Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Thu Dec 13 10:06:29 2001

Alot of talk about the away pitch so I went and just hit away today off my tee.What I found at least in this 100 swings i that if I take the same approach away as inside meaning my lead heel pulls back and turns the lead toe forward driving the front hip back then I can hit the os corner pitch hard to center,I could even hit it between ss and 2nd base bag when ball was on os corner and in line with back tip of plate[that's way back there].I also found that for me it was tougher to go the other way unless I let my axis drift forward just a little til my rear foot started to lift up from weight coming off it then used mostly rear knee drive to turn the hips.This kept them at contact[hips] pointed at opp field.Top hand torque then extension as shoulder started turn.This gave me pretty good speed but know I was losing some from the different hip turn.I also had more trouble making perfect consistent contact away.When I went linear like hudgens preaches I did have more control of liners and hard grounders in the 6 hole but could tell the ball jumped better off the hip adjustment rotation style.Tom with your clips do you see any weight shift with lower body that helps get the upper body in a better position to hit away with rotation,or something that keeps the hips from opening too much, keying on the lead leg,I was a little lost but felt I could swing the same and take the os pitch to center and all others center to pull.Opp field seemed to be where I had to set up differently,otherwise it was to center field.

RQL-

I think you said it well in aprevious post.For the outside mechanics,things bunch up and you have a much smaller margin(range of muscle motion to contract/stay connected over)to get the energy sequentially from the lower body,then to the torso,then to the bat without shortcircuiting things by sucking enegy out of the torso before the lower body has transferred its momentum.For the middle/in bottom hand torque type swing,keeping the axis back,the torso gets energized earlier and stays energized until you fire the bathead(you can fire the bathead anytime after back toe drag-if you can see it)and before contact.

I teach mostly young kids,so they can't get very good plate coverage,so they like to(prematurely)extend the arms for everything.I like to focus on the bottom hand torque swing for these kids because they will get better and better plate coverage as they grow.

Bonds doesn't change very much,and he can choke up on a 34" bat and cover well.He is very disciplined about the strike zone,almost never giving in to the outsidepitch.Sounds like you are big enough to cover the outside corner too.