Posted by: t olson () on Fri Feb 15 16:38:35 2002

""""i personally find the cue of hitting the inside of the ball is usually helpful on all locations even though the reality I am looking for is usually hard hits fair to center or pull field for outside or in locations.who knows why this works""""

Agree 100% with this swing thought. I've been trying to think about why it works because I think it's important to good hitting, and not just opposite field hitting.

A few thoughts I have as to possible reasons why....

1. I think it helps keep the arms and body connected. Staying inside the ball will help ensure the rear elbow stays in the slot--especially early--same concept that you said it reduces early throwing out of the hands--casting. It's very hard to cast when early in the swing--your rear elbow finds the side of your body.

2. Prevents early roll of the hands--clearly, the biggest problem causing the barrel to top the ball.

3. Takes bat out of initial downward grade and creates slight upswing. Starting with this swing thought keeps the arms and body connected and allows the bat to track with the upper body in a natural arc--assuming proper posture for the pitch. Ensures that barrel doesn't leak out ahead of body turn--keeps body and hands acting as unit.

4. On the inside pitch, helps to prevent hooking around the ball too much--and driving too many fouls. Bottom-line, I believe you can simultaneously stay inside of--and turn on an inside pitch.

5. Better quality of contact.

I think the idea of staying inside the ball has been incorrectly linked to weight-shift extension techniques because of the false idea that you have to thrust the knob forward and disconnect the arms/hands while doing it. I believe you can easily stay inside the ball (aim) for the inside half--with a rotational swing.

If all this is true, the swing thought is also good because it's easy to see the results. Doing this so much, I can now clearly see the difference between a middle-in pitch that was pulled too much. That difference is most frequently exhibited by chop type grounders--or sinking line drives--or hard fouls.