Posted by: sbranda (steven_branda@yahoo.com) on Thu Apr 20 21:03:01 2006

Jack,

Eight years ago I was a first team all conference hitter in highschool, yet I never was able to develop controlable and consistent power to the opposite field. I could not find an answer to this in the Ted Williams' or Charlie Lau's book, or in the heads of my coaches.

Two years ago I started playing slow pitch softball, and while I was able to adapt my swing to the sport without major modification (some people online promote the idea of radically different mechanics for softball vs baseball which is crap imo), I was still unable to drive the ball with authority the other way.

I didn't want to do stop gap measures like turn my body drasticly to right field. I wanted opposite field power to come out of the same launch and foot positions in a way that felt natural.

At the end of last season I stumbled upon your site. I had a hard time understanding everything just from this website and your posts, but eventually I understood what you are talking about. Basically the concept that really nailed it for me was your description on how the lead shoulder should act. I went through my swing in slow motion and saw that my lead shoulder was only moving backwards away from the pitcher when my bat was in position to pull the ball, hence why I had no power the opposite way.

I did not go to the batting cages at all this winter, I hardly took any dry swings. All I did was work on a new stance that helped promote the correct launch positions for rotational mechanics, and walked through the mechanics slowly with a bat in my hands. Well we had our first practice today and I had no problems going the opposite way with authority and control. Pretty damn impressive for my first time swinging in 9 MONTHS!!! I can't wait to see how I improve once I start burning these mechanics into my muscle memory.

So from one student of swing mechanics to another, I sincerely thank you for your research and effort. You've filled in the missing piece for me. If I had only had this knowledge back in highschool, I might have played some college ball ;)

-Steve