One Perfect Baseball Swing

One Perfect Swing
The BatAction Hitting Machine - The Original Rotational Hitting Machine - The Perfect Home Batting Trainer.

By Todd Thomas

Is there one perfect swing? The simple answer is no. There are many "perfect" swings. Every pitch in every location at every speed requires adjustments. Mike Epstein's definition of a perfect swing is "the adjustments the hitter makes to the pitch s/he gets." If a hitter is only taught one swing, for instance level or down, they will be ill-equipped to make adjustments to different pitch locations if their body has been programmed to only "one" swing? If a hitter is only taught to swing level and taught NOT TO let their rear shoulder drop on the approach, how are they going to hit the pitch at their knees?

Great hitters like say Manny Ramirez ,though they have a core of swing mechanics, on a regular basis clearly show the adjustments good hitters make. When Manny is thrown a ball up in the zone you will see him swinging in such a way where he is upright on his axis, his shoulders are more level, and his swing is level to the incoming pitch. A "perfect" swing. Manny would have little or no success hitting the high pitch if the only swing he was taught was straight down.

If Manny was taught only a level swing, he would be well equipped for pitches up in the zone but would be in trouble on pitches down. Have you ever tried to swing "level" on a pitch at the knees? But we hear instruction to hitters all the time, "Swing level, swing level". Level to what?

Manny however within his core of rotational hitting mechanics has a great deal of success on the low pitch. His rear shoulder comes down and his bat head properly drops below his hands in order to get on plane with a low pitch. This being in a lot of ways a very different swing then he executed on the high pitch, yet another "perfect" swing. Keep in mind: this is the SAME hitter responding to different pitches and making adjustments!

Here's how a swing can be perfect AND ugly. A pitcher gets a hitter to break their vertical plane and come forward through their axis bringing their weight out over the top of the front foot executing a one-arm lunging swing. This could really be considered a "perfect" swing with two strikes when all the hitter is trying to do is get a piece of a tough pitch in order to get a better one to hit next time. Simply making contact is often the goal with two strikes and this could have been the swing necessary to fight off a good pitch. However, if that very same swing were executed by a hitter with the count 2-0, it would be considered "ugly". A hitter's goal often changes with each pitch based on count situation, score, inning, and runners on base. Perfect swings by good hitters though often different are the by-product of their mental and physical adjustments.

Adjustments made by the top hitters in baseball and softball are done to enhance their ability to get on the plane of the pitch and to hit the ball square. Repositioning the body is one of the adjustments necessary for making this happen. Why make a tough thing like hitting, tougher with a one way to swing approach?

Sometimes a hitter can execute a "perfect" swing(or what I call their "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 however should be to put as many "A" swings on pitches as they can.

Learning a "core" technique that you see in the best player's "A" swings is important. A good instructor will then show the hitter how to adjust from that blueprint to pitches in different areas of the strike zone. This 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. The Rotational Hitting technique (or whatever you want to call it, the "the big league" swing, hybrid swing, et. al) gives the hitter the flexibility to make on the fly adjustments much more than the rigid Linear Hitting approach does.

Todd Thomas is a Baseball Coach and Professional Hitting Instructor for Mike Epstein Hitting. Coach Todd's personal hitting website is http://www.HitItHere.net. Coach Todd also enthusiastically endorses http://PlayMyBestBaseball.com as a place where baseball and softball hitters can master the Confidence, Composure, Focus and Consistency of their game so they can reach their full potential.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Todd_Thomas

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Baseball Hitting - The 3 Basic Elements of the Major League Baseball Swing

HandsBackHitter.com

By Nick Dixon

The Major League baseball swing is a thing of beauty. The dream of millions of little league baseball players is to become a major league baseball player. Hitting a major league home run is a fantasy baseball dream of every youth baseball player. How do the major league baseball players hit with such power? What makes their swing so powerful, productive, and perfect?

The smoothness, compactness, and timing of the professional baseball swing make it one of the most graceful things to watch in all of sports. Professional players practice and practice the fundamentals of the perfect baseball swing. If you watch it in slow motion, you will see that there are 3 common elements of the swing that that most major league baseball players have in common. Baseball batting practice repetition makes the Major League Baseball Swing consistent with the same 3 basic elements exhibited with every swing of the bat.

Great hitters always have the following swing qualities:

1. Solid and Stiff Front Leg

2. Rotational Swing allowing them to Stay Over Stack

3. Maximum Extension of the Hands and Barrel

Here I will discuss each of these 3 elements of the Major League baseball swing:

1. STIFF FRONT LEG
The power hitters in major league baseball use a stiff front leg to give them leverage for their power. When you study their swing, the front leg is firm and at an angle that allows them to stop all body movement forward. The front foot is the anchor that prevents lunging and hip travel forward. Maximum power is generated when the arms are extended and the hips rotate. If the front leg bends power is lost.

Coaching Point: A stiff and firm front leg requires the hitter to have the timing and patience to allow the baseball to get inside the front foot before attacking the baseball. Maximum power is generated when the lower body, hips, and torso spin to generate bat speed. The tendency to lunge at the ball must be avoided.

2. STAYING BALANCED AND OVER STACK
This is a term that refers to the spinning motion of a batters body and the process of keeping the head and torso perfect aligned over the back leg during the swing. The head does not move, travel or lunge forward during the swing. The perfect swing is a rotational motion with the body staying back and spinning over the back hip.

Coaching Point: Head travel is a no-no. If the head is moving forward then the batter has too much forward movement. The body must stop all forward movement and spin like a top. This rotational hitting motion generates maximum bat speed and power. A great tool for teaching and training young and advanced hitters this skill is the STAY BACK TEE and HandsBackHitter Trainer by Swing Buster. This innovative tool is a great baseball training aid that forces the batter to keep the correct front leg position during the swing. The STAY BACK BATTING TEE will teach the batter to have a stiff front leg and to stay over stack through the swing.

3. GETTING MAXIMUM EXTENSION THROUGH THE BALL
What this means is that when the bat makes contact with the ball, the hitters drive the hands and barrel of the bat through forward as long as they can to prolong the bat to ball contact. They power-drive the moving the hands forward on a level plane as long as possible. This down and through motion of the hands is like the landing of an airplane. The bat travels quickly and compactly to the ball on what is commonly called an A to C swing. But, once contact is made with the ball great hitters have the ability to drive the hands and barrel forward on a level plane to generate and maintain bat barrel to ball contact. The longer the barrel stays in contact with the ball, the more force will be exerted on the ball.

Visit the Baseball Coaching Digest Blog for daily post and articles on every aspect of coaching baseball. The Baseball Coaching Digest Blog. Check out the Bat Action Hitting Machine baseball pitching simulator. This high speed training machine is 100% Guaranteed to raise Batting Averages and has a full year warranty.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Dixon



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