The problem that most all parents have when they seek out hitting instruction for their son or daughter:

In stark contrast to most products or services wherein one can find relatively objective information [“Consumer Reports” is one source along these lines], there are few objective sources by which a parent can leverage that will really help them choose wisely in finding a competent and effective hitting instructor.

Many times, as I talk about here, parents tend to assume that most all instructors understand “the basics “, as I have heard it phrased often.

They assume that most all instructors are on the same page ,so to speak, in terms of having a good working knowledge as regards understanding how the body works when swinging a bat.

From my vantage point, nothing could be further from the truth!!

When I first became interested in possibly becoming an instructor,it did not take me too long to realize that many of the instructors I watched were guys who were good hitters in college or at the professional level; they were guys who could “do it ” pretty well.

But they had very little understanding as to what they were ACTUALLY doing with their bat and body when they hit!

This is not an uncommon kind of thing with many good athletes.

In motor learning research on athletes, there is a term for this.

It’s known as the “action -perception gap” or “action–perception differential.”

Meaning that it is many times the case that good hitters THINK they are doing things to swing the bat well;but the reality is vastly different compared to their perceptions.

Most parents, understandably, typically are not aware of this gap and they simply assume that guys who could or can swing the bat at a high level much therefore know how to teach at a high level.

Again,this is simply not true.

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As I have talked and written about many times since becoming a hitting instructor, the fundamental problem with most of the instructional material is that it derives from verbal cues that do NOT really convey “how the body works” when someone tries to swing a bat.

The phrase of “how the body works” is a simple way of saying that in order to really understand how someone swings a bat, one needs to have at minimum, some understanding as to how forces and movements are actually being created to move the bat.

As I will try to point out with a number of video demos here at you tube, VERY few of the kinds of typical verbal cues that are used by many hitting instructors even remotely explain as to what these movements and forces are that are actually involved in creating movement of the bat.

Simply put, these typical cues that many have heard lack “explanatory power.”

Meaning that they do not explain a swing in a manner that will actually help a hitter [or a coach] to really understand what they are actually doing when they swing a bat.

And thus, these cues will be ineffective at best, and harmful at worst, in terms of helping a hitter really understand the kinds of forces and movements that they need to create in order to develop a high level swing.

[I do realize that some will argue that some of these kinds of very vague cues either can be, or have been, helpful to players. The refrain will be along the lines of, “Steve,I used this or that cue, and I have a really good swing as a result.” To which I would reply along the lines of: “Well yes, I realize that you THINK it was this cue that helped you, but I think that your swing has improved due to OTHER factors.” I have written quite a bit about these “other factors” on my website. And I will be explaining what I mean in some future public blogs in the not too distant future].

So, what I am saying about what I refer to as “the culture of hitting instruction” is the following:

1] Most instruction is based on verbal cues which in no manner really describe how a swing actually happens in that it does not remotely explain the forces and movements that are actually involved in moving the bat—thus;

2] these cues are not going to help hitters either understand how they are currently creating movements and forces, or help a hitter know how to create movements and forces that will help them to develop a high level swing;

3] in order to be a really effective instructor, you have to be able to understand and explain the actual movements and forces that are causing the bat to move.

EnglishbeyHitting.com offers a variety of products designed to help baseball and softball players develop the best swing their body is physically capable of achieving.

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Some years back I was working with a 14 year old boy on a baseball hitting drill. As we finished the hitting drill his mom asked me if I would teacher her daughter the same way I was teaching her son. To which I somewhat cryptically asked: “Does your daughter have a spleen? Does your son have a spleen?”

She, of course, gave me a strange look!

What I am getting at is whether it’s a male or female the musculoskeletal system is essentially the same. And that means that whether it is a male or female, there are ways to utilize the form and function of the human body to swing a bat in a very effective manner. I would add that most young hitters, regardless of gender, have the same basic movement and postural flaws.

I have concluded that many of these basic flaws are a function of the underlying natural human tendency to try to use the arms as the primary energy source and primary control mechanism to swing the bat and hit a ball. When you organize the swing around using the arms to hit a baseball or softball, this impedes the ability to effectively utilize the entire body to control and move the bat.

How does this normative and implicit motor strategy manifest itself in terms of how hitters are functioning?

The typical kinds of movement flaws that I see among both male and female hitters are the following:
•    Poor posture; poor bat/body alignment at the start of the swing
•    “Reverse chain”: Starting the swing by moving the arms first and foremost as opposed to accelerating the hip rotation and quickly linking the shoulder rotation to the hip rotation; with the combined effect being that of creating a substantial pulling force on the arms and bat
•    Most non-elite level hitters do not know how to rotate the trunk and do not know how to use the legs to support the trunk rotation.

