Posted by: Gregg (gregg.e.graber@lmco.com) on Thu Apr 28 08:20:05 2005

> > > Jack,
> > >
> > > At all levels of baseball, I see alot of athletes, taking long stances and strides. I don't like a long stance because too often a batter doesn't turn their hips and they use all arms to swing, especially when seeing off-speed pitching. Further, I am against a long stride because the amount of time it takes for a batter to pick-up the pitch out of the pitchers hand and to see it, the long stride changes your head position (you duck) when that pitch is coming at you. The batter also has committed a long stride forward on a pitch they haven't processed yet as being an off-speed pitch, inside pitch or outside pitch. Thus, they can't turn on an inside pitch, step towards an outside pitch, etc.. My son's high school coach said that power hitters take long strides. I disagree!
> > >
> > > Can you please discuss this with the viewers of your website.
> >
> >
> > Explain Bagwell...wide and actually gets closer together at contact...Canseco was not a huge stride guy, Bonds is a almost a pick it up put it down guy...
>
> Hi All:
>
> According to Epstein, once the front heel drops, the batter slots his / her back elbow, causing "all forward momentum to be blocked." "The weight shifts against the inside of the back thigh, and the bat "wraps around the body." This movement is similar to "a tetherball," and creates "high angular velocity."
>
> Best Wishes,
> BHL
> Knight1285@aol.com
>
> P.S. For the record, these statements in no way, shape, or form reflect Jack Mankin's beliefs, although he would agree that all hitters "rotate around a stationary axis during a certain point in their swing."

I agree with the Epstein approach. My daughter and son took lessons from Mike and Jake Epstein at their Denver facility. My daughter takes no stride at all, has a very stance, and like Knight1285 says, dropping the front heel starts the rotation of the body, throwing the hips, creating tremendous bat speed. It can't be helped. Her problems come when she listens to her coaches to narrow her stance and to stride...she then becomes an arm swinger.
My son on the other hand uses narrower stance and a short stride at release of the ball but waits for identifying pitch location before dropping the front heel to start the rotation. Both kids power and average have drastically increased.

I would highly recommend spending some money for Epstein's videos.