Posted by: The Hitting Guru (hitman3527@aol.com) on Wed May 10 14:22:28 2006

> Born hitter vs Learned hitter?
>
> I’ve played and coached my whole life…I firmly believe that some people can hit, and other can’t.
>
> Can you take a player that can’t hit and make him adequate…sure. Can you take a born hitter and make him force, defiantly! Can you take a non-hitter and make him great, I don’t believe so. There’s no video or book that has the secrets to developing a truly great hitter.



Dubb. I happen to agree with you to a great extent. If you were to take a group of kids who had never been exposed to any instuction you would probably get some hitters and some non hitters. Some kids are just better athletes than others. But a large degree of improvement can be made especially at lower levels of play.

In the case of a Bo Jackson or Deion Sanders, one can easily see that both were great athletes and probably could have been great if not at least good at any sport. But neither had the greatest baseball mechanics though Bo Jackson was an allstar and Deion Sanders hit .300 one season. This just proves that athletic ability, hardwork, and strength have as much to do with success as good technique. And even Michael Jordan who had one of the slowest swings of any minor league player was able to hit fastballs to at least allow him around a .200 average at professional level competition in one year.

With regard to secrets in developing a truly great hitter, the verdict is still out. In slow pitch 16 inch softball most long hitters exhibit rotational mechanics and have similar swings and prelaunch positions. But at the major league level a greater variation exists as a player must deviate in many instances in order to ensure consistent contact while complying with what his role is on the team in order to stay in the lineup.