Rotational Hitting

MORE FROM MIKE EPSTEIN


This article is reprinted from http://www.Baseball-Excellence.com

The following is another passage from one of our 2004 Newsletters. It is from an outstanding interview with Mike Epstein, arguably the premier hitting instructor in the country today.

BOB: The three core aspects of hitting are:

Keeping the hands inside the ball
Matching the plane of the swing to the plane of the pitch
Hips lead the hands
Could you say a few words about each?
MIKE: Staying inside the ball means the hands follow the rotating body around its axis. A linear hitter who never rotates cannot stay inside the ball. So many coaches are teaching linear hitting and yet keep telling their kids to stay inside the ball but they get frustrated because hitters physically cannot. In order for staying inside the ball to happen correctly that back elbow has to slot. If your hands come away from your body you will cause them to drag. You don't want drag. I know you have seen the figure skater example; in order to slow down, the skater brings his hands away from his body as he spins.

BOB: You know keeping that elbow slotted makes it easy for a coach to see. If the elbow is not slotted close to the body it means the hands are casting out.

MIKE: That's exactly right. The laws of physics govern our universe. A far as physics are concerned everything is equal and opposite. Torque is equal and opposite. That's why rotational hitters have comprised baseballs most dominant hitters down through the years because what they do enables them to do more than a linear hitter. So if everything is equal and opposite when the back elbow is down there is only one place the front elbow can work and that's up. If the body is in that position then you are automatically going to sit back on the axis because that induces your body to stay behind the ball. There are college coaches out there and some have come up with a harness that forces the hitter to keep that front elbow down. Now think abut this; if your lead elbow stays down then your back elbow comes up. And if it's up where is it going to go when it fires? It's going to go out. It has to- the laws of physics. Sometimes I don't think people really think these things through. I feel bad about this. If people would just understand the concept of staying inside the ball you would realize that the lead elbow has to work up if you are going to stay inside the ball.

If you are going to stay inside the ball the lead elbow has to work up. And that automatically leads into staying on the plane of the pitch.The third core movement is hips lead the hands. And what's important about that is generating torque separating the upper and lower half. This is the lynchpin effect of the whole kinetic chain; transfer of kinetic energy. Kinetic energy always works up in the swing. Therefore it all starts in the feet and the trigger is when you drop your heel. Dropping the front heel triggers the hips. People tell me that I am the only one that has said the swing is triggered when that front heel drops. Once that heel drops the energy starts in your feet and it starts to rotate, starts to unravel because your hips are opening. The top half is still going back but when that linkage between the upper and lower half tighten the lower half starts to decelerate and the upper half starts to accelerate because they are being yanked forward by the tremendous mass (muscles) of the legs rotating open. This yanks the hands through.

There is a fourth core movement as well and that's starting on time. All the great hitters started on time. But that's not a part of mechanics that is just something that should be common sense.

But that's why those core movements are so important.

A. They follow the laws of biomechanics.
B. They enable the hitter to have much more leverage and quickness in his swing because he is able to keep his hands inside the ball.
C. It increases the area upon which his bat swing can act on the plane of the pitch because he is aligned with it.

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