{"id":112,"date":"2010-04-15T15:28:51","date_gmt":"2010-04-15T20:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/?p=112"},"modified":"2010-05-09T04:18:24","modified_gmt":"2010-05-09T09:18:24","slug":"my-current-thoughts-on-hitting-by-daniel-dee-clark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/archives\/112","title":{"rendered":"My Current Thoughts on Hitting"},"content":{"rendered":"
April 15, 2010<\/div>\n

Recently my thoughts on hitting have been addressed in other blogger\u2019s pieces.\u00a0 While I certainly don\u2019t take offense to these allusions, I feel as though it is necessary to explicitly state my current hitting philosophy.\u00a0 Before I begin, however, I must make perfectly clear that, like all philosophies, my thoughts on hitting are perpetually evolving and truly quite fluid in time.\u00a0 To think that it has taken me twenty years and countless influences to develop the philosophy to which I currently subscribe reminds me of how far the game has travelled and that where it is going can scarcely be imagined.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s begin.\u00a0 We must first define hitting before we can explore it.\u00a0 Hitting in its simplest terms must reflect in some way the ultimate goal of run production.\u00a0 Since only a single player can be the hitter at any given period of the game, hitting therefore is the individual act of run production while in the box.\u00a0 How does an individual influence run production while at bat?\u00a0 The only way to score without the assistance of teammates essentially is by going yard.\u00a0 I would certainly call that the best result.\u00a0 Since this is a rare occurrence, we must address ways to score that eventually involve teammates.\u00a0 The only way to score is by not getting out.\u00a0 If a player is out at any point along his way to home, he cannot possibly score.\u00a0 Therefore, the goal of hitting must be to prevent getting out.\u00a0 Implicit in this statement is the act of prevention.\u00a0 Already we notice a flaw.\u00a0 Hitting the ball requires a great deal of positive action, so beginning with a negative inevitably results in conflict.\u00a0 We will address this more completely later.\u00a0 For now, we will simply continue understanding that homeruns are best, and getting out is failure.<\/p>\n

What must we do to accomplish the first goal?\u00a0 Homeruns are products of bat speed, bat path, and contact.\u00a0 Contact means both the area on the bat striking the ball as well as the point in the swing where contact takes place.\u00a0 Ideally, force will be greatest at a position in which the ball strikes the \u201csweet spot\u201d of the bat.\u00a0 This area is defined as the portion of the bat that produces the least mechanical vibration and varies with the bat.\u00a0 These vibrations are basically wasted force that could have been transferred to the ball that is instead being transferred elsewhere.\u00a0 In terms of body position, we find the greatest force to be created with the hands at the plane of the lead hip and with the lead triceps contracted while the rear biceps contracted.\u00a0 We desire a lead leg with the quadriceps contracted and a rear leg with the hamstring contracted.\u00a0 What we find when these all take place in unison is a head in line with the rear thigh and torso.\u00a0 The torso will rotate as a product of these factors, but I prefer not to think of hitting in terms of rotational vs. linear.\u00a0 Hitting is a combination and a rejection of these absolutes all in one. The goal of the lower half is to drive as much mass forward as possible as rapidly as possible, thereby maximizing the force we generate.\u00a0 Bat speed comes nearly entirely from the lower half when it is used to its fullest.<\/p>\n

Bat path is the concern of the upper half.\u00a0 Ideal bat path is one headed downward from a position above the strikezone.\u00a0 Logically in order to travel downward, we must begin from above, so to cover the zone, we must begin above it.\u00a0 Because force depends on acceleration as well as mass, we must take the most linear path we can to the ball while staying inside of it.\u00a0 We must stay inside the ball with our hands in order to strike the ball on the sweet spot.\u00a0 So, the hands must begin above the ball, travel downwardly to it, and stay inside enough of it to strike with the sweet spot.\u00a0 These are the only roles the hands play.<\/p>\n

The pre-pitch goal of the body is to establish our weight to be transferred as well as reduce frictional coefficient.\u00a0 Since the coefficient of static friction will always be higher than that of the active coefficient, in order to overcome resistance, we must begin our swing with a body in motion, upper and lower.\u00a0 This way we can accelerate more quickly in our path to contact.\u00a0 When people speak of \u201cloading,\u201d they simply are using baseball vernacular to describe a decrease in friction and a maximization of mass to be accelerated.<\/p>\n

Vision is absolutely essential to contact.\u00a0 Since the ball spends so little time in flight, it is a quite a tall order to expect the eyes to relay perceptions to the cortex and make adequate adjustments.\u00a0 Asking for these same adjustments with eyes drifting excessively makes this request practically impossible.\u00a0 Generally speaking, I prefer a relatively quiet load for this very reason.<\/p>\n

When do we load?\u00a0 Since the goal of the load remains to eliminate friction, ideally there exists no temporal separation between the end of the load and the initiation of the swing.\u00a0 An average fastball will call for a load whose termination approximates release.\u00a0 However, we notice immediate contradictions in the case of off-speed pitches.\u00a0 This is another reason why a quiet load is preferred.\u00a0 Forceful loading likely leads to a forceful stride that inevitably causes the hitter\u2019s front half to leak resulting in a reduced contraction in the lead leg quadriceps and a drifting axis.\u00a0 A drifting axis of the swing will be the end result, and bat speed will be dramatically reduced.\u00a0 Quiet loads allow weight to stay loaded longer.<\/p>\n

