Posted by: Shawn (mariner0324@yahoo.com) on Sat Oct 1 14:36:09 2005

> I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come on so strong and sad you theory on hitting was ludacris, but I'm still not sold on it. Pete Rose not only has over 3000 hits but he is also the alltime hit leader, but remember to that he is also the all-time out leader. I'm not saying that you can't be percise if you have a circular path what I'm saying is that it's a lot harder to be percise.
> As a 6'0" 183 pound (sophomore) highschool ballplayer. I don't pack that much pop, (I only hit 4 home runs in 70+ at bats in my freshmen year) so I have to depend alot more on percision and having a high batting average (.637) to be succesful, so the way I see it what you call "linear" hitting is the best way to hit. I just call it having a short swing.
>
> And another thing about that clip. After studying it a couple of times I realized that you can'y really tell whether it was more rotational or more linear. All the overhead veiw shows is the horizontal motion of the hands and the bathead, I can't really tell how much "linear" downward pull he has on this pitch. You would need a side view to analyze that.
>
> One thing that I think everyone needs to be aware of is that every swing is a mix of both "linear" mechanics and rotational mechanics. Even the so-called linear hitter doesn't just simply throw the bathead in a line to the spot of the ball and push through contact. They get bathead to the spot of the ball in a fairly straight path and ROTATE through contact in a CIRCULAR PATH. The rotational hitter gets the bathead to the spot of the ball in a CIRCULAR PATH and simply CONTINUES TO ROTATE through contact in a CIRCULAR PATH.
>
> The big problem that I have with rotaional hitting is the back shoulder tends to drop very early in the swing and this causes head movement, and it's a common denominator among all good hitters and hitting coaches that the less the head moves while the ball is in the air before the swing, the higher the chances are of a player hitting the ball squarely. And with rotational hitting I feel that there is simply to much head movement while the ball is in the air before the actual swing is initiated.

Chuck,

There are so many holes in your ideas. First off, a curved handpath is not longer then a straight hand path. Jack explained this very well and I would just like to say that during a curved hand path the bat is receiving angular displacement much early then a straight handpath.

I don't think you understand a short swing. It has more to do then just the hand path.

"""""A curved or circular path to the ball is longer, which causes the hitter to have to start his swing a bit earlier (cheating) although more momentum and angular displacement (faster bat) may be generated a long circular hand path to the ball makes for a less percise swing. """""""

You do not understand a short swing. A curved path is not longer. What is shorter as far as the hands, staying back and hitting the ball deep or going out to get it? What is better being out fornt and pulling the ball foul or fouling the ball straight back?

What really determines if you have a short swing?