Posted by: SJD (nospam@nospam.org) on Thu Nov 10 12:33:23 2005

“It’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear foolish than to open it and remove all doubt” – Mark Twain –

Scott, your statement, “going strait to the baseball (hand path) is physically impossible, the linier mental picture will get better results for far more hitters then a rotational mental picture to the baseball” is illuminating.

First, a straight hand path to the ball is NOT impossible; it is taught (unfortunately) to almost every Little Leaguer from the time they are strong enough to lift a bat. And if it were, as you claim, “impossible”, then WHY would anybody strive for a “linier mental picture” to try to hit the ball? That would rather self-defeating, wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t you think an alternate, more “possible” method would yield better results?

If you took less time to flame this site with your hilarious thoughts on hitting, and actually spent time READING some of the posts and discussions, you might actually begin to understand the topics at hand. Or perhaps even contribute something useful to the discussion board.

As somebody’s noted in this thread, Batspeed has not claimed rotational hitting as its own theory or concept; it merely notes that a rotational swing is common to some of the best hitters in the game, and has tried to quantify concepts that help hitters apply the principles. As have several other sites on the net promoting the rotational swing. Somebody else noted the clips at youthbaseballcoaching.com; why don’t you spend 30 minutes & watch ’em & tell us what you see? Do you see linear hand paths on any of today’s best hitters? What about Pete Rose, the best singles hitter of all time? And someplace on the net you can watch B&W clips of Ted Williams whose swing is... oh dear... rotational.

If you really think “converting” a McGuire, Sosa, or Bonds to a “straight hands to the ball” linear approach is worthwhile, why don’t you engage ’em in some frank hitting dialogue yourself? I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.

Please.

And as for knocking the testimonials of the fathers of Little Leaguers, consider this: one significant proof of the validity of any hitting method is the ease at which it may be learned and applied, at any level of play. My 10-year old (a classic linear hitter) had excellent results this year with power & placement after he’d adopted the rotational techniques on the Batspeed DVD. Now I’m not running around shouting that all MLB’ers should be using Jack’s techniques, because... who am I to tell them how to do their job?

Likewise, who are YOU, Scott, to sniff at positive results and testimonials from those who’ve experienced them on this site? Oh yes... it’s because of your “30 years” of experience. We mustn’t forget that. Let’s all just remember that coaching and playing for ONE year, 30 times over, isn’t quite the same as experiencing 30 years of in-depth coaching and playing, m’kay?

I’m not certain why you’re all lathered up with this site or its products, anyway. If you don’t buy into the concepts, or don’t understand them, well... that’s OK. No harm, no foul. But don’t troll here lambasting the site and its readers while claiming extensive hitting knowledge, when your posts clearly indicate otherwise. You’re not doing yourself any favors.

And when you start comparing Batspeed customers and believers in rotational swing mechanics to “internet guys claiming they found a cure for cancer”, and talking about giant baseball conspiracies... one begins to wonder if your batting helmet isn’t made of tinfoil.

Chill out a bit, man.

-SJD-

ps – it’s “Occam’s razor”, BTW