Posted by: Paul Petricca () on Fri Aug 10 20:36:31 2001

A reprint of the article I wrote is posted at
> > www.webball.com/skill/battorq.html Like "most students of the game", I would welcome any constructive feedback and would be happy to clarify any of the information I present. I believe that there is not one perfect hitting technique, but I do think that there are some fundamentals that all good hitters employ. I have refined what I teach based what I have read on this site and learned from other sources, so a dialogue with others who care about baseball (especially youth baseball) is usually always constructive.
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> paul petricca,
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> i believe that your "technique", as you call it, has true value.
> i (or at least my son) can attest to this. he/we experimented with the technique some years back and he successfully came out of a rather severe slump that he couldn't get out of (and i couldn't solve).
> while in the slump, we had analyzed his videos and thought we had discovered various problems. but, when we tried various solutions, we only created a bigger monster. matters got worse. we both learned a very valuable lesson. make certain of the problem - FIRST.
> we didn't do that for this slump, but we got lucky and i saw your article (in fact, that's why i agree with most of jack's ideas - because they [though not in all aspects] co-incide with your's).
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> his turn around was almost miraculous. he truly did start driving the ball. i then set about to try and reason why. comparing before and after videos i discovered three things. one, that his hands (and bat) had gotten so far back on his coil move that they were not always loading to the same position for launch. two, that he was holding the bat too far back in the palms (holding the bat as you suggest actually forces you to grasp the bat more in the fingers). three, that he was firing the bat before firing his hips.
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> i have to admit that he no longer uses your technique (cannot apply top hand torque) in games, but as a training technique, we still do.
> actually we use a technique of jack's first - hands in launch, duct tape him up, and fire into the punching bag. then we use, your technique, with soft toss (this let's him fire the hands). then, he hits the bag from his normal stance. then, hit the bag using top hand torque. the progression (and regression) works well.
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> i have re-read your article, and while i don't agree with all you say, i sincerely thank you for publicizing it.
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> yours in baseball,
> ray porco

Ray,

I'm glad this technique worked for your son. I must tell you that many of the hitters I have worked with over the years eventually took the bat off of the arm, but still kept it just above the arm and parallel to the ground (similar to Luis Gonzalez). However, most of them continue to use it during batting practice to ensure that they are hitting with their entire body and not just their arms. I still believe that the barrel of the bat pressed on the arm generates more torque and thus more power. When I use this technique, the more pressure I put on my arm (more resistence), the harder and farther I hit the ball. Thanks again for the feedback.
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