Understanding the real "enemy"

[Ken Krause]

I saw it in the newsletter of The Jugs Company.

Among the highlights:

• A hitter must have a level swing. to have a level swing, his hips and shoulders must be level throughout the swing. COMMENT: Think about this the next time you want to argue over exactly what "tilt" means. This article is recommending against any.
• Paul Richards — "There is one fundamental that I have observed in minor league ball players that all good hitters have and that is their back foot stays in place from the start of the swing to the end. If you are a right-hand hitter, your back foot starts in one place, and after your swing is completed, it stays there." (Except to pivot, of course). COMMENT: Someone should tell Pujols and a whole lot of other hitters that allowing their back foot to come forward is bad.
• If your hips have rotated, or opened up before the pitch is met, you have lost most of the power in your swing. COMMENT: Maybe he means the front hip pulling out early. But you can certainly read it as the hips don't rotate at all until after contact. If so, it's the exact opposite of what's true.

So that's what we're all up against -- and what your daughters/players/students may be up against if this is the philosophy their team coaches subscribe to. You spend an entire off-season teaching them good swing technique, then someone else comes along and tries to get them to do this. And that other person decides playing time.

I will have more to say on the subject in another post. But I wanted to get this out today. Instead of fighting with each other over the fine points, we first need to band together to pull a big part of the softball (and baseball) world to understand that this type of teaching is not good, and will most likely lead to failure.

It's like Ben Franklin said: If we do not hang together, we will all hang separately. Or at least our hitters will, metaphorically speaking.

 

[Chris O'Leary]

Excellent points.

P.S. You missed a doozy...

Keep your hands away from your body as far as possible when swinging

 

[Ken Krause]

Oh yeah, thanks for point that out. In what universe would that work?

 

[CoachKevin]

Funny you should post this Ken. Last Fall I was coaching with the local HS coach (who is very successful). He was teaching our bunch of 14U girls how to swing. He used the old sayings like "Keep your weight back on the back foot, take the knob of the bat to the ball, throw your hands and be totally extended at the point of contact". He turned to me and asked, "Don't you agree?" I had to tell him no, I don't. Problem is this was in front of the girls. He didn't ask me alone, but again I can't agree with him just because he is the HS coach either.

Later in the week, he stopped talking to me. I asked him to let me show him what had changed my mind on the hitting aspect. He flat out refused to even listen or look at what I had.

Yea, things are still in the dark ages....

 

[cartersball]

Ken,

While the information presented may be somewhat shocking at first, I find it a classic example of what is taught at many levels. I agree the enemy is not within, but out there with this type of information. Being a party to hitting discussions over the last five years both on the field and on the web, I find the biggest difference is translation of the information. Which is why I strive to understand all points brought forth. There are so many things said that describe aspects of the swing down to the smallest level, that while sounding different in text, are not that much different presented in real life. Battling time tested information like this requires that things be somewhat consolidated. Terms need to mean the same thing to all of us before we can present a united front. I personally would love to see this especially as the oldest of my progeny prepares to enter HS in the next two years and will be more susceptible to such coaching. Hitting is the hardest thing to do in all of sports, but the information to the masses lags behind because we cannot agree.

 

[Wellphyt]

Here is an article that was sent to me by e-mail from Mike Epstein. At the end of the article are some comments from Epstein. He had some additional final comments that I thought best to leave off.



Cardinals' Sluggers Eager To Learn From McGwire

by David Wright
The Denver Post
March 2, 2010


JUPITER, Fla. - "Whammo! . . . Whammo! . . . Whammo!"


With each swing, Cardinals shortstop Brendan Ryan exults in the batting cage as the ball leaves his bat and hitting coach Mark McGwire nods his approval.


Ryan, former Rockies outfielder Matt Holliday, Cardinals second baseman Skip Schumaker and outfielder Ryan Ludwick have become disciples of a man many consider more pariah than leader. When the Cardinals hired McGwire this offseason, wails of protest were heard in St. Louis and beyond because Big Mac got big while taking steroids. He finally fessed up last month to what most everyone believed for years.
McGwire's mea culpa, and his past, doesn't seem to concern Holliday.


"I thought it was cool," Holliday said of the Cardinals hiring McGwire. "We're good friends. I'm excited to get to spend some time with him and pick his brain. I think he's a great teacher."


Holliday has followed McGwire's teachings since meeting him in August 2006. McGwire visited Coors Field as a guest of former teammate Mike Gallego, the Rockies' hitting coach at the time. McGwire broke down Holliday's swing on videotape and suggested he use a leg kick as a timing device, while also preaching the need to drive through the ball.


"We hit in the cage one day," Holliday said. "That's one of his big things, hitting down and through the ball. That's pretty much what he's been preaching ever since I met him."


Holliday hit 12 home runs in his final 147 at-bats that season.


Another word for Whammo? Eureka.


Holliday not only hit the ball better than ever, he hit a huge payday this offseason, signing a $120 million, seven-year free-agent deal with St. Louis.


"He's very, very talented," McGwire said. "He's got a huge future ahead of him."
And suddenly McGwire, a man with a controversial past, has a future as a hitting coach.


"He's got some good things to offer," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said of McGwire, who hit what was then a record 70 home runs during the 1998 season.


McGwire is excited to be back in the game after a self-imposed exile that followed his retirement after the 2001 season. He preaches the same thing, over and over.


