Posted by: john (jjr@rmg-inc.com) on Tue Jun 20 22:06:51 2006

Jack, i'm going to have to disagree with you. you show me a guy who bar-arms, truly bar-arms and if he's in the big leagues, I'll tell you how to exploit him. number one, he's probably a hell of a low ball hitter, probably not bad at golf either. he's probably very
disciplined in laying off the high strike. and if he's really a good hitter and aware of his weakness, he can probably cover up his holes when he needs to. Most great or good major league hitters do not hit with a stiff front arm at the moment of release (or swing
initiation). Yes, it's sometimes hard to discern, because it's not pronounced. Really, what you should look for is the knob. if the knob, at release and shortly after, points towards 1st base (Righty), this is considered to be swinging around the ball. It's important in
baseball, like golf, to stay inside the ball (barrel should never get outside the path of the ball. If it does, you are minimizing your chances.) The difference is that in golf the ball is on the ground, and as such, stiff front arm is a must. But in baseball, the ball at the top of the strike zone swung at with a stiff front arm is no good. In a perfect world, with perfect timing, hitting the pitch perfectly where you are supposed to, yes, maybe this purely
rotational approach is the best approach. But in reality, hitting in this perfect world will only result in batting average of about 200. If you going to hit 300, you better be able to have a swing and approach that will allow you to put the barrel on balls that are not in those perfect positions; ie. offspeed away out front, or fastballs inside and deep. I'm not an advocate of purely straight-line hitting either. Rotation is a must, but a hitter must hit is way to his front side to be successful. When i look at that Urbanski commercial and see those kids hitting, i have to laugh because they are all smashing the bug. no weight transfer whatsoever. Perfect example of a hitting "guru" taking a good thing to an extreme and missing other important aspects of hitting.

There is no question rotational mechanics are important, probably more important than
weight transfer. but the greatest hitters (average and power) exhibited both. Babe Ruth
came off his back foot when he hit. all of his weight is transferred from back to front. We
must be careful in our message and how it could be misconstrued. Wait transfer taken too
the extreme will result in hitters looking like the Walt Wriniak desciples- fiddlers. Guys
that only rotate with no weight transfer have a real difficult time adjusting to change of
speeds because they are not long through the hitting zone. The tend to spin on their back
side, resulting in loopy swings or downward, ground ball double play making gate swings.
Rotational mechanics taught as the only way will surely result in making below average
hitters average. Unfortunately, it will surely make above average hitters into average
hitters.
As far as bats go, swinging a light a bat is okay for practice as it will help in muscle
memory. Swinging a weighted bat as a way of getting stronger or increasing bat speed
will only result in slower bat speed and bad mechanical habits. if you want to get
stronger, lift weights and exercise the muscles involved with the swing (which are basically
all of them) specifically the forearms/hands. Combining strength training and technical
training simultaneaously is a no-no. With that said, the best bat to use in terms of weight
is a bat that is light, but not too light that you are sacrificing mass (speed + mass =
power). But not too heavy that you sacrifice bat speed. Quiite frankly, these light bats
contribute to poor mechanics. back in the day, -3 or -5 was considered light, and using
you hands was a must.