Posted by: scott w (stwinton@netzero.net) on Wed Jul 26 09:19:37 2006

“However, for a coach to make sound judgements of a batter’s swing, he must have acquired a sound understanding of what constitutes efficient swing mechanics.”

At a certain point I think you need to trust those that have come before you. Those who have made it to the level that you (as a player) aspire for…in short, they know the way. The best coaches I’ve had , and I must be in a minority in terms of’ batspeed.comers’ were fantastic. They could in a few swings and a short amount of time see where I was going wrong and make the right suggestions/coaching…I played for and was coached by the following- (no names but credentials)- the backup double A outfielder in the Yankee organization, (he backup Mantel). A current single A manager, 15 year MLB middle infielder and WS winner. And a DI All American and top draft pick…these are just a few. I trusted them (and rightly so) and they got the most out of me as a ballplayer .

”There was a time when a young Williams, Mantle or Mays developed his swing mechanics by countless hours of just playing the game without a coach in sight. However, today’s youth seldom take a swing except in practice or games under the control of a coach. I submit to you that there are still many flaws in the batting cues and truisms most coaches use in teaching and judging a batter’s swing.”

I’ll give you that…there are a lot of coaches that over coach and do more harm then good however…Williams, Mantel and Mayes had their fair share of coaching. I was just reading about Williams and he talked about how early in his career Honus Wagner would be all over him about hitting and about his work ethic. Williams later in his career when most were heaping on the praise about how he was a natural hitter, he took offense and thought it demeaned his hard work.

”Scott, in an earlier post you state, “If your coach is worth a dime, he has the teams, and your best interest in mind and I guarantee he will be open to you questioning his coaching,” – That implies that you would take an “open-minded” approach to a player who told you he placed a high value on the bat speed his swing generated. It is an accepted fact that how hard a ball is hit is the product of the bat’s mass times the square of its velocity (m=mvv) at contact.

I’m open minded about offence, I’m closed minded about a hitters goal of generating batspeed as a tradeoff for good hitting. Ideally if they were to go hand in hand they great, however in most cases I’ve seen, one must develop as a hitter before one attempt to just improve one component of the swing.

Yet, you state, “Is batspeed the Holy Grail to good hitting, IMO its pretty far down on the list.” With that statement, you are actually telling your hitters that ‘how hard they hit the ball’ should be “pretty far down on the list.” The bat speed a swing generates and how hard a ball is hit are inseparable.

The goal is to hit the ball consistently hard yes, to be able to do that you need bat speed, however whats more important and where should a coach devote his time in helping players reach that goal? What are the prerequisites for being an offensive weapon…what more important to the teams success, and the individual hitter…

batspeed or rhythem
batspeed or Seeing the baseball
batspeed or pitch selection based on count understanding and game situation
batspeed or a team AB (i.e. moving a runner from 2nd to 3rd with less then 2 outs?)
batspeed or contact?!!!
batspeed or on base percentage

Don’t get me wrong, batspeed is important, however, you give me a team that lacks batspeed but understands the items in the right hand side of that column and we will beat a batspeed team everyday…and isent that the goal?


I also take exception to your statement, “The thing that most players don’t understand is that the swing that worked at one level in most cases will not work at the next higher level.” – The same swing mechanics exhibited by the best MLB hitters are also found in the swings of the best little league hitters

I could not disagree more with that statement, listen and talk with players as they move from one level to the next, the FIRST thing they will say is they had to adjust and adapt to the new level of competition. Hell, this comes from hall of famers, I can’t take credit for that. I’ve never had a hitter that has come through my program that did not have to adjust to the new level. How many little league pitchers are throwing sliders on the black, (I sure hope none, probably wrong)…