Posted by: ddavies (dan_davies@hp.com) on Mon Dec 3 11:46:17 2001

I've recently become a convert to Jack's hitting principles - largely because of the startling success my son had immediately after watching the tape. Last week I purchased Mike Epstein's tapes (thanks Mark H.) and watched them over the weekend. I initially was quite confused, but am trying to distill my confusion into specific questions.

1. Front leg - Mike starts his (step #1) swing at the point the front heel comes down and the front foot is pointing towards the pitcher. Jack starts with the movement of the front knee back towards the catcher. Are these concepts in opposition to one another, or is Jack stimply starting at an earlier step that includes the heel drop as a later portion of the hip turn?

2. Mike appears to teach a sort of "throwing of the hands at the pitcher" (ie; fence drill) that appears in conflict with what I got from Jack. One of the strengths/differences of Jacks work that I saw is that the bulk of the hand/shoulder rotation occurs on axis such that all obtainable bat speed is created by purposefull hip/shoulder/hand rotation before contact, and what the hands do after contact is meaningless. Part of Mike's hand movement focus seems to be on events that happen after contact. Am I observing what I think I'm seeing? Can someone add clarity for me?

Some comments about Mike's video. I like the simplicity of his 1, 2, 3 teaching method. His observation about watching a point out in front of the batter instead of "head down" was illuminating. I also think his focus on the front arm going up fits nicely with Jack's teaching about the back arm going down. Finally, as far as I can remember, Mike never directly mentions/refers to the importance of the shoulders in a strong swing, although his teachings seem to rely on them.

Responses encouraged.....