Posted by: Dan (daniel.miechels@gmail.com) on Tue Apr 6 15:19:28 2010

> > I was reading an interview with 4 time Olympic gold medalist, discus thrower Al Oerter. He mentioned his only "coach" in 30+ year career was a towel. What he would do is have a buddy place a towel on the ground where the discus landed after each throw, and he would try to beat that distance. Amazingly basic and simple, yet he was one of the all time greatest in his sport.
> > I was wondering if anyone tried a variation of this for bat speed, namely, hitting off a tee for distance, trying to simply beat the best distance of the previous swings. Faster the swing, farther the ball goes. What do you folks think?
>
> Big benefit to hitting off the tee and seeing how far you can hit. Great for testing bats too.


I have tried this and found that the swing does not work well when applied in a game situation. The main reason being that a stationary ball on a tee takes out the need for a short swing and good bat control. I could get the most distance off the tee with a very long swing with a very loose right hand - maximising the double pendulum effect. But with live pitching, I had no timing and had trouble hitting any pitch with movement.