There are other types of movement flaws that are subsets of the above mentioned basic flaws. The main point is that whether it is a softball or baseball hitter, most all hitters have some version of the flaws I mentioned above. Since the flaws are similar and since I firmly believe that the normative and underlying motor strategy greatly influences most young hitters when they first learn to swing a bat, and since as I think the form and function of the musculoskeletal system is essentially the same for males and females, the manner in which I teach all hitters is very similar.

Now, I’m not diving deep into the functional details right now, but whether it is a softball or baseball hitter, there are always going to be some basic considerations and principles that are going to inform my methods and hitting drills.

In order to develop a much better swing, a baseball or softball player must really understand and focus on the underlying flaws that are impeding that development. This typically entails both having a real intent and willingness to change some aspects of how the hitter currently moves to swing a bat. And it typically requires methods from the instructor that understand and effectively constrain those flawed movements. Related to this is the principle that one does not directly develop a much better swing. Rather, it is the case that the good swing “emerges” as the hitter goes through the process of eliminating the movement flaws that are impeding the ability to swing the bat much more effectively and efficiently.

Most of the problems that non-elite level hitters suffer from are not a because of poorly timing pitches. The actual problem is much more related to the poor movement patterns that I cited above.

What I refer to as “effective practice” entails a very good understanding of these movement flaws and how to effectively address them. Related to this is a fundamental teaching principle: In order to mandate ideal focus on flawed movement patterns, effective practice methods necessarily entail practicing movements within a non-live setting. Meaning that the most effective way to initially address movement flaws is to work on these flawed movements off a tee or swinging into an object, e.g., hitting into a fence or a bag etc.

Based on my teaching experience, it is almost always the case that those hitters I work with who really develop much better movement patterns, substantially improve their ability to hit in game conditions. This reinforces my thoughts and methods that focus on developing more efficient movement patterns with regards to teaching young hitter how to develop better hitting performance in actual game conditions.

The fundamental problem with many young non-elite hitters is that they learned early on to try to use mainly the arms to try to swing a bat and hit a ball. The fundamental challenge for me as a softball and baseball hitting instructor is to understand this problem and find effective ways to help the hitter really learn how to use the entire body to swing a bat very effectively. As a hitting instructor my primary focus is on creating baseball hitting drills and methods that really help to facilitate this kind of learning process for both softball and baseball hitters.

I just got the following note from a proud Dad.

Well Steve, I have great news to report. Justin will be playing college ball next year……! We found out today after he went in for a tryout. As it turned out, the coach had previously seen Justin hit in the cages a few times prior and liked what he saw.

 

To say it was a big deal for us was an understatement. He came home and started bawling his eyes out when he told us. We’re so proud!

 

As you know, it was an up and down ride over the past several years. Fighting coaches constantly trying to change his swing. Fighting coaches who literally held it against him because he wouldn’t swing down on the ball, hands to the ball…. Throughout his latest years playing he’s learned a ton about life through baseball…. and so have I.

 

The beautiful thing is, that Justin’s college coach likes his swing. Hopefully we’re over the hump and can move forward! I say ‘we’ knowing full well that I’m not the one swinging the bat. But I’m sure I don’t have to tell ANYONE here that we parents have skin in the game to…

 

Justin and I just wanted to post a big THANK YOU for your help!

It makes my day every time I get a note like this. Justin worked hard and both he and his dad understood what it was going to take to achieve their goal. They both watched, studied and implemented the things necessary to develop elite swing mechanics.  Congratulations to both!

Are you trying to improve your swing so you can play in college?  Tell me about it in the comments below!

When I first became interested in becoming a hitting instructor for baseball and softball players, I spent a considerable amount of time watching baseball and softball hitting instructors work with hitters. Being a novice instructor at the time I felt that I needed to watch other instructors to get a better understanding of how to work with hitters. Of course in doing this, I saw many baseball hitting drill type swing exercises that were used by the hitting instructors I was watching.

Along with watching how hitting instructors were trying to apply instruction, I was also spending a considerable amount of time watching elite level hitter’s swing and of this time was spent looking at these swings in slow motion.

So, here’s a simple question: How do you measure the effectiveness of a baseball hitting drill?

Pretty early on in my pursuit, I began to see and understand elite level swings by applying the kinds of concepts that I was familiar with and used as a trainer working with non-baseball athletes in developing effective baseball and softball hitting drills.

