Posted by: CoachZee (zuchlewski@buffalo.com) on Mon Feb 3 19:10:48 2003

I just received Jack's tape in the mail (quick service I might add) and watched it for the first time. Just a couple of questions, with many more to follow:

1. There was no discussion of gripping the bat. Does knuckle alignment or "door knocking knuckles" have its place in rotational hitting or doesn't it matter?

2. The tape shows the students hitting into the bag at their preferred height. Does the hitting stance change with high or low pitches? I seem to remember seeing Giambi hitting and the back leg bending, almost touching the ground on low pitches.

3. Now that I have the tape, now what? No one in the Western NY area that I have talked to even knows what the heck I'm talking about when I say "rotational hitting." It would be nice to have someone locally to go to. Should I start changing my 12 year old daughter's swing based upon viewing the tape? She's crushing the ball now but I'm convinced that rotational is the way to go in the long run. I'm just worried about messing up a good thing now with a new approach. If something goes wrong, there's no hitting instructors locally to go to.

4. After a player changes to rotational, how do you handle the coach who thinks they are swinging incorrectly and what to change them?

I'm sure there will be more questions after I've watched the tape a few more times.