I never place much emphasis on following through.\u00a0 Personally, I believe an acceptable follow-through is simply one that is the product of everything happening correctly up until and including contact.\u00a0 Because the hands must take a linear approach to the ball, however, single-handed follow-throughs are ideal since a two-handed follow-through would be the result of an angled approach to contact.<\/p>\n

The strategic portion of hitting is unique in sports.\u00a0 It demands awareness, discipline, concentration, and resilience.\u00a0 Hitting is comprised of both an offensive and defensive component despite the illusion that it is purely offensive.<\/p>\n

The offensive component is essentially everything we have discussed in the previous paragraphs.\u00a0 Generation of maximum bat speed allows the hitter to aggressively attack the pitch.\u00a0 Making contact is a challenge, however, and every single swing that has ever been taken by anyone has been at some level a compromise.\u00a0 No player can actually swing at 100% and still make contact.\u00a0 The hitters with the most power tend to come closest, but they tend to swing and miss more frequently.\u00a0 Immediately we notice the inherent tradeoff occurring with every swing.\u00a0 Hitting for average is basically the defensive component of hitting while hitting for power is the offensive.\u00a0 Strike-zone judgment is at least equally important to these two components, and I think it belongs in both the offensive and defensive categories.<\/p>\n

If all three of these features were utilized cohesively, the hitter would only hit strikes and every space of the strikezone would be coverable with bomb potential.\u00a0 No one can do this.\u00a0 Awareness of this impossibility is where the mental side of hitting begins.\u00a0 It is really quite simple.\u00a0 As hitters develop, they tend to improve all three of these aspects.\u00a0 They tend to cover more of the zone, hit the ball harder, and exercise more discriminating taste in pitches.\u00a0 When others have mentioned my affection for walks, it is because I recognize that walking is a manifestation of a skill just as valuable in terms of player development as bat speed.\u00a0 Getting on base is forever the goal. I am not suggesting that getting hits is secondary to walks.\u00a0 I am suggesting that hits are a manifestation of a different type of skill, not completely independent, but not necessarily intertwined with strikezone discipline.\u00a0 The combination of these skills is the goal, and all are equally important in terms of developing as a hitter.\u00a0 Statistically power is the least important in terms of run production, but the skills necessary to hit for power begin with hitting for average, so suggesting that power is less important that average is flawed.
\nThe reason for not attacking the first pitch, in my opinion, is not because it is not a great pitch to hit.\u00a0 The reason for not attacking it, especially a first-pitch fastball, is that the box is a different environment.\u00a0 No matter how great a hitter is at preparing in the dugout and on-deck circle, he still is not entirely familiar with the view he will have at the plate.\u00a0 Taking the first pitch provides the hitter with information unattainable in any other environment that certainly will prove useful in the immediate future.\u00a0 Are some pitches too good to take?\u00a0 Occasionally.\u00a0 Answer me this, though.\u00a0 Would you be better off with that pitch had you seen one similar to it from the box shortly prior to it?<\/p>\n

Absolutely.<\/p>\n

That being said, on-deck work is an absolute imperative.\u00a0 Understanding what pitch the opponent thinks is his best as well as his worst provides a great deal of information about pitch sequences.\u00a0 Hitters are often told not to think like pitchers and just to drive the ball, but it is far easier to hit a pitch when the hitter knows it is coming.\u00a0 If a guy throws his 3rd pitch 5% of the time, why would he throw it in any key situation?\u00a0 He clearly has little confidence in it.\u00a0 If he has not thrown his second pitch in the zone in 20 pitches, why would he throw it behind in any count?\u00a0 Now that you know what is coming, go hit his fastball to the moon.<\/p>\n

And finally, pitch counts.\u00a0 The skills required to relieve are less than the skills required to start.\u00a0 Getting into a team\u2019s bullpen early should be the goal of the starting nine every single game not just because it helps win the current game, but also because it taxes the team\u2019s bullpen for the next game in the series and possibly for the remainder of the series.\u00a0 Strike zone discipline is the primary skill involved in taxing pitchers.<\/p>\n

Like I said, this is how I think about hitting today.\u00a0 It was not necessarily the same yesterday and may not be the same tomorrow, but any amendments will be the result of a lot of thought and a lot of experience.\u00a0 Hitting is an American treasure, and I invite everyone to develop your own philosophies and ideas regarding it.\u00a0 No two hitters are alike, and that in many ways is the fun of hitting.
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April 15, 2010 Recently my thoughts on hitting have been addressed in other blogger\u2019s pieces.\u00a0 While I certainly don\u2019t take offense to these allusions, I feel as though it is necessary to explicitly state my current hitting philosophy.\u00a0 Before I begin, however, I must make perfectly clear that, like all philosophies, my thoughts on hitting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,7,15,8,6],"tags":[221,220,225,95,224,96,223,219,222],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}