I had a bit of an epiphany about what I was seeing when I was looking at someone like Barry Bonds swing a baseball bat.

What struck me was a thought along the lines of: “Wow!! What Barry Bonds is doing when he swings a bat is not all that different than what Warren Sapp, A Hall of Famer and former NFL defensive lineman, did when he fired off the line!” Both are moving very quickly and forcefully, and both are able to function like this due to the fact that they are generating large force and momentum by loading and unloading the large muscles in the hip area.

Once I came to this understanding, I then realized that many of the same kinds of thoughts and concepts that I knew as a trainer could be utilized when training someone to swing a bat more effectively. When I realized that many of these concepts and principles better explain how a guy like Barry Bonds is able to swing a bat like he does, this forever changed how I thought as a baseball hitting instructor as I went about designing and developing effective baseball and softball hitting drills. And it’s also substantially how I thought about and analyzed the kinds of cues and baseball hitting drills that I saw and heard when looking at and listening to other hitting instructors teach.

Early on I looked at many things I saw and heard and felt that things didn’t seem quite right. Over time, I went from “this doesn’t seem quite right” to “this baseball hitting drill or cue is completely wrong” and will not help a baseball or softball hitters learn what they really need to learn.

Since my epiphany as I have labeled it, I have seen many baseball hitting drills where my basic question is something along the lines of: “What in the hell is this hitting drill for?”, “what aspect of a baseball or softball swing is it really trying to address?” I say this based on my own thoughts about how to try to design an effective baseball or softball hitting drill or swing exercise.

The Hitting Drill Has to Reflect the Ability of the Hitter

In my hitting instructional video entitled “Understanding the Elite Level Baseball and Softball Swing – Instruction and Analysis”, I go into some detail about the kinds of movements, muscle actions, and movement patterns of elite level hitters.

In other words I am describing and defining how they actually function when they swing a baseball bat.

For example, elite level hitters know how to move the body so that they can rotate the hips into foot plant. Or, they know how to load the body and initiate the swing in a manner so that they are able to lag the bat in a very effective manner.

In contrast to this level of functioning, or movement speed and coordination you could say, non-elite hitters typically do not know how to create this kind of hip rotation; nor do they typically know how to effectively lag the bat — many non-elite level hitters drag the bat — defined as BAD LAG — and there is a distinct difference between good lag and bad lag/bat drag. This being the case, an effective baseball or softball hitting drill would be one that actually helps to create better hip rotation. In order to do this the hitting instructor should have some basic understanding about the kinds of movements and muscle actions that are involved in creating the ability to consistently and effectively rotate into foot plant.

Having some understanding of biomechanical, physiological and motor learning factors involved in the creation of movement and/or movement patterns is helpful. Motor learning factors is essentially the movement strategies that baseball or softball hitters will implicitly learn and try to apply.

For example, the concept of “bat drag” is a type of movement or mechanical flaw that many young hitters typically display when swinging a bat. From my vantage point, what is actually causing this movement is a flawed movement strategy. Some of this can be a bit abstract for people to really understand. But I have talked about this in any number of instructional videos.

To design an effective baseball hitting drill, the instructor has to develop a good working understanding as to how good and not so good movements are actually created. And the instructor has to be able to accurately analyze how a baseball or softball hitter is actually functioning.

If you do not have a good understanding of the actual flaws that a hitter has then you will be less likely to provide a baseball hitting drill that effectively addresses typical hitting flaws like hip slide, bat drag or insufficient pelvic tilt or trunk/spine angle. Based on long experience in looking both at baseball and softball hitting drills, many hitting drills do not reflect at all this kind of understanding.

Photo by Keith Allison

The Hitter Should Understand the Purpose and Intent of the Baseball Hitting Drill

The movement goals of the hitting drill have to be understood by the player. This does not mean that the player will necessarily execute the drill perfectly. Movement flaws are typically pretty ingrained and typically won’t be overcome in one or two attempts or one or two lessons.

What it does mean is that the hitter needs to understand exactly what the movement goals of the drill entails. For example, I use no-stride hitting drills when necessary. One main reason why I do is that baseball and softball hitters can typically learn how to rotate the trunk (hips, mid torso, upper torso) more effectively compared to stride swings.

A baseball or softball hitter that has relatively poor hip/trunk rotation will not become a perfect rotational machine overnight! But the player should know that a central feature of no-stride practice is that it does tend to help better learn how to rotate the trunk.

