Posted by: Chris O'Leary (chris@chrisoleary.com) on Thu Mar 8 13:06:17 2007

"Read this article and tell me what you think."

There's some good and some bad stuff in the article. Quotes below...


"Hit the bottom of the ball. Awesome."

This is certainly better advice than hitting the top of the ball.


"Franco had studied Green's batting-practice session on Tuesday morning and reached the same conclusion that he reached last spring after a day of observing Carlos Beltran. 'Too balanced,' Franco said when the tutoring session was complete. 'He needs more weight on his back leg. He was even, 50-50. And 50-50 is no good. It should be 70-30 [favoring the left leg in Green's case].'"

I think this is solid advice. It makes possible a significant weight shift which helps to get the hips rotating.


"Green noticed he had begun 'pushing' the bat head into the contact area with his arms close to his chest, instead of extending his arms to drive the ball. It was initially a concession to right shoulder surgery he underwent after the 2003 season, but it soon deepened into a bad habit. Green explained it this way: 'My arms are my levers. The last few years, I've been hitting without full use of my levers. I was cutting short.' The outfielder assumed a batting stance and illustrated it by collapsing his arms in near his chest as he swung. 'I got into that habit by trying to take the strain off my shoulder,' he said. 'It bothered me during the '03 season, then I had it scoped. I worked hard this winter on fixing the problem. When I'm in the [batting] cage now, the ball is carrying like it used to. Hopefully, I can transfer that into the games.' After his session on Wednesday, he suggested the change in balance and weight shift might have helped correct the problem with his arms."

I think this is off base. It may not be a coincidence that this idea wasn't suggested by the hitting coach (who seems to know what he's doing based on the quotes above).

What Green is describing above is an arm-y, disconnected swing. He may be getting confused by the video he's watching. Extension and the formation of the Power V occur AFTER the point of contact and IMO are the EFFECT of a powerful swing rather than its cause.

I think the stuff that Green suggested in the paragraph above made his swing worse, rather than better. The whole "collapsing his arms in near his chest as he swung" thing is the hallmark of a fast, compact swing, not something to be avoided.

This isn't the first time that I've heard someone criticize a compact swing.