Posted by: No Name () on Wed Apr 23 08:32:23 2003

Noname, Mike learned a lot about the swing after his playing days were over, but the experience he gained playing against the best pitchers in the world taught him a lot more than mechanics. He learned how to approach hitting when he stepped into the batters box, and you can't learn that out of a book. A few thousand AB's will teach you the most important aspect of hitting (the mental game). Never look down on a guy just because he was successful at what he did. What was Ted Williams only rule?
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> Doug


Doug, it takes both parts to be a successful hitter. If you only know the mechanics of the swing, and have no mental approach, you will not be very successful (especially at the MLB level). But the same goes for the opposite situation.

If you only have a good mental approach, and have very poor mechanics, you will also struggle (as Epstien did for most of his career). And again, I am not knocking Epstein. He was a better player than I probably ever will be. But in respect to MLB players, he was only an average player.

I agree that AB's help teach experience and the mental approach. But that is really all they do. They don't teach mechanics, which you also need to successful. And that is why most MLB hitter's don't make good hitting coaches. Hitting just comes natural to them. They don't study the swing in depth, they just do what ever works for them. Therefore, they can only teach what worked for them, which may not work for everyone. And as you said before, a person just can't gain that natural feeling/mental approach. So all of those MLB AB's don't help someone teach the swing either.