Posted by: john (jjr@rmg-inc.com) on Tue Jun 20 23:44:27 2006

I don't have to look at his swing to help. Results tell you a lot. IN GENERAL, ground balls
to left side means you're out front (bat head out front of hands at contact) and pop ups or
weak fly balls to right means your bat head is behind or late. In reality, what happens is
someone who jumps out front before the ball gets to where it needs to be will likely slow
down his bat (usually looping) to make contact. This results in the pop up to the right
side. Be careful not to breakdown a swing, when the problem may be in his "pre-swing
mechanics" or timing. Also be careful, not to go all the way to the other extreme of
spinning on the ball and hitting the ball too deep. All good hitters hit on balance, have
their hands in launch postion at stride, start their swing with a strong back side hip
rotation along with a short swing and hit the ball out front, even on outside pitches. By
out front, i mean at contact the barrel is even with or out front of the midsection.
Remember that you hit your way to your front side, not the other way around. Even
though you may see hitters FINISH on their back side, at the point of CONTACT, their
"rotation" has taken them to their front side. This is evident by the toe up or back foot off
the ground.

Look for balance (50/50) after his stide is complete- no drifting forward. also look for his
hands in proper launch position. Front toss or flip - changing speeds and sometimes not
flipping to check for balance- is a good drill. A key for young hitters is to train them to
take a full swing if they commit. I see too many hitters taking a 2 strike approach when
the count is in their favor. if they get fooled/ timing off, you don't want them pissing an
AB away taking a weak swing - playing pepper with the shortstop or hitting a blooper to
second.

Like everything else in life, the truth is usually found somewhere in the middle of two
extremes. Rotation and weight transfer do in fact coexist, just look at every hall of fame
hitter (except maybe Reggie Jackson, not sure he's in). No one can say rotation is not
important- arguably critical- because all great hitters rotate to generate batspeed and
power (power should be defined as hitting the ball hard -as much as it is far.) No one
should say that weight transfer is not critical because most great hitters in terms of
batting average hit their way to their front side at contact. If your son is a good athlete,
teach him to rotate AND hit to his front side (this is not easy, but professionals do it). if
he's not, teach him to smash the bug- rotate the back foot and swing down to the ball,
finish high. if you want him to come back to the dugout crying 9 out of 10 times because
he struck out, teach him to rotate without weight transfer or spin on his backside swinging
up on the ball. If he's big and strong, he'll lead the league in HR's and possibly strikeouts.
To my knowledge, manager's have a lot of signs they can give to the hitter, but the home
run sign is not one of them.

Look at it this way, pitchers have numerous ways of getting hitters out. the 3 basic ways
are in-out, up-down, and change of speeds. the combinations are numerous. our job as
hitters is to have not only the optimum mechanics but also the right approach to handle as
many pitches and types of pitchers as possible. One thing is for sure, no matter the swing
mechanics, athleticism and hand eye coordination are prerequisites. Although we strive to
acheive perfect timing, reality is we are not going to be perfect. The question then is,
absent of perfect timing, what are we to do? if you rely totally on rotating on the axis and
batspeed, batspeed, batspeed, i guess if your timing is off, you're screwed- swing and
miss or get jambed. I'm sorry, but I'm a big believer in having a swing that will keep my
barrel in the hitting zone as long as possible. if i get beat out front and away on a pitch, i
want to have the abilty to take that axis and slide it forward so that i can contact the ball
in a good power position, maybe not perfect but good enough to get a knock. by the
same token, if i get beat on a pitch in and deep, i want to be able to rely on being able to
throw my hands inside and get the barrel on the ball shooting it up the middle. Not a
homerun mind you, but a chance to get a hit.