of a sudden you forget the objective was to hit the ball and have fun playing baseball. Stand in front of a mirror(facing it) and get in a position to hit the ball. The pitcher is in the mirror. If you can't see white on both sides of your eyes equally, you are not seeing the ball equally with boths eyes. Your depth persception will be off or reduced.Try to open up your stance a little at a time until you see with both eyes equally. When you get, or if you get, to the high school level or college level maybe you can concentrate on hand torque and home runs if you are still motivated to play. Our son, who uses the push/pull, hands inside the ball relative to the sweet part of the bat, is doing fine at Div.II at the University of Charleston.Our other kids(we call them our kids) are at various other schools, about 20 in all. This was our second year of kids at this age group since we began working with hitting some 11 years ago. Thanks for giving us all a format to share our ideas and opinions. Every hitter is like a snowflake, they are all different and as such we must recognize what will work for them.<<<
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> > Hi HWC
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> > Welcome to the site and thank you for your ideas. We may have different opinions on batting mechanics but our goals seem to be about the same.
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> > -- All good hitters need to "keep there shoulder in-there" until the swing is initiated -- but show me a great hitter who keeps the shoulder in as the hands start forward. At what point during the swing do you think the shoulders should start to rotate?
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> > -- All hitters need to see the ball clearly whether they use rotational or extension mechanics. But, Ted Williams, George Brett, Barry Bonds, and etc. also uses an "inward-turn" and I have a feeling they see the ball pretty good.
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> > --Few good rotational hitter are always trying to pull the ball and you can bet rotational hitters also strive to make contact at the "sweet spot" of the bat. My instruction teaches the batter to make contact when the bat becomes perpendicular to the balls line of flight (inside or outside pitch). If he is a little early, the ball is pulled -- a little late, he hits to the opposite field. I like your tape idea.
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> > WHC, you stated: >>>My point is that your hands, not your shoulders must be relative to the inside of the ball <<<
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> > If the rotation of the lead shoulder does not bring the hands in tighter -- what do you think does? Do you think bending the lead elbow is more effective on inside pitches?
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> > Jack Mankin
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> > bending the lead elbow is not effective on inside pitches.....bent elbow causes hands to draw in closer to body...makes the hand path "straighter" rather than circular....result: inside out swing which is NOT what you want on an inside pitch, assuming you want to PULL the inside pitch and with POWER....grc...