Bat Speed -- Baseball Hitting Forum

Posted by: Bart () on Sun Nov 18 13:28:48 2001

I used to think that slightly bending the front elbow was bad, especially on an inside pitch. My 18 year old son would contact inside pitch about 20 inches or so in front of the plate and hit the outside part of the ball (maybe 1 1/2 inches left of the center, he bats left).

He always had trouble reaching the outside pitch, though. Then he started using a closed stance & could easily reach & effectively hit the outside pitch. I think what happened is that the closed stance effectively made a pitch on the outside corner be a pitch about 4 inches closer to the middle of the plate.

Two things started happening. One, he started seeing fewer outside pitches but more pitches on the inside corner. Two, he suddenly could not drive the inside corner pitch the way he used to. He started rolling the top hand and hitting grounders to the right side.

It soon dawned on me that the closed stance was also efectively making an inside corner pitch be a pitch that was about 4 inches closer to him, and contacting at the same 20 inches in front of the plate caused him to roll the hands.

I concluded that this was because as the body rotates the top arm reaches a certain limit where it can not turn without the hands starting to roll.

The solution seemed to be drawing the hands in a bit, resulting in the front elbow bending more than I had previously thought it should , and contacting the ball closer in to the plate (about 14 inches). Also this resulted in him contacting the ball more towards the center rather than left of center.

The results were interesting. His shots to right field are not quite as far, and the trajectory of the shots are more of a straighter line shot rather than a 35 or 45 degree trajectory. Nevertheless, on that pitch he's getting doubles and triples. On the pitch that is middle and middle-inside he's hitting them over the fence. and most amazing of all, the outside pitches that he used to make no contact on, or feeble contact, he is hitting them in to left-center gaps, and sometimes over the fence.

I would be interested to know how my observations & my son's experiences compare with the theories that are discussed at this site & on Jack's tape (which I have seen). Thank you

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Re: Inside-out t olson [ Mon Nov 19 07:29:22 2001 ]

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> I used to think that slightly bending the front elbow was bad, especially on an inside pitch. My 18 year old son would contact inside pitch about 20 inches or so in front of the plate and hit the outside part of the ball (maybe 1 1/2 inches left of the center, he bats left). 
> 
> He always had trouble reaching the outside pitch, though. Then he started using a closed stance & could easily reach & effectively hit the outside pitch. I think what happened is that the closed stance effectively made a pitch on the outside corner be a pitch about 4 inches closer to the middle of the plate.
> 
> Two things started happening. One, he started seeing fewer outside pitches but more pitches on the inside corner. Two, he suddenly could not drive the inside corner pitch the way he used to. He started rolling the top hand and hitting grounders to the right side.
> 
> It soon dawned on me that the closed stance was also efectively making an inside corner pitch be a pitch that was about 4 inches closer to him, and contacting at the same 20 inches in front of the plate caused him to roll the hands.
> 
> I concluded that this was because as the body rotates the top arm reaches a certain limit where it can not turn without the hands starting to roll.
> 
> The solution seemed to be drawing the hands in a bit, resulting in the front elbow bending more than I had previously thought it should , and contacting the ball closer in to the plate (about 14 inches). Also this resulted in him contacting the ball more towards the center rather than left of center.
> 
> The results were interesting. His shots to right field are not quite as far, and the trajectory of the shots are more of a straighter line shot rather than a 35 or 45 degree trajectory. Nevertheless, on that pitch he's getting doubles and triples. On the pitch that is middle and middle-inside he's hitting them over the fence. and most amazing of all, the outside pitches that he used to make no contact on, or feeble contact, he is hitting them in to left-center gaps, and sometimes over the fence.
> 
> I would be interested to know how my observations & my son's experiences compare with the theories that are discussed at this site & on Jack's tape (which I have seen). Thank you

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