Posted by: () on Fri Aug 24 10:44:15 2001

Well - you're displaying a lot of impatience and arrogance - these are pretty "bad" questions for such a "good" mind. Since you're not as familiar with the system as you believe, I'll give you a few basic answers.

1. If he is popping up off a tee - you can't evaluate the "system". One has to have the hand eye coordination to hit the ball squarely to determine if one can hit the ball farther, this may take time to develop with a new way of swinging. The "system" cannot make a person hit a ball squarely - it can only make the ball go farther once the ability to make solid contact is developed.

2. Of course the hands are propelling the bat head toward the ball at impact, the forces that are being applied are just not linear (circular hand path - remember?). The bat is moving fast enough at this point that the swing plane is established and is difficult to change - the consistency comes from establishing a consistent swing plane and choosing the right pitches at which to swing. The high strikeout rate among home run hitters is due, in part, to the lack of ability to make last minute adjustments to major league pitches (which move all over the place, if you've noticed). This is an inherent problem with tremendous batspeed - it's hard to change it midstream. Power hitters always have a trade-off between distance and the ability to put the bat on the ball.

3. In reference to Jimmy Foxx - there's tremendous variation in the way players hold the bat. He was on of the strongest hitters in the game, he probably could hit it out holding the barrel and making contact with the handle. Personally, I always hit farther when I have a tight grip, mostly because that's the way I learned to hit and it's comfortable. If I spent a long time developing a more relaxed grip, I might hit farther. You can't look at one example that goes against the grain and call it proof that the concept is flawed.

> > 1) I have a GOOD understanding of the system, ie I am sure he was executing the syatem properly, and when I took my son out to hit on the tee with these mechanics he was popping EVERYTHING up... weakly! Comments? fyi.... we went back to his "old" system and he was immediately hitting line drives again.
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> > 2) while "dragging" the bat in the above post may have not been the appropriate term in essence it does transmit the concept because we are told to apply no pressure to speak of with the hands on the bat. How then are we to hit a baseball while exerting no real direction and control over the bat. It is indeed much like having a ball on the end of a string and trying to make contact with an incoming pitch with that same ball... an extremely difficult task anyone would admit. I simply do NOT see how you can make the barrel of the bat strike the incoming pitch with any consistancy without linear motion, ie directing the barrel TOWARDS the incoming pitch with the arms/hands. Perhaps if this system is indeed a reasonable explanation of of the mechanics of Big Mac, Sosa, Gonzales, Griffey Jr. et al then I submit that their HORRENDOUS strike out numbers are a vindication of what I just said.
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> > 3) I consider myself a pretty fair student of the history of the game. Jimmie Foxx once said that he held the bat so tightly with his grip that he expected sawdust to come out of the knob at any moment. Foxx was one of the greatest, he hit balls OUT of old Tiger stadium. Indeed, prior to Big Mac nobody hit LONG HR's as consistantly as Double X. Can anyone reconcile this success with the fundamental "no tension" tenant of this system?