WebBall.com - The Voters

Comments from the Voters

All instructors in my opinion are right on the money, we must remember that we are looking at all age and skill levels as we teach the students of the game. I enjoyed have learned something from each article. - Mike Bauder

I think the most important part is balance and then timing, quick swing contact and follow thru with power - Troy Gonzales

The first ingredient I teach is balance. The student MUST start and finish in a balanced position. Also equally important is the concept of no head movement. Then I move on to the fact that the hips lead and the shoulders follow pulling the hands around in a circular path. - Ronald Halouska

All instructors and essays were extremely informative.

I believe mostly in teaching fundamentals for muscle memory but without a 'game plan' for each at bat it doesnt matter. The level at which you are teaching largely influences what approach you teach to hitting. I think you should teach every detail even to the 8-10 year old with the hope that they retain something. however situational hitting becomes more important as they advance. - Dustin Zick

This was great! Any way to get the essays in print form? Something from each essay is valuable, especially with so many different approachs in players. My knowledge increased 100 fold, thank you! - scott sorensen
[You have permission to print pages from WebBall for personal use; there are no current plans to offer reprints.]

My crucial teaches would be to master the load for the fast ball as well as for off speed. If the hitter commits to memory (muscle memory) these two starts of the swing he can become a good hitter. - Tommy Dickens
I think that every essay made valid points. The only thing I would disagree with is putting one point as more important that the rest. You can't convince me that perfecting the front foot landing or getting the body into the load position is any more important than the next step in the sequence. My philosophy is to break down each swing, start with the stance, isolate the stride, perfect that portion, then move on to the next. If you can break down the stride/swing into little pieces, then you can work on each individually. - Terry

As a Little League coach, I try to teach three crucial things.

Hold the bat properly in your hands.
Foot position( stride and rotation i.e. 'squish the bug'.
Steady head, emphasizing shoulder to shoulder chin touch. - Richard Jones

I teach 6 crucial components.

Stride and Cock(or load).
Drive rear knee toward pitcher to initate lower turn.
Hold hands back and turn lower body
Firm front leg.
Head remains relatively still.
Throw hands toward ball. - Jeff Atchley

For teaching young hitters in competitive ball coaches must take it one step at a time.

I believe in constant balance with weight shift 60 - 40 on release. Must be on balls of feet (not on toes)and knees flexed. Hand position should be managable based on players ability to have hands evenly with shoulders at load position. Short strides with toe touch and pivot on balls of feet. Remember hips lead the hands. This keeps hands inside of ball for better field placement of pitch location. A vertical line should develope at point of contact as explosion occcurs between back knee and leading shoulder. Transfer of weight to neutral positon, at contact, and finishing the swing leads to added velocity and distance (size does not matter). Hands must be flat though the swing. All of this happens with little or no head movement (forward during stride is acceptable) As a course for deceleration after contact and for proper follow through (finishing), the top hand should release to let the bottom hand diminish the momentum through the lower portion of the body.

This is optimum...they will not get everything at once. All hitters will have to sacrifice something to learn something. Let them master balance first, then footwork, then hand positon. With balance comes wieght transfer. With weight transfer comes velocity and distance. Muscle memory and repetition are the keys to long term success. Don't settle on short term successes. - Al Winters

One thing I stress is to: look at the ball, focus on the ball, or change your focus as the ball approaches (keep the ball in focus). I use terms like "see it out of his hand", "follow it", and/or "Eyes wide open" (don't blink). Additionally I do believe you can tell a lot about a hitter by watching his "takes", is the timing right and are they ready to hit. - Ed Sly

I think too much is made of the small details of hitting.

