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bretman and PurpleJack, you folks have a firm grip on rotational hitting techniques.
If everybody had to use a heavy wooden bat then everybody would HAVE to use rotational mechanics. Astroturf followed by aluminum bats was the main reason for the explosion of hand throwing linear hitting mechanics. Some folks found out that if you just made solid contact then you could get ground ball base hits through the infield on Astroturf...think of the St. Louis Cardinals of the 80s. As aluminum bats became lighter and filled with more "pop" you could get base hits by just using your hands to make contact.
Folks are finally realizing that with all of the "pop" in these bats that more girls are capable of hitting the long ball by utilizing the "effortless power" that comes from rotational mechanics. Rotational mechanics uses physics (the law of angular momentum) to allow a player to use all of the power in their body instead of just using the hands and arms.
Fastpitch was started by men who simply went from playing baseball to playing fastpitch...they didn't decide to use a different hitting technique, they just played the way they always played.
If you stay inside the ball (keep your hands connected to the body) and rotate around the front hip you can generate tremendous power. Watch the great power hitters in MLB and they all use rotational mechanics. Adam Dunn almost breaks his front ankle as he rolls over it because of the force of his rotating body. I believe it was Barry Bond's 700th HR that after the swing, his back foot was on home plate...because he rotated and didn't have his weight on his back foot. Babe Ruth's back foot was always flying around because he rotated the weight off of it. Guys like Williams, Aaron, Mayes, Musial et al weighed only 180 pounds or so (some lighter) yet they hit many monsterous 500+ foot HRs because of the power that comes from the rotational swing.
Good discussion folks!
If everybody had to use a heavy wooden bat then everybody would HAVE to use rotational mechanics. Astroturf followed by aluminum bats was the main reason for the explosion of hand throwing linear hitting mechanics. Some folks found out that if you just made solid contact then you could get ground ball base hits through the infield on Astroturf...think of the St. Louis Cardinals of the 80s. As aluminum bats became lighter and filled with more "pop" you could get base hits by just using your hands to make contact.
Folks are finally realizing that with all of the "pop" in these bats that more girls are capable of hitting the long ball by utilizing the "effortless power" that comes from rotational mechanics. Rotational mechanics uses physics (the law of angular momentum) to allow a player to use all of the power in their body instead of just using the hands and arms.
Fastpitch was started by men who simply went from playing baseball to playing fastpitch...they didn't decide to use a different hitting technique, they just played the way they always played.
If you stay inside the ball (keep your hands connected to the body) and rotate around the front hip you can generate tremendous power. Watch the great power hitters in MLB and they all use rotational mechanics. Adam Dunn almost breaks his front ankle as he rolls over it because of the force of his rotating body. I believe it was Barry Bond's 700th HR that after the swing, his back foot was on home plate...because he rotated and didn't have his weight on his back foot. Babe Ruth's back foot was always flying around because he rotated the weight off of it. Guys like Williams, Aaron, Mayes, Musial et al weighed only 180 pounds or so (some lighter) yet they hit many monsterous 500+ foot HRs because of the power that comes from the rotational swing.
Good discussion folks!