Hit It Here

As you can imagine, I often have discussions on hitting and mechanics with lots of people.  Frequently, I am asked if “this” technique or “that” technique is the way it is supposed to be done?  Sometimes I am told that one certain way is how it is supposed to be done.  Really?!?  That one way???

To help clear this up, I have borrowed a segment from a Mike Epstein’s article on “Swing Adjustments & The Pitch Plane”.  Here Mike discusses the “perfect” swing.  Is there just one?  Read what Mike has to say about that:

Is there one perfect swing? The answer is no. There are countless “perfect” swings. Every pitch in every location at every speed requires adjustments. My definition of the perfect swing is “the adjustment the hitter makes to the pitch  s/he gets.” If a hitter is only taught one swing, e.g., level or down, how will s/he be able to make the necessary adjustments if their body hasn’t been programmed to do so? If a hitter is only taught to swing level and to not let the rear shoulder drop on the approach, how do they hit the pitch at the knees?

These two photos of Manny Ramirez clearly show the adjustments good hitters make. The  photo on the left shows him swinging at a high hitch. He is upright on his axis, his shoulders are more level, and his swing is level to the ball. A “perfect” swing.

Now, if Manny couldn’t make any adjustments because he was taught only a level swing, how could he hit the pitch at his knees?

In the other photo you see Ramirez swinging at a low pitch; his rear shoulder is down and his bat head has properly dropped below his hands; a totally “different” swing. Yet, another “perfect” swing.

Manny would have little or no success hitting the high pitch if the only swing he was taught was what is shown in the picture on the left. Keep in mind: this is the SAME hitter responding to different pitches and making adjustments!

As an example, a pitch the induces a hitter to break the vertical plane and move forward through their axis displacing their weight out over the top of the front foot and executing a one-arm lunging swing could really be a “perfect” swing with two strikes(when all the hitter is trying to do is foul off a tough pitch so to get a better one to hit). Making contact is the goal with two strikes. However, if this same swing were executed by a hitter with the count 2-0, it would be considered “ugly”. The goal of each hitter often changes with each pitch, count situation, score, and runners on base. Perfect swings are the fusion of these mental and physical adjustments.

Each adjustment a hitter makes to a pitch is done to enhance his getting on the plane of the pitch and hitting it square. Repositioning the body is one of the adjustments responsible for making this happen. Why make a tough thing like hitting, tougher?

Sometimes a hitter can put a “perfect” swing(or what I call an “A” swing) to match the speed and location of a particular pitch and still one of those 9 other guys on the field makes a play on it and gets the hitter out.  Sometimes a hitter will put a less than perfect swing( a C or D swing) on a particular pitch and somehow ends up with a hit.  The goal of every hitter is to put as many “A” swings on pitches as they can.

Below is Manny again.  Look at the three swings and you determine which one is Manny’s “A” swing, which one is a B or C swing and which one is a D to F swing?  Which one is he in the best position to drive the ball hard with solid rotational mechanics in tact?  You decide.

In conjunction with Mike Epstein Hitting, I teach a “core” technique that you see above in Manny’s best swing and then show the hitter how to adjust to pitches in different areas of the strike zone which is an absolute must.  There is no “one way” to swing.  Adjustments have to be made from a swing that would be “perfect” for an inside pitch to what would put a hitter in the perfect or better hitting position for an outside pitch.  “Rotational” hitting(or whatever you want to call it, it is the “the big league” swing) gives the hitter the flexibility to make on the fly adjustments that the rigid Linear Hitting approach does not.