The Hitting Instructor Has to Provide Accurate Feedback

In order for a baseball hitting drill to be effective, the instructor has to provide accurate feedback about how the movement goals of the drill are actually being executed.

Take a simple example: If I have a softball or baseball hitting drill that in part has the goal of keeping the lead leg/foot relatively closed through the swing, I need to quickly give feedback to the hitter as to whether or not this goal is being met. In part — and this is very important from a teaching or learning standpoint — my job is to get the baseball or softball hitter to be aware of and really focus on how the player is actually moving when practicing.

I have talked about numerous aspects of baseball hitting drill design and hitting drill effectiveness. Hitting drills should reflect the functionality of the hitter you are working with, the baseball or softball hitter has to have a very clear understanding of the purpose and intent of the baseball hitting drill and the instructor has to provide accurate feedback about how the movement goals of the drill are actually being executed. These are some of the basic aspects of either creating or trying to judge the effectiveness of a hitting drill. Having this understanding about baseball hitting drill design and effectiveness will increasingly help dads, players, and coaches who are truly interested in how to swing a baseball bat or teach softball and baseball hitters in a truly effective manner.

Are you a player, coach or dad? What do you look for in a baseball hitting drill? How do you measure the effectiveness of a softball or baseball hitting drill? Let us know in the comments section below.

My thoughts and observations on the current state of hitting instruction in baseball and softball are very much related to a number of YouTube video clips that I have viewed recently. These YouTube clips serve as a platform by which I will be talking about and demonstrating many of the “traditional cues” as I call them. And I will be showing and explaining as to why these cues have very little “explanatory power” in blog posts to come.

My critique of hitting instruction is not a function of my wanting to make instructors look bad. My essential purpose is to try to better educate parents and players about those things which I think they really need to better understand when it comes to good vs not so good baseball or softball hitting instruction.

Ok, let’s start here: I think that the reason elite level hitter’s swing the bat really well has little to nothing to do with the kinds of cues that are commonly heard from Little League fields all the way to Major League Baseball. Something else underlies their ability to development a really good swing.

The Reality of Baseball and Softball Hitting Instruction at All Levels

Not too long ago I saw something on a hitting website that I think is as common as it is incorrect. A young dad with a young son made the following comment that went something like this:

“I assume that most all hitting instructors are pretty much on the same page as regards having a good understanding of the ‘basics’ of hitting instruction. The only real differences really just amount to differences in style or emphasis of these basics.”

Admittedly, this seems to be a pretty logical assumption. But, it is wrong. Very wrong, in my experience.

From my vantage point as someone who has spent many years thinking about and observing hitting instructors I would say that the bulk of hitting instruction is ineffectual; it does not typically address or help correct many of the basic movement flaws that underlie many non-elite hitters. At best most hitting instruction is not harmful. Most hitting instruction is ineffective. It’s ineffective because it does not help a hitter really overcome his or her basic movement flaws and it does not help the hitter develop a truly changed and improved swing. And I would argue that there is evidence that some instruction is actually harming a hitter’s ability to really improve their swing.

Hitting Instruction Largely Ranges From Ineffectual to Harmful

Why is this the case? Why do I think that the bulk of hitting instruction largely ranges from ineffectual to actually harmful? The reality is this: Very few hitting instructors understand “how the body works” well enough to either accurately analyze swings, or develop really effective hitting drills that force the hitter to really understand how to go about effectively addressing their swing flaws. Typically there is very little actual improvement in the hitter’s movement flaws that underlie their inability to consistently hit line drives.

The main goal of hitting instruction should be helping a hitter better understand their actual movement flaws. And it should be about helping the hitter to effectively address and ultimately help the hitter to overcome the kinds of typical movement flaws that most non-elite level hitters have.

Photo by Keith Allison

Players at the MLB Level Already Know How To Swing The Bat Really Well

Most baseball and softball hitting instructors do not understand movement well enough to be effective hitting instructors. Based on my 15 years of experience with hitting instruction, all of what I just said above is reality. I am neither exaggerating nor being unduly harsh as regards the relatively poor quality of hitting instruction that exists at all levels. Now, at the highest levels (MLB) this lack of a good understanding as to how the body works, does not matter all that much. I say this because guys at the MLB level already know how to swing the bat really well! They got to that level precisely because they swing the bat better than about 99.9% of all other hitters on the planet!! It is those at the lower levels of baseball and softball that really are in dire need of effective hitting instructors.

What’s my evidence as regards my criticisms of most hitting instruction?

