Posted by: Jack Mankin (mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Apr 7 13:16:22 2004

Hi Teacherman

You quoted me as stating, “....."Although I have never advocated pulling the outside pitch, Ray may have thought I did"........Jack's words.” -- That is close, but what I actually said was, “Although I have never advocated TRYING to pull the outside pitch, Ray may have thought I did.” & “I have always maintained that regardless of pitch location, batters should practice timing their swings to hit the ball hard and straight-away (bat perpendicular to the path of the incoming ball). If the ball is met a little early - it will be hit to the pulled side - a little late – the ball is hit to the opposite field. The important thing is to hit the ball hard.”

In other words, I have no problem with a rotational batter pulling outside pitches. I just do not think it best to try pulling all pitches. I have found that most of the hitters I have worked with generate more early bat speed by timing the swing to hit the ball straightaway. Moving the intended contact point back a few degrees makes the batter concentrate more on accelerating the bat-head back toward the catcher before rotating and directing their energy toward the ball.

If the wider hand-path for outside pitches results in bat-head slightly trailing the hands at contact, they would still have generated enough bat speed to hit the ball hard to the opposite field – maybe enough to clear the fence. If the bat-head should have accelerated past the hands at contact, the ball will be hit hard to the pulled side.

Jack Mankin