Posted by: Patrick (pmgeoeiiee@yahoo.com) on Sun Oct 17 12:18:15 2010

> > No one here believes that a batter should take wild out of control swings.As a matter of fact a tension free fluid swing is the belief here.You say the videos of Ted Williams taking a circular hand path is distorted. And you refuse to belive the over head drawing of Ted Williams hand path on page 42 in his book the science of hitting is circular. Even thou it clearly is circular . As a matter of fact the hand path that Ted Williams showed on page 42 is as circular as the demonstration that Jack Mankin uses in the film clip on you tube to show Pete Roses hand path to the ball. They have the same arc.so dont believe what you see on film and in the book.But you are wrong when you say T Williams never talked about a arc in his swing which to me means a circular path.
> on pgs 56and 57 he writes about ty cobb giving him advive how to push the ball to opposite field to beat the shift.williams then states the arc of my swing was much greater then cobbs.cobb chocked up and pushed the ball. that wasnt in me I was down with a longer stroke a greater arc . so t williams did talk about a arc or curve in his swing.maybe your friend will give back the used science of hitting book you gave him for christmas so you can re read the book and look at the pictures.if not maybe you can get hold of charley lau sr book on hitting with his knob to the ball you are more in line with his thinking then you are with ted willians ideas on hitting

Actually- Yeah, you're right I am right on line. With what TSW is talking about. (1). Cobb was trying to explain to Ted the importance of hitting the ball away from the dramatic overshift employed on him orginally by Lou Bordreau. Of course Ted didn't hit the ball in the way that Cobb did. Cobb was a "different animal than me." But when it came to beating that shift, guess what that old notorious pull hitter did? "When I beat the shift, I took my stance a little further from the plate and conttrated on striding slightly more into the pitch trying to get more on top of the ball, which produced contact 90 degrees or more from the direction of the pitch sending it away from the pitcher's box...The baseball swing, inside-out is a hard push swing..." By the way, I never said that Ted never talked about arc in his swing. Why would I avocate the upswing like he did which produces the most powerful swing a hitter can have, when done with optimal efficiency? Ted realized the importance of having multiple approaches to the ball which is probably why he is widely considered the greatest hitter who ever lived. Also, what's up with your notion that I avocate what Charley Lau preached? Let me clarify another point; What I said before was that videos can distort what going on in the swing. My bad, what I should have said was videos can help us understand more of what's happening throughout the swing, but if OUR interpretation of happening in the swing if not correct then it messes everything up. Ted did not talk about the "circular hand path." If that's what he was truly doing then he would have mention the "circular hand path." No, instead he stresses the "linear hand path." Over and over in every single interview of the discussion of hitting. Now, here is what sets Ted apart from Charley Lau; Ted always talked about HIP action and how the power of the swing is supplied by the "rotation" of the hips into the ball. That word rotation is misleading to those that don't understand the context of what way ted is inferring that the hips move. He says that you, "Cock the hips as you stride." Meaning that as the batter strides the hips cock the swing back. He also says that the front knee turns in to "faclitate the rotation of the hips and shoulders." And that you don't worry about the hips until you actually began the "performance of the swing." Meaning that when the hitter begans the swing the front knee turns in, THEN the hips cock back. "You are cocking the hips as you stride." It's so important to get this right. (2) When it comes to the context of hitting the ball "inside out", Ted is NOT necessarily referring to a batter hitting the ball the other way. He is talking about the hitter's swing inself. After all, the body has two parts, the inside and the outside. Only with the inside part can we hold things with, which is why he quoted Tris Speaker; "Be natural. Is the most important thing."