This is a post from a baseball site that I thought was very good and explains why many of us felt his drills no longer applied today and he has changed ". Many of you have commented on the fact that we do not sit still and continually strive to better our product. We continually look at ways to improve our own personal teaching methodology, incorporating new and updated cues and drills, ensuring that our customers and Epstein Certified Instructors are on the leading edge of the teaching spectrum (and "in the loop"). A number of these good tips and innovations have come from you--which makes it even more worthwhile.
When I first went public with the information on rotational hitting back in 2000, it was very difficult to put hitters into positions where they would stay behind the ball and not continue coming forward onto a bent front leg. In fact, if I could get a student to show me a "decent" swing out of the Torque Drill in a one-hour lesson, it was truly extraordinary.
At that time, artificial turf played a key role in shaping the way players hit. The rock-hard infields rewarded the swing-down, head-down, squish-the-bug linear technique. A passel of changes have occurred since artificial turf went the way of the dinosaur, ushered in by a return to grass infields and struggling hitters. "Stay back" became the cue for success.
The three drills that I designed helped achieve the results needed at that time. However, as the understanding of proper weight-shifting to a blocked front side and "rotating around a stationary axis" became more prevalent, the drills I originally introduced proved to be more stringent than necessary. Again, the bulk of the credit goes to our customers, our network of Epstein Certified Instructors, the growth of video analysis software, and watching major league hitters on television (in slow motion). All of these variables presented a wonderful opportunity for young hitters to be able to emulate--and understand--what they were seeing on television.
The successes that resulted from players being able to stay back helped make the teaching process considerably easier. Today, it takes us perhaps 5 minutes for hitters who come for lessons to produce a good swing. The reason is simple: Nowadays, most hitters know what they want to look like, and some can make the transition on their own. Unfortunately, emulation is a difficult and slow process for most. Good information from qualified instructors accelerates the learning curve by avoiding the snail-paced, trial-and-error emulation process.
Since proper technique is biophysically-driven and does not change, the drills that I initially came out with eleven years ago are not obsolete, but worthy of updating. My drills made the hitter conform to proper technique and were needed at that time. This is not true anymore. Today, we find there is little need for players to have to spend an inordinate amount of time doing my drills because they can get into those positions very easily. If some are challenged, however, the drills are there and ready to "do their thing."
It is for this reason we launched the video tutorials that you find on our website. Our video tutorials update the drills that we effectively used over the years with more timely and advanced ways to help the hitter master the proper movements."
My personal experience is that my original "On Target" dvds created a really solid foundation to build upon. Adding in a weight shift and teaching how to get to the universal launch position from different handsets, has been relatively easy. The hard part was figuring out exactly what makes up the weight shift and what makes up the hand flattening move.
I feel like there is a lot of material out there that can lead you down the wrong path and get you off track. I do not believe Epstein's "On Target" dvds ever lead me astray or got me off track. They were actually quite helpful."
When I first went public with the information on rotational hitting back in 2000, it was very difficult to put hitters into positions where they would stay behind the ball and not continue coming forward onto a bent front leg. In fact, if I could get a student to show me a "decent" swing out of the Torque Drill in a one-hour lesson, it was truly extraordinary.
At that time, artificial turf played a key role in shaping the way players hit. The rock-hard infields rewarded the swing-down, head-down, squish-the-bug linear technique. A passel of changes have occurred since artificial turf went the way of the dinosaur, ushered in by a return to grass infields and struggling hitters. "Stay back" became the cue for success.
The three drills that I designed helped achieve the results needed at that time. However, as the understanding of proper weight-shifting to a blocked front side and "rotating around a stationary axis" became more prevalent, the drills I originally introduced proved to be more stringent than necessary. Again, the bulk of the credit goes to our customers, our network of Epstein Certified Instructors, the growth of video analysis software, and watching major league hitters on television (in slow motion). All of these variables presented a wonderful opportunity for young hitters to be able to emulate--and understand--what they were seeing on television.
The successes that resulted from players being able to stay back helped make the teaching process considerably easier. Today, it takes us perhaps 5 minutes for hitters who come for lessons to produce a good swing. The reason is simple: Nowadays, most hitters know what they want to look like, and some can make the transition on their own. Unfortunately, emulation is a difficult and slow process for most. Good information from qualified instructors accelerates the learning curve by avoiding the snail-paced, trial-and-error emulation process.
Since proper technique is biophysically-driven and does not change, the drills that I initially came out with eleven years ago are not obsolete, but worthy of updating. My drills made the hitter conform to proper technique and were needed at that time. This is not true anymore. Today, we find there is little need for players to have to spend an inordinate amount of time doing my drills because they can get into those positions very easily. If some are challenged, however, the drills are there and ready to "do their thing."
It is for this reason we launched the video tutorials that you find on our website. Our video tutorials update the drills that we effectively used over the years with more timely and advanced ways to help the hitter master the proper movements."
My personal experience is that my original "On Target" dvds created a really solid foundation to build upon. Adding in a weight shift and teaching how to get to the universal launch position from different handsets, has been relatively easy. The hard part was figuring out exactly what makes up the weight shift and what makes up the hand flattening move.
I feel like there is a lot of material out there that can lead you down the wrong path and get you off track. I do not believe Epstein's "On Target" dvds ever lead me astray or got me off track. They were actually quite helpful."
