Posted by: Troy () on Tue Dec 18 09:08:30 2001

Whether your view agrees or disagrees with my view on the optimal way to contact an outside pitch, I will probably give a great deal of weight to your view on the matter, given your pro experience as well as your background in kinesiology. In fact,I am quite open to being persuaded that my view is incorrect , and I hope the "rotationists" have the same open mind. Now with the question.
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> > I feel that an outside pitch should be contacted on the inside part of the ball (maybe an inch or so to the right of the center & assuming a left handed hitter). I think the hands should be leading, the bat head trailing behind the hands, & the ball should be contacted closer to the plate. For example, if a hitter contacts an inside pitch 18 inches in front of the plate, the outside pitch should probably be contacted even with the front edge of the plate. The hitter should have the feeling of sort of "pushing" or "shoving" the hands/bat toward the outside part of the plate. I feel that trying to "rotate" on an outside pitch will frequently result in a weak ground ball to the pull side.
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> > Again, if you think I am completely off-base, I am quite open to reconsidering my position. Your thoughts, please.
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> For you serious students of the game,I would recommend familiarizing yourself with the setpro site/forums if you haven't already.Paul's explanations/interpretations of visual/motor learning are extremely important.Boundaries need to be set in terms of positions to emulate,etc.,but the individual's body also needs to be free to create its own best biomechanical solutions to the problem of hitting.The better this is understood the better you can try to walk the line between too much/too little structure and too much/too little info.Jack ,especially from the analytic side and Epstein from the implementation side do a good job of defining necessary fundamentals.

One of the major problems with contact on an outside pitch is the fact you have to let the ball travel a little more and let it get deeper into the hitting zone. If you really think, hitting is developing timing and pitching is trying to disrupt it. As you progress up through the ranks of playing competitive baseball, the demands on hitting wrong word DRIVING an outside pitch are at a premimum.

Example: One of the players that I work very closely with played at The University of Tennessee. The first couple of years his ability and raw talent was enough to hit around 350. Then as the teams in the SEC became wise and the competition became more intense, they would pitch to the holes in his swing. He had to learn to Drive the outside pitch in the left center field gap (lefty). Last year he enjoyed one of his most productive years and was a very important part of Tennessee's power production in the College World Series. He then was drafted in the 5th round of the Pro Draft.

Anyway for most of the offseason our focus and goal was to get better posture from his launch position and let the ball get deep. From that point he was able to learn to attack the top inside half of the ball and drive the ball (with backspin) out of the park. The only way to do that is to get good seperation between your feet to allow your weight to shift properly.Then you must stay behind the ball and attack from the inside. So the assumptions you make are fact.

The relationship to the ball and the plate at contact is determined largely by your position in the box and your foot strike distance. I like for my students to hit the outside pitch around the inside part of their front thigh, after their stride.

I hope that I answered you question if not give me more direction.