I believe hitters below the high school level need to be taught basic mechanics. Not complicated details like toe strike, hands inside the ball. More emphasis on short swings, head down and good weight transfer. As the hitter progreeses in age I think you can start to teach the fine mechanics of hitting. One of the essays talked about consequences for bad mechanics. My college coach taught this and made it into a hostile playing enviroment. I went from being a power hitter to a number 2 hitter. Which meant moving the runner around by hit & run bunting etc. I believe in teaching through soft toss, fence hand drills, numbers on balls during live and soft toss and learning to hit to all fields during live hitting drills. - Randy Wedertz

Some very good articles ... some better than others. ... In working with high school hitters I feel that getting the lower half of the body under control, in the correct position and out in front of the hands eliminates 75% of mechanical problems. I have two crucial teaches which were not strongly mentioned by the authors. One is what I term a soft front side ... flexed front leg (which serves as a timing mechanism and whose straightening fires the hips) and a flexed front (or lead) elbow, which is crucial in keeping the hand side the ball and creating a fourth kinetic link developing maximum torque. The other is driving the top hand from launch down and through the ball without letting the bat head drop too much initially and without casting the hands. This keeps the bat head a good lag position behind the hands so as the hitter rotates the hitter can extend the hands and use the snap of the wrist (the oarlock effect of torque between the hands) to whip the bat head through the hitting zone at late as possible and with as much bat speed as possible. Great debate! I look forward to all the comments and commentary to follow. - Al Baysek

I think each of the articles brings something important to the table, but I really do not believe any one theory must be strictly adhered to as gospel. I have yet to see an article which thoroughly hits my philosophy which is a combo of linear and rotational. - J Wiesmeth [WebBall is planning a second round; perhaps that will present your philospohy.]

Here's a longer comment that covers may key areas..

All the Coaches have valid points and many of their instruction are the same. I personally like the first article. I think this coach laid it out in a way that was understandable.

I believe timing, rhythm, and sight, are the most often under-instructed aspects of hitting.

Many new youth coach start teaching mechanics first. They have no idea if the player can see or even make contact with the ball before they fill their heads with a lot of mechanics which confuses them and make it more difficult to get their timing and site in tune first. New players should focus on these aspects before rotation, swing plan, follow through, etc. A hitter with poor mechanics can still hit a ball. But a hitter with poor sight or timing cannot. A hitter with good mechanics can hit the ball better, for a greater average and power, given timing and eye sight are tuned in.

Timing, rhythm, and sight should be the second item coaches teach (after work on stance). If their load is very early, as to say they are sitting on their back side waiting too long for the ball, that's almost as bad as being too late to load. Being to late with the load and front foot plant will force a batter to rush through their load and launch position. This often creates a herky-jerky motion with a lot of head movement. So it's important to be on time with the load, stride, and front foot plant. I personally prefer a hitter be a little early than late. I personally like a load that starts early and is very slow.

Very young and new players, 4 to 9 years of age, need more time spent on developing a strong athletic stance to start from. Watching youth coaches and parents, they often do not allow enough time between reps for a player to setup in a strong athletic stance. They are in such a hurry to get players through BP with maximum reps, they don't give them time to setup between pitches. I believe in reps but I believe in quality reps. Give them time to setup, measure up, and get in that strong athletic position, so they get quality reps. Just as with a golfer's approach the ball, a batters approach the plate is very important. If you don't start correctly, you chances of having consistent results are greatly reduced.

Measuring up to the plate should be a part of teaching the stance. It's very important from an early age that players start standing the correct distances from the plate. This provides consistency to the strike zone. They learn what are ball and strikes and the distance to the outside half of the plate remains the same. This allows for consistent swing plans and hand positions to balls thrown to different areas of the plate.

The items I've mentioned above are very basic; so often not enough attention is paid to them by coaches or players. - Bill Beane

And finally from one of the authors...

I didn't know exactly how to approach the answers since I participated in the challenge. All the articles were well done & I feel honored to have contributed. Although I think article #4 to have made the best case, I remain convinced that timing is the most critical teach. Thanks again for the opportunity & I look forward to Part 2 of the hitting challenge. - Ron Moore

[It should be noted that Ron did not vote for his own essay - an example of the kind of open debate and opportunity for shared knowledge we hoped for when launching this. Thanks again to all contributors - authors and voters.]