Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Mon Feb 25 22:43:10 2002

>>> Does your swing need to be adjusted to cover the outside pitches? I was told this weekend that you should swing the same as you do for “middle of the plate” pitches, just wait on the ball, and hit it later to the opposite field. True? Can someone talk on this a bit? <<<

Hi Bill

Waiting for the ball to get in deeper and hitting it to the opposite field is a technique taught by many coaches. I think it stems from the fact that most batters use linear principles and will normally have their hands ahead of the bat-head at contact. The farther out the pitch, the more the hands tend to lead with extension types of mechanics.

Note: An outside pitch is no closer to the strike zone at the back of the plate than is was at the front on the plate. In fact, from a right-handed pitcher to a right-handed batter, the ball is probably angling away as it gets deeper.

With rotational mechanics this technique makes absolutely no sense. The bat-head is traveling at its widest point when the bat is perpendicular to the ball's flight path - hitting back up the middle. The farther the bat-head trails behind the hands (i.e., hitting to the opposite field), the less outside reach the bat-head has. --- Thus, the wider the pitch, the wider the hand-path must be in order to hit the ball in the opposite field.

Jack Mankin