Bat Speed -- Baseball Hitting Forum

Posted by: Sam R. () on Mon Jul 17 15:21:33 2006

OK Hitting Guru, Jack,Anyone? Please tell me "what is level" in a level swing??? The bat? the shoulders? the hands? the hips? the head?

I see this as just another overstated batting cue nobody can really explain? I don't have a single clip or photo of any of those things I stated above as "being level" throughout or even at Point of contact. So what am I missing?

While I'm at it. How many times did Harold Reynolds say on HR Derby night "see how so & so is staying behind the ball?" What as opposed to staying in front of it??? He should have stated "what was staying behind the ball" so a kid watching it could know what the heck he meant. I happened to have a room full of Babe Ruth age players watching the derby and none of them could tell me what he meant either?

How about- "kept his hands inside the ball" Really?
So how many players have ever kept their hands outside a ball and hit it??? Point is (again to kids and many coaches) every hitter at Point of contact absolutely has their hands inside the ball!!!!

Sorry, had enough with these stupid unexplained comments we keep hearing that nobody does a decent job of interpreting. So I can't wait for some good explanations from this site.

> > Just curious how important it was to have a level swing. I have a uppercut because I am obsessed with HR's since I was a kid and now I still do the same thing and I am trying to kick the habit. Is it really true that if you have a level swing (even in slowpitch softball) that you will get backspin on the ball resulting in farther hit balls??
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Dave. Regarding the swing plane for power, you can do the following.
>
> 1. Have an uppercut rotational swing (Jim Thome)
>
> 2. Have a level swing, but hit the bottom half of the ball (Mike Schmidt)
>
> 3. Have a level swing but take the nob to the ball (or get jammed slightly on purpose while taking a full swing) This causes a slight uppercut but is relatively a level swing) (Paul Molitor)

Followups:

Re: Re: Re: How important is it to have a level swing
Steve [ Wed Jul 19 10:28:53 2006 ]
- Re: Re: Re: Re: How important is it to have a level swing Sam R. [ Thu Jul 20 19:55:49 2006 ]
Re: Re: Re: How important is it to have a level swing Dave [ Tue Jul 18 07:31:43 2006 ]
Re: Re: Re: How important is it to have a level swing Scott W. [ Tue Jul 18 07:01:23 2006 ]

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Text:

> OK Hitting Guru, Jack,Anyone? Please tell me "what is level" in a level swing???  The bat? the shoulders? the hands? the hips? the head?
> 
> I see this as just another overstated batting cue nobody can really explain? I don't have a single clip or photo of any of those things I stated above as "being level" throughout or even at Point of contact. So what am I missing?
> 
> While I'm at it. How many times did Harold Reynolds say on HR Derby night "see how so & so is staying behind the ball?" What as opposed to staying in front of it???  He should have stated "what was staying behind the ball" so a kid watching it could know what the heck he meant. I happened to have a room full of Babe Ruth age players watching the derby and none of them could tell me what he meant either?
> 
> How about- "kept his hands inside the ball" Really?
> So how many players have ever kept their hands outside a ball and hit it??? Point is (again to kids and many coaches) every hitter at Point of contact absolutely has their hands inside the ball!!!!
> 
> Sorry, had enough with these stupid unexplained comments we keep hearing that nobody does a decent job of interpreting. So I can't wait for some good explanations from this site.
> 
> 
> > > Just curious how important it was to have a level swing.  I have a uppercut because I am obsessed with HR's since I was a kid and now I still do the same thing and I am trying to kick the habit.  Is it really true that if you have a level swing (even in slowpitch softball) that you will get backspin on the ball resulting in farther hit balls??
> > 
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> > Dave.  Regarding the swing plane for power, you can do the following.
> > 
> > 1. Have an uppercut rotational swing (Jim Thome)
> > 
> > 2. Have a level swing, but hit the bottom half of the ball (Mike Schmidt)
> > 
> > 3. Have a level swing but take the nob to the ball (or get jammed slightly on purpose while taking a full swing) This causes a slight uppercut but is relatively a level swing) (Paul Molitor)

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