Well, I can start with the fact that most instructors do not have any kind of training or even interest in sports science concepts that really can and should be utilized to be a truly effective instructor. Most instructors are typically guys who may have been able to “do it”, e.g. they had the physical capability to swing a bat well. However, as I have said many times, “doing it” is typically very weakly related to understanding what they were actually doing with their body when they swung a bat. This is a very common among elite athletes.

In motor learning literature, this is known as the action-perception gap. That is to say there can be and there many times is a big difference between being able to do a ballistic type activity like swinging a baseball bat well, compared to really understanding what your body is actually doing to create a good swing.

The essential point here is that many of those claiming to teach hitting are guys who knew how to swing the bat pretty well, but they cannot really effectively, accurately, and technically explain how they actually moved body and bat when they swung.

Most Hitting Instructors Rely on Traditional Cues

As I mentioned earlier, I have looked at dozens if not hundreds of clips of instruction at YouTube over the last several years. I have yet to see an instructor that knows how both good and not so good swings are created. I do see evidence that many instructors have some knowledge, but most do not understand cause and effect issues well enough to really be an effective instructor.

Most hitting instructors rely on what I refer to as traditional cues like “take the knob to the ball”, or cues having to do with the hands. Cues like: “You need quick hands to swing the bat better”, or “good hitters know how to use their hands.”

Other common cues are:
“You need to load back.”
“You need a bat path that is short to the ball and long through the ball.”
“You need a level swing.”

The fundamental problem with these kinds of cues is that they lack “explanatory power.” Which means, they do not really explain and accurately convey the actual movements and movement patterns that really underlie both good and not so good swings. Most traditional cues do not explain the underlying causes of the kinds of typical movement flaws that are very common to most hitters.

Nothing To Do With The Actual Movements of Elite Hitters

Given this, a very basic question about this kind of cue based instruction should become obvious: If these cues do not really explain how a swing actually happens, and if the hitting instructor does not understand the actual underlying causes of a swing, how can these kinds of cues really be effective teaching tools? And how can an instructor who is using these cues as their main source of information and instruction really be an effective hitting teacher? The reality is that they really can’t be effective and in most case aren’t very effective.

Because these cues have essentially nothing to do with the actual movements of hitters, it is then left completely up to the hitter to somehow interpret and translate these cues into some kind of physical reality that the hitter applies and therein improves upon some aspect of their swing. Very few young and developing hitters can do this in an effective manner.

In future posts and YouTube demos on the Englishbey Hitting YouTube channel, I will explain how and why these traditional cues are not very effective at helping most hitters develop a really good swing and what is effective at helping develop elite swing mechanics.

What makes a good hitting instructor? Are traditional baseball hitting cues effective? Share your thoughts with me in the comments – I’d love to hear what you have to say!

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I read a lot of stuff about hitting and hitting instruction.

I was recently sick and somewhat bedridden if you will, due to my all too typical bronchial flu bout that has afflicted me for as many January’s as I can remember. All I could do was read and watch TV. I did a lot of both for sure.

Of course I read a lot of stuff about hitting and hitting instruction—-I think I have somewhat of a professional obligation to know what’s “out there” as far as hitting instruction. I’ve done a lot of this over the last decade for sure. But this was the very first time that I actually looked at twitter.

Now some may be shocked or disbelieving and possibly even offended at this: “Steve, are you kidding me …you’re NOT on twitter…at least every day if not every hour!” Uh…well….no I’m not, is my unapologetic answer!!

But I DID see something on twitter that made me think about the possibility that maybe I SHOULD be on twitter at least from time to time. During the course of reading some hitting stuff I ran across a comment that was illustrative of what I mean: “Yea, I was wondering about where Steve has been…he had some good stuff in the past” (I’m paraphrasing here).

My first thought was to recall the Mark Twain quip…..  “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” The fact is that I have had my own website since 2006. Oddly enough the name of the site is englishbeyhitting.com. And on my site I have over 12,000 posts. Many of which are quite long and detailed descriptions and analysis of almost every conceivable aspect of baseball and softball swing mechanics, developing a really good swing, how to be a really effective teacher (hitting instructor), and on and on.

I currently sell a number of hitting instruction videos. One is a two part video in which I use my own swings to show what I think are the essential swing characteristics of elite level players. And yes I did say I am using MY OWN swings to show these characteristics.

I spent over 4 years and thousands of hours practicing “my stuff” and applying what I have come to know about how an elite level swing actually happens to my own self swinging a bat. In doing this I actually RE-learned how to more effectively utilize my body to swing a bat — more effectively relative to when I actually played with the Houston Astros organization years ago.

