Posted by: John D (John@Dresslar.com) on Tue Jan 10 09:32:09 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
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Jim:

You raise some interesting observations that deserve a thread of their own, as they don't really relate to the original post and will get lost in the shuffle here. Obviously, you have seen the product of some bad instruction that should perhaps get sorted out on Epstein's web site. (He has forums too, but they're just nowhere near as active as these.)

Of course you don't avoid pitches on the outer half. And good rotational hitting involves keeping your weight centered; keeping your weight back and spinning is just as much a no-no in rotational hitting as in linear hitting. The trick in hitting pitches on the outside part of the plate with rotational techniques is, like with all good hitting, is to hit the ball late and drive it to right.

I'm not here to pimp Jack's video -- it has a couple holes in it that I've had to fill in elsewhere (Jack, I'll consult on "Final Arc III, okay ;-) ) , but there's an excellent point that is thrown in there that deserves a lot more emphasis. You can't hit the inside pitch unless you're ready for the outside pitch -- if for no reason other than you'll never GET an inside pitch if pitchers no you can't hit the outside pitch.

The beauty of a correctly taught rotational swing is that it allows you to get the bathead around faster on an inside pitch, so you can LOOK for an outside pitch. Kids who stand too erect and hang back on their heels using rotational mechanics indeed will be in trouble on low outside pitches. But, if their posture is right and they adjust it correctly to those pitches, they can hammer them to right and right center. And, if the pitcher senses that you're leaning over the plate looking outside and so tries to jam you inside, you say, "Thank you very much", keep your hands in, rotate quickly balanced between your feet, and hammer the ball down the first base line.... and put the pitcher on your Christmas card list. We gotta ten year old on my son's team who did that last year -- heck, it was almost an emergency swing -- and he got his first extra base hit of the season, a massive home run to left field even without perfect contact.

I haven't seen Epstein's videos -- I don't have $169 to throw around -- but I'll bet your eyes would be opened if you bought it and found out what he was really teaching. Still, it sounds like you're a serious enough coach that it would be worth the $39 for Jack's video to get some misconceptions corrected. And, if you get a kid who's committed to rotational, you'll at least have a few drills and guides so you know what to look for. And, as noted above, there's some basic principles of hitting shown that will be of benefit to anyone.