Posted by: Coach Theune (coache@oldschoolbaseball.net) on Wed Dec 3 16:44:12 2008

I am constantly amazed by how many "coaches" still teach linear hitting, that is to say they teach that you get your bat speed from moving in a linear direction towards the pitcher during your swing.
I have even heard a HS Varsity coach tell his players that "your back foot has nothing to do with hitting"
I have always taught players to start with the weight balanced, knees slightly bent, hands around the letters, on the pitch take a short stride, about 6 inches in the direction the ball is headed meaning inside or outside or down the middle, this positions your body and bat to hit the pitch with the sweet spot of the bat. Once the stride begins, the body start momentum which is transferred up through the hips as they rotate and it travels up the body and out through the arms, this creates the torque that generates bat speed, which is power. At the completion of the swing, the front legs is locked straight and the back is bent with a majority of the hitter's weight on the ball of the foot, rotated 45 degrees inward as if you just squashed a bug.
I cannot understand how a player can hit the outside pitch by "swinging later" as so many coaches teach. If you use the same swing on all pitches,(with no stride) you can't hit all pitches with the same kind of power, and lets not even talk about curveballs.
I see many coaches teach hitters to lean way back and they call it lock and load, and there is no stride at all, they simply have the hitter lift and replace the lead foot in an effort to stay back, but wheres the lower body on that?
For my money, rotational hitting with a stride is the way to go. One problem I see often is there are many parents and coaches who see a Major League hitter making millions seemingly without any fundamentals at all and they say if it works for Frank Thomas.... I always tell these people that trying to compare your child with a Major Leaguer is a bad idea. These athletes are so rare and talented that many of them rely on natural talent. There are 30 MLB teams with 25 players on the roster, that means there are only 750 players, 300 of them are pitchers, that leaves only 450 MLB hitters IN THE WORLD...I'm sure you get my drift. Be smart and teach the tried and tested fundamentals, then when your childs becomes older and more sucessful, he or she will develope his or her own style that will make them unique.