Yes you heard that correctly; I AM saying that I swing the bat much more like an elite level hitter as a 50 plus year old guy, compared to when I was a 20 year old guy.

Understanding the Elite Level Swing

When I reached the point at which I thought I could not physically improve upon my swing, I picked out about 60 of what I thought were my best swings and I used those to make these two videos: Understanding the Elite Level Swing, Part 1 and 2. To my knowledge, no instructor has ever attempted to engage in such a process of physical application of conceptual hitting concepts. And few instructors can make the claim that they can actually swing the bat like an elite level hitter via their own methods of teaching. Or that they use their own methods to LEARN how to substantially improve their own swing.  [nor can many ACTUALLY show how their teaching methods substantially improve most of the players they actually work with —but more about this in the future].

I engaged in this process, something I named as “Steve’s Swing Experiment” for one fundamental reason. I knew that by physically engaging in trying to apply the kinds of concepts that I think best explain an elite level swing to my own baseball swing, I would better learn as to how to become a MORE EFFECTIVE TEACHER! And that is exactly what happened!

In this context, I would say that in looking around the internet at various hitting websites and in looking at some the self-described “hitting gurus”, what I found was a myriad of guys attempting to write in sometimes EXCRUCIATING detail about ALL the many and  subtle variations of elite level swings. But what I saw very little of was any real substantive understanding as to how to go about teaching a 12 to 16 year old how to go about breaking their flawed movement patterns.

Flawed Baseball or Softball Hitting Movements

As I have said MANY times, there is a VERY DISTINCT difference between analysis and application. Meaning, to take a single example, that one can perfectly analyze the movements and muscle actions of Barry Bonds, but EFFECTIVELY applying that analysis to help a 12 year old overcome his or her FLAWED baseball or softball hitting movements and muscle actions is very distinct from simply analyzing Barry Bonds. Again, I am simply broaching a subject that I have a professional interest in, baseball and softball hitting instruction. I will be talking about this “disconnect” between good analysis and effective teaching in a number of future articles.

Hitting Instructional Videos

But I digress a little here —back to the subject of what I offer.  Along with the instructional video I cited above I also make available by subscription:

1) A 40 minute “show and tell” video wherein I explain as to how to effectively practice a LEAD ARM SWING. I show how to how to do it and how to NOT do it. In this latter context I have yet to see a SINGLE example anywhere that I think is an EFFECTIVE way to set-up and practice a lead arm swing.

[Note that I have highlighted the word “effective” a number of times here. Again in future articles I will talking much more about the LARGE difference between  practicing to swing,and EFFECTIVE practice. Few that I see are actually practicing in ways that I think are really effective].

2) A similar type video as regards effective ways to set-up and practice a BACK ARM SWING.

3) A similar show and tell type video where I demonstrate basic functional type exercises that are DIRECTLY related to learning to utilize the body to swing a bat more effectively.

[In the not too distant future I will be offering several videos on specific kinds of functional exercises that directly pertain to developing better movement patterns specific to throwing and swinging—many of these exercises I designed and have physically been doing myself over the last 15 years].

4) Another show and tell type video wherein I am showing how to practice some of the basic movement patterns of the trunk and legs that elite level hitters are typically creating; the overall pattern of these very coordinated joint actions of the legs and trunk I have labelled the “SIT and TURN” unloading pattern of elite level hitters.

[In the first video I mentioned above wherein I used my own swings, there is an entire section that focuses on this “Sit and Turn” concept].

I would only add here that I will be developing an entire series of instructional videos that cover many aspects of swing development, and/or how to become a more effective teacher as regards trying to help non-elite baseball and softball hitters how to really learn to overcome the kinds of typical flaws that I see in most non-elite hitters.

So.

As you can see, as regards what I have been doing over the last 5 or so years regarding teaching hitters and writing about hitting, it certainly IS true that rumors of my demise are a bit premature!

But.

As I initially talked about here—maybe I DO need to better utilize some of the social media platforms —like twitter, you tube, Facebook, etc——so as to better insure that people do know that I’m still around!

The fact is that I HAVE spent a tremendous amount of time and effort working at the craft of becoming a more effective teacher of hitting instruction and baseball and softball swing development over the last 15 years. And in the future I will be make this effort more understood and more recognized by those who I sincerely believe CAN be helped by this effort and experience.

What information in this article surprised you the most? Do you experiment with your swing? Tell me about it in the comments!

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