Posted by: Scott B (batspeed@integritycorp.com) on Thu May 23 14:12:02 2002

I can't speak from much playing experience, only from coaching and research. There are better "baseball" people on this forum who can speak from experience.

I'm not sure what the "linear aspects" are concerning the feet that your concerned about, or that are relevant to hitting off-speed stuff. Maybe I'm just not getting the picture here.

What I can say is that if there is any linear movement of the body forward in line with the feet AFTER launch, angular momentum will decrease due to less rotational torque being realized. Linear movement forward will move the "axis" represented by the spine, and if the axis moves with the fulcrum (i.e. the bat), there is no rotational torque, period. Like Mike Esptein teaches, the front heel must set, and all forward momentum must cease before the bat swing initiates. If the front foot is mobile during the swing, or the body slides forward with the bat, the player will have problems generating batspeed.

As far as hitting off-speed and curves, all I teach my kids is to (1) if a ball rises out of the pitchers hand, you've got something breaking coming, and (2) make a decision on what you expect the pitcher to throw (usually, guess fastball, and spoil anything else, depending .... on lots of stuff) and stick to your plan, and (3) guess fastball, quicken the bat (choke up), shorten the stroke, and spoil everything else. I teach that, plus "zone hitting" principles.

Bottom line on RM: If the hands stay back longer, and the stroke starts lower, you're going to have more time to adjust to the pitch, and will be able to commit later. (LM forces the hitter to swing down early, i.e. commit the hands early.) If the swing follows the opening of the hips, it will also start lower. If the hands flatten during the swing, the bat will have a better chance of meeting the path of the ball, whether that path is flat, dropping, or tailing inside or out. If the swing is flatter, the potential impact zone is still longer than with a LM swing. The sharper the movement of the ball, the smaller that zone will be. The sharper the angle of the bat, the smaller that zone will be. Why shrink the impact zone further on a breaking pitch by swinging down?

I'm open to other ideas and suggestions. Since I didn't play pro ball, discussions like this is how I learn baseball (plus the odd book and video).

Regards.. Scott