"You have a round ball with a round bat and there's only one way to hit it squarely. You have to go down to it," McGwire said.


Holliday is now a firmly established hitter who will bat cleanup behind three-time MVP Albert Pujols, as he did the final two months last season after the Oakland A's traded him.


"He thinks Albert has the perfect swing and he's trying to hone in on why Albert is so successful," Schumaker said. "That's one of the reasons, is that he drives down through the ball."


Although he hit 49 home runs his rookie season with Oakland in 1987, it wasn't until 1992 that McGwire "began driving down and through the ball off his front foot."
"I used to be a back-legged hitter," McGwire said. "Over the course of doing years and years of tee-work and soft toss, my body just started getting into a different position and the ball started doing this, instead of that."


This is otherwise known as "whammo." That's what it sounds like when a great hitter makes contact. Hang in there, Brendan Ryan.


"I have a picture of Hank Aaron in my house and it's amazing; Hank Aaron pretty much finished (his swing) the way I finished," McGwire said of the second-most prolific home run hitter of all time. "Albert Pujols finishes on his front leg. He uses all the energy that he can possibly use."


And McGwire's energy now goes into transforming the Ryans of the Cardinals' roster.



Mike's Comments: I guess I'm really confused at this point. McGwire thinks Pujols has the "perfect swing" --yet he preaches "swing down through the ball." From articles written on Pujols, the consensus is that his swing is so good because he keeps the barrel of the bat on the plane of the pitch for approximately 4-5 feet. How in the world can he do that by swinging "down and through the ball" at a pitch going down?

McGwire says he "began driving down and through the ball off his front foot" beginning in 1992. Are you kidding me? Have you ever seen a photo of McGwire hitting off his front foot and swinging down? Neither have I.

"Hank Aaron pretty much finished (his swing) the way I finished." Did you ever see Hank Aaron finish his swing with one hand like McGwire did? Neither did I. Hank had a two-hand follow through.

 

[SBFAMILY]

When we conduct hitting camps and work with a group of girls, we hear this from the kids. So many high school coaches are out there teaching them what you posted Ken. I have even ran into college coaches teaching some of the old squish the bug and hands to the ball comments. When I ask one of these coaches , have you visited any camps or whet on line to a hitting site to see what is being discussed? We may not agree, but the large majority of us , are willing to learn. This group isn't. My wife had me laugh, after 12 years of me coaching and working with kids, she told me just watching me and the dd she knows more than most high school coaches.

 

[Ken Krause]

It does seem to happen with HS coaches a lot, but it's not exclusive to them. There are some HS coaches (especially on this board) who are on the same page as the rest of us regarding hitting and probably get just as frustrated when they see what rec league or even some travel coaches teach. In the article Wellphyt posted you have a professional, MLB batting coach saying stuff that ain't so. That can easily trickle down through the baseball ranks. Then when a baseball guy who believes this stuff and has a daughter comes to softball he carries it over.

You would think by now this type of thinking would be almost gone. But it's obviously not. I sometimes wonder if the way we here think of hitting is even the majority opinion.

Cartersball, I don't think we're ever going to achieve consensus down to the fine level. But I think there already is consensus on the more macro level. For example, regardless of whether you think body rotation is initiated by the core muscles, turning the back hip, or thrusting the back hip, we all agree you need to see the hips turning first, and they should be generating power -- as opposed to not starting the swing with the hips, or having them not turn until after contact as the original article I quoted states.

We don't need to invent the computer just yet. We first need to get more people using electricity instead of candles. If not for their own good than for the good of the kids who play for them.

 

[mkral]

Ken,
I cannot tell you how much all of this hits home for me. Our HS coach is very successful. She is a great coach!! She also coaches a 12U team that my youngest DD is on. She asked me to come over and run through some hitting drills with the 12U team with her. I did. All of which I have gotten off of this board and tried myself and worked with both of my DD's on.
She was amazed and asked me to help her with her HS team. I told her I would as time permitted. It is the small things that are left unsaid and undone but those are the big things for these kids trying to learn. Our HS team has always been solid but soft on offense. It has always drove me nuts. It is my hope that through what is on this board and the teaching of the awesome guys here that some kids will learn and continue their lives after HS. To be able to see a kid go on to a College of any kind and play a sport that they love really makes me smile inside. That is what this is all about. I had a senior last year come up to me and thank me for buying the program a catchers mitt. She was the catcher and a dang good one. One of the best ones I have ever seen. I am recruiting her to help with our 14U team right now. But just to have her come up and say thanks meant a lot to me. She did not know me at all but from then on we talked a lot. She taught me some things and I taught her some things. But most of all I learned she was a wonderful kid!!

We tend to do this for our DD's. But we need to do it for the love of the game. I am afraid the payday has outweighed the love for the game and that is what I still love about softball. The look in the girls eyes when they win the one they were not suppose to, or the hit they thought they could not make, or the strikeout that they never believed they could have gotten. That is what it is about for me. And if I can help be a small part of that, well than I will be very grateful in deed.

Sorry for rambling!

Mike

 

[Amy in AZ.]

A 10U LL coach grabbed me last night, as I finished a private session with one of her players. She has some book, that she showed me and she told me she is coaching directly from the book. She has been insisting that the girls line up their knuckles and keep the back elbow up.

She bought the book (pamphlet) for every player on her team.

I didn't have time to look at it, but she also took the opportunity to tell me that her husband is VP of the league.

Oh, goody.