Posted by: The Hitting Guru (hitman3527@aol.com) on Sun Jan 8 19:57:19 2006

> > After having rotational hitting taught to some of my players over the last several years, I've come to the conclusion that there are many holes in the instruction...hitters cannot adjust to outside pitches; curveballs or changeups. In fact our Epstein certified instructor told our boys not to hit balls on the outside half of the plate!!! Brilliant. Rotatoinal mechanics promotes "spinning" and having the majority of weight on the rear foot...reminiscient of the old "c" golf swing of the seventies...now all golfers are told to stay connected and to move laterally (a couple of inches) towards the ball. All hitters have to rotate in order to hit the ball...inside pitches promote a more rotational action and outside pitches a more inside/out hit...a lot of current rotational instructors are hurting our kids. jim


Jim. I do not think it is just rotational as it is that it is hard to find good instruction period. Another problem is that a lot of top major league hitters if asked, probably could not break down their own mechanics. As such, besides Ted Williams the industry needs more successful major league hitters to get involved in the theories. I believe if this were done, it would add more validity to our discussion. This is not to say that we should not respect the information that is being presented on this site. But to actually work with a Barry Bonds and have him explain what he feels is taking place would provide a great tool along with his thought process in what he is seeing and how he is reacting to pitches.

As far as outside and offspeed pitches go, Ted Williams spoke of a hitter having a sense of his own strike zone with regard to the pitches he should swing at. Most hitters who are rotational will hit the pitch on the middle half better than they would the outside pitch. This is because the basic premise of the rotational concept is a pulled hit which maximizes power and batspeed. The compromise is that a decision must be made early on to commit to a particular pitch for the optimum result. The pitch on the outside is harder to center as there is less room to apply the full forces of the swing unless the player positions himself in the batter's box with his back leg further away from the plate. But as you pointed out, the curve and the change up are more difficult to hit because the player has made a commitment to maximize his hit which is based on looking for a fastball. This is also why it is of the utmost importance for the hitter to have an idea of what the pitcher throws as well as the ability to recognize what is thrown as soon as possible in the delivery if possible. But as pointed out in the Mike Scmidt Study, their are tradeoffs in each approach. But the ability to apply the complete rules of either system can help a hitter become successful. On the flip side, if all rules are not followed the play will be vulnerable to prolonged slumps.