C77fastpitch wrote:Hitting experts are like all experts, they split hairs over items that most players could care less about..
Sometimes they split hairs. Frequently they disagree about large points.
C77fastpitch wrote: You shouldn't analyze to you become paralyzed..
Who can argue this general point?
C77fastpitch wrote: Most players in the major leagues hit the same,.
Yep.
C77fastpitch wrote:and there is plenty of agreement with the basic swing..
Nope.
C77fastpitch wrote: Most girls need to know nothing about the way experts teach hitting. "Keep in Simple Stupid", is the best book for girls playing softball..
Depends on the age, learning modality, intelligence etc. As you have said, adapt the teaching methods to the student.
C77fastpitch wrote: Especially when 99% of hitting is natural ability and experience..
IME, few figure this out on their own.
http://imageevent.com/siggy/hitting/oly ... =4&s=0&z=9 Apparently this hitter did. I liked her swing so much I called her gold coach and asked who taught her that swing. He said it was factory equipment. We both agreed that doesn't happen very often.
Put a bat in a kids hands and tell them to hit the ball they are generally going to figure out some method to do it using their arms rather than the big muscles of their body. Then when they can't hit good pitching a few years later they are often told to stand up straight and do something like the guy on the left.
http://imageevent.com/siggy/hitting/ana ... =4&s=0&z=9 (someone even sold a gadget to encourage the same
http://imageevent.com/siggy/hitting/ana ... =4&s=0&z=9 ) That does result in reducing strikeouts and is exactly where our sport was years back before slow motion video of elite hitters became readily available on the internet and average dads started calling horse puckey on what their kids were being taught vs what they saw elite hitters doing in slow and stop motion (back when 1-0 in ITB was common). A few years later Right View came along and validated what average dads on the net and very few instructors were saying by getting Sue and Mike on video saying the fp swing WAS the MLB swing. For the young among you, you may not realize that was heresy back in the day. Still is in some places but that view is dying with time.
C77fastpitch wrote:Ted Williams is considered by many the greatest hitter of all times,.
Certainly one of the few in the conversation.
C77fastpitch wrote:and mentor to Epstein..
I think it was more they were friends so Ted filmed an endorsement for him. I wouldn't equate the teaching of the two.
C77fastpitch wrote: With that being said, a lot of things he wrote about was crap..
Yeah please elaborate.
C77fastpitch wrote:He never got over being struck out by Joan Joyce.
Pretty sure he didn't lose any sleep over this. Joyce or Finch etc dazzling a ML hitter is a fun sideshow. Alternatively, the best female hitters would get eaten up by a Nolan Ryan in his prime. Both sets of hitters would have more success after they had seen a few thousand pitches. Just something new. If you think Ted or Bonds in their day wouldn't have hit well after a few thousand at bats against fastpitch style pitching you are ill informed (much lesser athletes hit men's fastpitch pitching leaping and all and I assure you, the men's national fp team pitchers are far beyond a Fernandez, Cat, Finch or Joyce). The best women's hitters would have improving success with experience against a MLB pitcher throwing over hand as well though not to the same extent. Muscle mass matters.
Talked to Coach Joyce myself the first time a couple of weeks ago about a pitcher of ours. Kind of cool to have a conversation with a legend. Seemed a very nice person.