Posted by: ddavies (dan_davies@hp.com) on Wed Nov 21 10:32:18 2001

Does anyone have a succesful communication style when talking to hitting "experts" who have not been exposed to rotational hitting? I take my son weekly to a group practice at a local hitting/baseball indoor facility. I'm often asked to coach the boys on hitting. As a recent convert, I cannot in good conscience continue teaching linear hitting techniques. The owner of the facility is visibly shaken by the concepts I'm sharing with the boys.

This week he gently tried to steer me straight by stating that I was teaching the boys a "long" swing, and that eventually it would catch up with them, and as they got older it would be hard for them to catch up to a 90 mile fastball, and also more difficult for them to change back to the "correct" swing.

He was especially struggling with pointing the bat towards the pitcher and sending the hands out in a motion perpindicular to the ball's path rather than straight at the pitcher. I was perplexed at how to answer. My 12 year old son was right behind him in a 50 mph cage at 35 feet crushing ball after ball towards deep left and down the line. It seems to me that power comes from bat speed, and thus a batter crushing the ball down the 3B line is getting the bat around pretty quick. He is a very well-meaning guy, so I don't want to alienate him, and (being very excited about the swing mechanics) I genuinely would like to share it with him. He is very technical, and does routine video analysis and training on local kids, using current "accepted" teachings. Any ideas?