Posted by: BHL (Knight1285@aol.com) on Sun Feb 1 21:30:06 2004

Hi All
>
> The Super Bowl will be over in a few hours and our attention will begin to shift to baseball and spring training. Along with getting the arms and legs in shape, coaches will also be developing programs to improve their players hitting performance. Helping a player develop a swing that allows him to consistently hit hard line drives is one of the most challenging tasks a coach has to face.
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> When setting up your program, I would suggest that one of the most limiting factors to a hitter’s development is he or she envisions only those parts of the swing which occur out in front of them. In other words, they only concentrate on swinging the bat-head forward toward the ball. However, as I have often pointed out, great hitters are able to generate great bat speed because they first accelerate the bat-head back toward the catcher before they turn and direct their energy toward the ball.
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> As a hitter initiates the swing, it is very tough to keep his hands back when he is only concentrating on swinging forward. If a coach would have the hitter envision the bat-head first accelerating back toward the catcher at initiation, the hands would have to stay back to accelerate the bat-head in that direction. --- Therefore, Coach, I would suggest you have your batters think about accelerating the bat-head over the whole 180+ degrees to contact instead of just relying on the last 90 degrees.
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> Jack Mankin
>
Hi Jack,

I'd like to welcome you back from your trip!

However, I did read this particular post, and would like to point out a few key items.

First and foremost, I would like to say that your objective above is essential to understanding how the swing works, and, prior to doing drills, people must understand just what they are trying to achieve. Nevertheless, I feel that some of Mike Epstein's cues allow me to put these principles into practice.

The first item that I believe is de regueur to hitting is dropping the front heel on time, which is best accomplished by opening the front foot at a 45 degree angle, while keeping the shoulder under the chin. Remember, the stretch position does not occur until that foot lands, which means that the shoulders are not being pulled to a premature positon. Nevertheless, once the heel drops, the front leg begins to straighten, the backside releases, the top elbow tucks in, generating significant THT. This is the "early batspeed" you talk about on your DVD.

One should also not forget to work the lead elbow up for pitches down, and vice-versa and keep plenty of flex in both elbows. Here's why. If the pitch is down, the lead elbow working up will put the bat on the right trajectory to meet the pitch going down, and establish rotation around a spint tilted backwards. Once the elbow works up, all forward movement is thwarted at heel plant, and the body must rotate. This means the bottom hand is causing BHT.

If the pitch is up, the front elbow works down slightly, causing the body to spin around an axis titled forward. If the pitch is right down the middle of the plate, you would then be rotating around a vertical axis.

In the case of the DVD, John Elliot is swinging at a high pitch, which is why his weight ends up against his front thigh--rather than back thigh--at contact. If the pitch were lower, Mike's "L" position in his back leg would look even more like an "L."

Now, I am not arguing that the back foot becomes light at contact; I'm just saying that more weight ends up against the rear thigh on a low pitch.

As for the circular hand path, once the hitter chooses the proper axis, the shoulders rotate, and so do the loose elbows, especially on the low pitch, where the "chicken wing" forces weight back against the shoulder, forcing it to rotate back. The hands follow suit, and so does the bathead, brought around by shoulder rotation. In order for this to happen, the back shoulder must dip. Even Elliot had a very slight dip of the back shoulder on the high pitch.

All three of these components mean 180 degrees of bat rotation.

Please respond ASAP.

Sincerely,
BHL
Knight1285@aol.com