Arm Swing? What is that? I have never heard of a arm only swing method. It doesn't matter if you are male or female, you must use your legs to hit for power. Every hitter should have an athletic balanced stance, a negative to positive movement, direct hand path, a right hand and hip that pushes through the softball, right hand that pushes to extension, high finish, still head, balance finish. Just keep it simple people! I tell my hitters I want to see balance, hands & hips that push, and still head. If you talk about all of the technical stuff to these young hitters they will become robots. Just be careful! I know we all mean well. But back on topic. EVERYBODY SHOULD USE THE LOWER HALF! If somebody is teaching a arm only swing they should be banned from coaching, period!
Softball Swing vs. Baseball Swing - 2
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I teach RVP. Wait until all the experts read your post.
You ought to go to baseball 101 and post this response. You will get a thrashing.
Straightleg
Straightleg, are you stating that I am wrong or right? Would love to hear your imput.
I teach everything you said, might add pulling with the front three fingers on the lead hand also.
Straightleg
Straightleg
I agree with the lead hand pull but I generally see this occur by itself without instruction. If I see a problem then I talk about it which was kind of the point I was making in my first post. I think alot of coaches by the rvp software and over coach kids thus making them mechanical. I even heard about a guy doing an entire clinic using the software only. The kids just watched and never touched a bat and was never taped to look for mechanical issues in their own swing. Don't get me wrong I love the software and some day plan to purchase it. But even Slaught broke away from the software to give some great examples when I saw him at the Gillis academy. Back to the baseball vs softball. In my opinion the biggest difference is where the pitch is coming from. Baseball = high release point and Softball = low release point. I strongly believe that hitting a softball is the tougher task. I have played both baseball (college) and 21 years of fastpitch and no doubt hitting a ball going up is tougher than hitting a ball going down. Just ask the major leaguers who faced Jenny Finch. The biggest issue I see is the dropping of the hands which is why I had so much success coaching college. What do you throw to the hand droppers? Thats easy a rise ball. I always recruited rise ball pitchers. This is why teaching direct hand path to the hitters is so important so the hands can get to the high and low part of the strikezone.
The ball does not go up through the strike zone. The angle through the zone is different by so few degrees as to be meaningless. This has been well thrashed through with supporting video many times. Can we just agree on this? If not, please supply video showing the ball moving up through the contact area in the strike zone.
My point is the angle from hip at 40 feet is different than seeing an angle from above the head at 60 ft 6 inches. My opinion is it is easier to hit a baseball. I am certainly not going to get into the does a riseball really rise topic but I do know that my teams have had very good success with pitchers that have thrown more riseballs do to the lack of direct hand path of my opponents. I have faced several class A men's pitchers with nasty riseballs in my fastpitch career. I also faced a guy named Mike Bounchard from Canada who threw gas! He was the MVP at the world tournament and he pitched for King and His Court. Damn, that riseball sure looked like it was going up! The King said when Mike pitches you can try as hard as you want but you won't hit it. I did what every hitter should do with a rise out of the zone, Don't Swing! The first down pitch he threw I hit it out of the park and the King looked at me and said nice hit, now hurry up and get around the bases. Anyways, I could talk all day!
- Aug 19, 2008
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Mark - Because you are so often the true voice of reason for us "non-experts" that are parents just trying to help our kids, (I am sure this will get a long post from others with links and video proving you are not) and were smart enough (for the most part) to stay out of this crazy discussion, I wanted your opinion. You have mentioned many times that Epstein hitters find a ceiling. I do not doubt this but in your opinion where is that ceiling, in youth ball - HS - Div III college etc...?
And as an example I watched video of Ortiz (Very big, strong and quick man)and he seems to exhibit pelvic tilt and rotation with the box formation Englishbey teaches, But then Pedroia (a much smaller guy) took one "yaaad" the other night with a very Epstein like swing.
One other quick question. I do love Englishbey's teachings about pelvic tilt and connection. Is there anyone else that teaches the hip action (swivel) better or different. This part of his teachings is like watching a foreign film without subtitles and based on your recommendations of comparing it to slow motion VDO I am not sold the swivel (hip action) is correct. More correct than others but not correct.
Thanks I appreciate your opinion.
And as an example I watched video of Ortiz (Very big, strong and quick man)and he seems to exhibit pelvic tilt and rotation with the box formation Englishbey teaches, But then Pedroia (a much smaller guy) took one "yaaad" the other night with a very Epstein like swing.
One other quick question. I do love Englishbey's teachings about pelvic tilt and connection. Is there anyone else that teaches the hip action (swivel) better or different. This part of his teachings is like watching a foreign film without subtitles and based on your recommendations of comparing it to slow motion VDO I am not sold the swivel (hip action) is correct. More correct than others but not correct.
Thanks I appreciate your opinion.
Mark H,
My term of direct hand path means that we are getting the hands to contact without a hitch. Ex. Girls who drop hands have poor hand path which makes it difficult to get the hands through a pitch up in the zone. I use a very cheap tool to prove hand path issues. The Derek Jeter (from Kalamazoo like me by the way) endorsed zip line. Several of my clients have fixed hand path issues with this tool that is about $30 bucks. You can raise it up and down but I like it higher. I also like the line to teach my students to keep the barrell through the path of the ball as long as possible. I also use high tee drills.
My term of direct hand path means that we are getting the hands to contact without a hitch. Ex. Girls who drop hands have poor hand path which makes it difficult to get the hands through a pitch up in the zone. I use a very cheap tool to prove hand path issues. The Derek Jeter (from Kalamazoo like me by the way) endorsed zip line. Several of my clients have fixed hand path issues with this tool that is about $30 bucks. You can raise it up and down but I like it higher. I also like the line to teach my students to keep the barrell through the path of the ball as long as possible. I also use high tee drills.
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