Posted by: jima (andyii@cox.net) on Tue Nov 28 15:08:42 2006

This is a great question and the responses are predictable: "they don't believe what they see", "they're the same guys responsible for this that and the other", blah, blah, blah. Granted, 10 or 15 yrs ago MLB teachers were probably using cues that worked for them rather than any scientific analysis. But today, with as much money as there is in MLB and with owners wanting to win at all costs, no one on this site will convince me that hitting instructors are not using every piece of technological equipment available to help their hitters...THEY CAN SEE WHAT YOU SEE...if "pure" rotational mechanics worked (and I'm not saying it doesn't) then that's what they would teach. You don't think that the GMs aren't aware of rotational hitting? c'mon. I just think that there is a lot more to hitting than mechanics...linear or otherwise. If Epstein, Nyman or Jack's methods worked in total they would be on someone's payroll. Please don't tell me to look at a bunch of videos that prove a circular motion, because I agree that there is rotation in every good swing...how to teach a player to get there is really the question. By the way, the bat barrel has go down before it goes up, but clearly at contact the angle cannot be downward unless of course you are Cal Ripken, who I witness "dropping the head of the bat on the ball" many times. Just think what he could have done if he could swing the bat (I'm serious, he had a horrible swing). jima