Posted by: Mike Miles (mmiles1953@yahoo.com) on Sun May 1 08:43:37 2011

Jack I am going to order the book the Zen way of hittting. The active part of waiting on a pitch is so important for a great hitter! Ted Williams also emphasized waiting.

Mel Ott also had a flamingo stance of hitting.

Oh studied Kendo and Aikido in regards to his hitting.

There are hitting drills that Oh did that we need to discover, for instance swinging a light sword through the air will increase muscle twitch speed.

One authority on bat speed advocated the 10% rule. Have three bats the same lenghth. For one bat add penny nails to barrel by wrapping the nails to barrel with duct tape to increase the bat weight 10% over the weight of bat you usually use. Have your regular bat and then a bat that is 10% less weight than the bat you regularly used.

Swing the heavy bat 30 times then the light bat 30 times and then your regular bat 40 times to increase bat speed.

Oh swinging swords may have been away to increase muscle twitch speed.

My premise is the best hitters also have the best balance before and during transfer of weight from back to front leg and front leg to back.

One non-athlete stated he was not a ball player but after duplicating Oh's Flamingo style stance put 25-30 feet on the balls distance when taking batting practice.

I am on a road of discovery and will do alot of research. If you do not hear from me for awhile it is the fact I am on Zen path to better hitting.

I would love to see you analyze Oh's and Ott's hitting and compare with Ted Williams, Joe Mauerer and Hamilton etc.

p.s. Oh stated by swinging the sword he was better able to hit curve balls!

With deepest appreciaton for your research,
Mike E. Miles