Posted by: Jimmy () on Thu Jan 4 20:51:56 2007

> > > Jimmy, you do a much better job explaining my thoughts on effective swing mechanics than me. For months I've been trying to explain (poorly I believe) that pure rotation is not the most effective way to hit a baseball. I agree that hitting is both linear and rotational...the load is linear; the first move to the ball with the hands is linear and then the swing becomes rotational as the bat moves towards the ball. My son had 3 yrs of rotational training, by a certified Epstein instructor, boy he could hit the inside fastball...but that's all. Once he moved up to a 13u travel team and pitchers started using the outside of the plate he struggled. We were lucky enough to find an instructor who applied the same principles that you discuss...he is now a much better hitter. jim
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> > Hi Jim,
> >
> > Well I'm glad that your boy has improved his game, because that is what any and all of these discussions should be about. The whole point to practicing or recieving any instruction is to make the game easier for the player. If a certain action that is being taught isn't going to make that happen in the long run than the action needs to be rethought. The game involves much more than just how much batspeed the hitter can generate. It takes a plan at the plate and a physical approach that can allow that plan to be executed.
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> >
> Thank you for the comments and your story. Jimmy
> >In the rose clip the 2nd frame has the bottom hand and the forearm in line with the inside chalk line of batters box,from that point on the bottom hand is never in line with the chalk again until it passes back across the other way at end of swing as it creates the top half of the circle in the hands rotation.What is interesting to see here is how the rear elbow is away from ribs in this swing and the extension out across the plate with lead arm,this creates the wider arc to reach the outside pitch while staying connected.notice the hand position at contact ,though they are ahead of the body they seem to be on edge of body to the inside of plate.Now if that was a inside pitch he would have broken his bat
with this timing and arc,however if he was earlier on an inside pitch he could have pulled the pitch with same arc but it would have pulled foul and thus he could of been accused of hitting around the ball and not staying inside the ball,even though I could see him staying inside the ball while not hitting around the ball on this particular clip even though he is rotational,so I do believe that the cues can be adapted to linear or rotational [knob to ball ,and stay inside ball]if understood in the context of the type swing method used.

Hi rql,

In the Rose clip, if that would have been a pitch on the inside half of the zone , his eyes would have recognized this the same time that he recognized that it was a pitch away. His reaction on the inside pitch, from the information that his eyes had told him, would have
been to take his barrel to the inside half of the ball a tad sooner. Thus creating a more direct path to the actual location of the pitch with the barrel. The same angle that his right forearm and bat makes at the point of contact on the outside pitch would have been created on the inside pitch, only with contact happening further out in front of the plate.

You are absolutely right with the point that if he had taken the same swing on an inside pitch that his bat would have shattered. But his swing would have had a much different path (direction wise) than the swing you see in the actual clip if his eyes recognized that it was inside. Something that would stay the same is that his hands and his back leg would be the first to move in his approach to the ball after he is loaded. This all contributes to better bat-control or as they say "good use of the hands".

Jimmy