Posted by: coach13 (halour@netscape.net) on Thu Jan 18 13:31:57 2007

> > >>> Thanks Jack. That's my point. Take 50 MLB hitters and you'll see very similar
> swingpaths on video, but they all tried to do something different to get there. <<<
> >
> > Hi Jimmy
> >
> > I suppose by “tried to do something different,” that you mean they were actually trying
> to “swing down through the ball.” If that is true, those 50 MLB hitters were the lucky ones.
> I have analyzed video of hundreds of young hitters who were told to “swing down at the
> ball.” Many of them must have been the unlucky students who could follow instructions –
> their bats were angling downward in the contact zone.
> >
> > Jack Mankin
>
> Hi Jack,
>
> I don't think Big League hitters are lucky, I know that they work very hard on their
> approach. And I think you are missing my point. When I stated that 50 hitters were
> "trying to do something different", I meant that all 50 players had a slightly different "feel"
> within their swing. All were doing 50 different things to get to the same result with the
> bat. If you think that every single baseball player in the world can be told the same exact
> cues and apply them in the same way than I think you are living in La La Land.
>
> I have had 1000's of students and players as well and I know that I have had to present
> different ideas in 100's of different ways to try to reach the hitters brain and motor skills.
>
> If a plumber only had one tool in his toolbelt, I don't think he could fix many different
> kinds of leaks. And some coaches have a bunch of different kinds of tools in their belt but
> they don't know what the heck they are for or how to use them.
>
> The kids that you have evaluated with the poor swings were unlucky because they had
> poor instruction. Any detail in a hitting lesson that is taken to the extreem or
> misunderstood will butcher the swing. This is true whether its "swing down" or even the
> details that you bring to the table (as you probably know).
>
> It is the hitting coaches responsibility to make sure this doesn't happen. And we all know
> that this is impossible for 90% of the coaches out there because they really don't know
> what they are talking about when they try to teach hitting.
>
> So my point is that I can't tell little Johnny the same thing that I told little Mikey because it
> may cause a completely different result in the swing.
>
> Jimmy

When teaching players I believe the final result of what is tryng to be acomplished is important. I gave you the example of a softball player that played in college that was taught linear hitting in the high school program. She then switched to the rotational concept in college and became one of the elite hitters in college softball, she said when she concentrated on developing the FEEL of having a rotational swing and refined her practice drills to rotational develepmental skills her swing really developed. You say that isn't what Albert Pujols trys to FEEL. I wonder how much better he would do if he actually tried to FEEL and practice the end result of what he actually does.
Just thinking rationally
coach13