Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Dec 27 13:53:01 2006

>>> Hey
I am a 13 year old hitter. I have trouble hitting the outside pitch. Every time I strike out it's on an outside pitch. I also just have trouble hitting it. Another thing is that I can't tell if it's going to be a strikeor not. I think it's a ball, and there's been too many thimes where I've struck out looking on the outside pitch.
Every time I hit, I just have to pray for the pitcher to throw a chest-high inside pitch that I can tank out 290 feet.
BTW, I can hit most pitches, but I also have trouble on low & inside pitches as well. I'm a pull hitter who likes inside pitches(I can pull a 70+mph pitch 46' away). Another question: should I go with most pitches or should I be looking to pull most?
Thanks! <<<

Hi Cage

Swing mechanics that accelerates the bat-head from the lag position to contact before the hand-path sweeps away from the contact zone is key to hitting outside pitches hard. If the bat-head drags behind the hands to far into the swing, the hand-path will be arcing inward toward the shortstop as the bat-head inters the contact zone. This means the meat of the bat is also being pulled inward which results in the ball being hit off the end of the bat or missed completely.

Not have studied your swing I can only speculate that this may be part of your problem. In any case, this post from the Archives below may offer some insight on hitting outside pitches.

Jack Mankin
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Outside pitch – Linear vs Rot

Posted by: Jack Mankin (mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Apr 7 01:41:21 2004

Hi All

I am starting a new thread for a discussion Ray and I are having (below) on hitting the outside pitch. I believe the exchanges between us is important because it points out the difficulties that can arise when one is describing batting principles from a rotational perspective while the other is responding with linear principles. What may be a good rotational batting principle may appear totally wrong when viewed from the linear perspective.

Rotational concepts for hitting the outside pitch are completely different than the linear principles most of us were taught. We were taught to shift our weight forward and use our arms to extend the hands at the ball. This meant that for pitches middle-in, we basically extended the hands back toward the pitcher. For pitches on the outer portion of the plate, we were told that in order to get good wood on the ball, we should “let the ball get in deeper” before we extended and “hit the inside of the ball.” The hand-path would now be going out wider because we are extending the hands not at the pitcher but more toward first base.

With rotational transfer mechanics, generating a wider hand-path for outside pitches is NOT governed by using the arms to extend the hands. The width of the hand-path is governed by how far the shoulders rotate by contact. There is no extension of the lead-arm with rotational transfer mechanics. The lead-arm remains fairly straight from initiation to contact. --- If the swing is initiated correctly, the bat will come to perpendicular to the ball’s flight about even with the front-knee regardless of pitch location – no need for going out after it or allowing it to get in deeper.

For pitches from middle-in, the lead-arm remains across most of the chest as the lead-shoulder rotates all the way around to the 105-degree position (past facing the pitcher). By keeping the lead-arm close to the chest, this amount of shoulder rotation pulls the hands around in a fairly tight path, and the bat comes to contact with the back-arm in the “L” position.

Upon seeing a pitch coming to the outside part of the plate, the direction of pull of the top-hand (THT) at initiation causes the lead-arm to start casting away from the chest sending the hands into a wider arc. Therefore, on outside pitches, the shoulder only rotates 70 or so degrees to allow the hands stay in a wider path. The back-arm will have extended past the “L” position but not to the fully extended position (maybe 135 degrees – 45 degrees past the “L” position).

When looking at it from Ray’s perspective (arms must extend hands more for outside pitches), it is understandable why he would have serious problems with my principles and performance figures for hitting the outside pitch. Although I have never advocated trying to pull the outside pitch, Ray may have thought I did.

Jack Mankin