Posted by: devin (dji25) on Thu Aug 23 14:47:36 2001

I am 16 years old. I have almost always used a slightly open stance. But I find that I am begining to pull pitches that I should be taking up the middle or driving the other way. I recently read "The Science of Hitting" for about the 90th time and came across a part where Ted talks about having your front foot slightly closer to the plate than your back foot. Getting around on fast pitches is not a concern for me, I get around on just about everything. However the thought crossed my mind about using the very slightly closed stance (basically parallell) against slower pitchers and an open stance against pitchers that throw say 80mph and up. Would that be an advantage?


I dont think that you should try to use two stances. You should stick to one stance. Many hitters who uses open stances like Luis Gonzalez, dive into the ball and hit a lot of balls to left field. As long as you close up and dont stay open, using an open stance should prohibit you from hitting balls the opposite way. Instead of trying to change your stance, i would concentrate on waiting for the ball, and practice hitting the other way in the cages.