Posted by: S. Procito () on Sat Jan 11 06:19:40 2003

It's clear to me that most of you are still searching and that's O.K. My guess is that most of you teach hitting, but never demonstrate the technique yourself. It would be advisable for all of you to choose your method of instruction and apply them in game situations, under the pressure you must put your pupils under. Most of you couldn't hit your way out of a paper bag, yet you advocate certain principles that seem to make sense to you. I am not at liberty to state my backround and name (that's why I'm Coach C), due to the nature of this site, however I will tell you under different circumstances I would love to watch each of you face superior pitching at the highest level, so I could get a good laugh. I've got one boy in the Majors right now and another one coming, who's much better. I teach travel baseball now for kids because I love watching kids get better. I chime in from time to time because I love the game and love to hear the rederick. In my opinion we have very few similarities, but I still love to talk about it. None of my sons would have made it with the Epstein jibberish, Jack and I differ in our philosophy...in that I think the arms start the swing and the legs support the arms. I think it works because my Sons thank me almost daily. They are living the life I wanted for them... the one I wish I would have had with the proper instruction as a kid, instead I played golf for a living. I learned through my failures as a baseball hitter and passed on my lessons to the boys, as they grew older. Most of you have never fixed your own mistakes, and that makes you not qualified to teach hitting in my opinion.
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> > > The sad part is that most of you do!
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> > Epstein seems to fit your necessary criteria,so how do you reconcile the fact that he was a successful major leaguer and you had to play golf for a living.Is the real requiremnt that your sons play in the majors and his don't ?
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> > I still think if you are telling kids to keep the shoulders level and keep the elbows down you are doing the ones who follow this advice a disservice.
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> > Even if you take this swing to the majors,it's going to be a long one.I would say Berkmann(your example) keeps the front elbow about as low as you can an turns it down right about contact,but he still has the elbow turned up until near contact.This means he has a long swing radius and tends to hit around the ball easily.Bonds has a short swing radius with elbow way up which allows him time and keeps the ball fair down the line without hooking it foul.
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> Berkmann's swing stays in the strike zone longer than most, but the relevance for me is that he uses less hands (passive) than anyone I've ever seen. Too wide a gap in the elbows, means one hand is working more than the other (mostly the top hand). Dimaggio worked with narrow elbows and I think attention to this triangle should be the goal for all hitters. Hands that work together activate torque properly, thus keeping the knob of the bat in line with the belly by not snapping wrists or even wrist roll, but forearm rotation. Walker has outstanding forearm roll....no wrist snap. The arc of the bat never changes through contact. It's beautiful. High average hitters tend to display this trait. The wider the triangle the more likely for error, because at some point the triangle get's to the power V position (post contact), so that means the triangle is changing size in the contact area. The problem with baseball is that it forgives poor mechanics and rewards those with exceptional timing and god given instincts. If bats were flat we wouldn't be having this discussion. My kids hit because they learn how to hit with a tennis racket, we also used to hit golf wiffles with a yard stick....talk about a small face. I only care about one thing in hitting truely.......Ball Flight!!!!!!! It really is the only thing that matters, regardless of how you swing. I choose the ball flight my kids learn over what I'm hearing from these folks. 50 home runs a year would be great, but what about the other 550 at-bats. Hitting is more about taking the swing that reduces the chance for error and not about what I do if I get a hold of it. Tight elbows and letting the ball get deep produce the best chance for success. Flying front elbows will ruin kids, because those swings have holes. We all agree that batspeed needs to be generated pre-contact...... wide space in the elbows is a linear movement and thus batspeed is reduced. Berkmann maximizes his batspeed, produces the best ball flight consistantly, he is better than Bonds was at his age. I don't think Berkmann will ever break Bonds home run records because that is not what his swing is about, just ask him. Bonds will tell you his swing is about home runs. That should really tell you something about the swing right there. We all can't hit 73, so what about the rest of us.

Tom G.

According to your definition of what a coach must be to be a good coach Red Arabach, a short fat guy, could not have coached the Boston Celtics, and the best basketball coach of all time would have been Wilt, Bill Russell or M. Jordan. What about Tom Landry and the Cowboys. Many great coaches were not successful players of the game they coach.

There is a vast difference between doing and coaching. The fact that you don't seem to know that suggests that you are not the coach you think you are.

What you have done is taken your personal situation and defined that as the only way someone can be a good coach. This is common with people who need the ego boost but I would remind you that "self praise is no reference." I have been around a while and I never heard of you in any regard, player or coach, nor have I heard of any of "your boys."

Since you believe that a person cannot coach a game unless they have played the game, your opinion is of no use to any one on this site. If they have played the game they are an "expert" and if they haven't played the game they will never be an "expert" no matter what they do. It would be better if you stuck to teaching "your boys" and let the rest of the uneducated population wallow in our ignorance while you wallow in yours.

S. Procito