Posted by: Coach 11 () on Fri Jan 10 05:17:58 2003

Coach C,

I do agree with a lot of what you are saying. I do believe balance is the key and if a hitter cannot stay balanced then everything is lost. I also agree with you that the front knee locking too early is bad. This will cause players to lunge forward at the waist. I also won't argue that hitters like Williams and Griffey do bar the front arm in their swing and Epsteins approach does cause a player to chicken wing
somewhat. I also agree with your sit to hit philosophy. But I think I need a little more explanation of what you really mean.

Where I do disagree is that player don't dip their back shoulder to hit low pitches. You might not see it in Williams as much as the better hitters of today because, when Williams played, pitchers pitched from a higher mound along with having a higher strike zone in general. But if you watch clips or look at photos of all the great hitter of today you will find on pitches below the waist including Bonds, Griffey, Sosa, Berkman, Jeter, etc that their back shoulder dips below the lead shoulder. Now if you if you look at pitches above the waist you will find the shoulder levels out. This is where Epstein has it right when he says, "The great hitters are able to make instinctive adjustments to match the plane of the pitch to the plane of the swing."