Posted by: Brian (support@batspeed.com) on Wed Feb 21 10:44:02 2007

> Jack,
>
> One thing that I see is that your Div 1 hitter is going to have to stay through the baseball longer if he wants to have a chance at the professional level. Once he made contact with that ball off the tee his barrel could have stayed through at least six more inches or so
before it made the left turn. Your circle around the hitter should look more like an oval.
>
> He is much too rotational, in and out of the hitting zone. This is an example of what professional coaches work hard on with newly drafted players due to the misleading instruction they recieve in college. He will find out one day if he is lucky.
>
> Jimmy

Jimmy:

This is a different hitter. This is a clip of John Elliot, who played for the Astros organization. In his playing days, he had only average mechanics. Now in his coaching days at age 42 (after Jack worked with him), he exhibits good rotational principles, and his bat speed increased over 10 mph. If John had this swing at age 25, he would have done quite well in the pros, but he did not back then. Unfortunately, his pro coaches did not have the knowledge to spot the flaws in his swing when he was a player.

You are correct that the bat leaves the hitting zone quickly, but as we pointed out in the clip he was demonstrating hitting an outside pitch (and he pulled it toward the short stop). On an outside pitch, this is common.

Take a look at Pete Rose's swing at Youthbaseballcoaching.com and you will see virtually the same circular hand path that John has: www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/Rose.mpeg

Brian