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Best swing in baseball?

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SanfordRJones

Junior
Nov 17, 2006
1,324
389
83
Mike Epstein is Ted Williams' protege and the only hitting instructor Williams ever endorsed. Here's what he says about the front heel:

The hitter should land on the “ball” of his front foot, because when the player drops his front heel, the swing is then triggered. The swing doesn't take place until AFTER the front heel plants! When it does plant, the player is then in the proper “torque position” (top-half going back, lower-half coming forward).
Click to expand...

I'm not real sure what the argument is here. If you're acknowledging that the heel is on the ground, you're acknowledging that the heel has been planted. I didn't say anything about the ball of the foot touching the ground first.
 
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HD6

HD6

Sophomore
Apr 8, 2003
10,019
108
63
Six Pack has got to be the only place in the world where somebody would argue that an all American college baseball player's take on hitting is inferior to his.
 
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DAWG61

Redshirt
Feb 26, 2008
10,111
0
0
San Fran Barry. I like swings with some wiggle with the bat. Not sure why I just find them more interesting to watch. Youkilis doesn't count I find his swing absolutely hideous.
 
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NIC.sixpack

Redshirt
Apr 12, 2013
106
0
0
Hi, folks. I'd like to add Tony Gwynn to the conversation.

I joined to pass along a story that y'all might be interested in. My dad was a high school baseball coach. He went to some kind of clinic that Ron Polk had back when Will Clark and Rafael Palmeiro were at MSU. During the clinic, Polk had some of his players take batting practice. During batting practice Polk talked about the hitters and what he had them working on. This isn't a word for word recitation of how it went, but it's a close as I can remember (I was in elementary school when this happened, and Dad isn't around to clear things up for me).

Polk: "This is [I can't remember his name]. He leads off for us. We've been trying to get him to keep his hands back and stay on top of the ball to cut back on pop-ups." [_____ hits about a dozen pitches. Will Clark walks up.]

Polk: "This is Will Clark. Will is a good hitter with a nice swing, but we are still getting him to work the pitch count more and drive pitches to the opposite field." [Clark hits a bunch. Dad was impressed. Then Rafael Palmeiro steps up.]

Polk: "This is Rafael Palmeiro. We don't tell him anything." [Palmeiro proceeds to destroy baseballs.]

Disclaimer: I'm a second-generation Ole Miss alumnus and fan. I'm not here to argue about anything, though. I just thought y'all might like to hear that story.
 
dawgman42

dawgman42

All-American
Jul 24, 2007
5,906
5,634
113
I'm partial to this guy:

 
Bulldog Bruce

Bulldog Bruce

All-American
Nov 1, 2007
4,675
5,125
113
I did a little reading on modern nomenclature of hitting. Seems they use that phrase now. Is there a a point in the swing when the heel is on the ground and has some weight on it? yes. Is it something you should think about? no. Once the weight shifts forward there will be some weight on the heel during the rotation. There is no way to stop it so why think about it.

In my day the hot thing was to "swing down". Ted Williams said you swing with a slight uppercut. The problem with both of these is once you tell a person to do this, they swing down too much or they swing up too much. The better thought it to bring the head of the bat to the hitting zone in as straight a path as possible.

The big one today is "Hands inside the ball" I understand the concept of it but I don't think it is a good swing thought for all hitters. That actually seems to be the big debate today do people like Mickey Mantle or Babe Ruth have good swings. You are an idiot if you think they don't because obviously they were successful. But not everyone can hit like that just like everyone can't hit with "hands inside the ball" and "work deep in the count". You have to find what works for you.

So I accept your original statement even though I don't think that a hitter should even think about that.
 
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