Posted by: Mark H. () on Sun Jun 23 10:13:12 2002

grc-
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> Thanks for the reply.I agree that many hitters hit the outside pitch to the opposite field/have a -(minus) angle at contact/bathead lagging hands/inside out whatever you want to call it.However,I believe Jack's point is that the BEST swing in terms of maximum batspeed,maximum power,andminimum timing error is to hit this pitch with rotational machanics/tht up the middle or to the pull side.The idea is what do the best do to make them the best,not what do many do.I think their is a significant distinction between "linear" and "rotational" on the outside pitch.Linear means you risk extending the handpath and shutting transfer of torso energy down prematurely.At the very least this makes swing consistency and timing error suboptimal.I think trying to drill kids to go the opposite way with these pitches or go linear is confusing to motor learning and suboptimizes the swing.It is better t try to hit these outside ones up the middle.
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> I also agree that the model of the swing is more complicated than just "make contact perpeendicular" because there is clearly a preference for pulling the inside location.I suspect this is because this gives the smallest timing error because of the way bathead acceleration builds up,but my math/physics is admittedly far to weak to test this.However,using Jack's bht mecjanics does give more power to the pull field as well as the ability to keep the ball fair and avoid the dead pull.

For the up and in pitch absolutely. But on the down and in pitch, how are you going to pull it and keep your batpath in line with pitch path through the contact zone?