Newbie Questions

[105°]

Ok guys a couple of questions. I am hoping to learn a little to help my son by trying to figure this rotational thing out. When I look at hitters on video they almost all seem to be weight shift and rotational. Jim Edmonds looks to me to be very close to a pure rotational guy, am I on the right track here?

Also why do left handed hitters seem to naturally scapular load more so than right handed hitters.

[wogdoggy]

edmonds uses a no step swing which probably makes him LOOK more rotational than the guy who steps..

[Ursa Major]

Ok guys a couple of questions. I am hoping to learn a little to help my son by trying to figure this rotational thing out. When I look at hitters on video they almost all seem to be weight shift and rotational. Jim Edmonds looks to me to be very close to a pure rotational guy, am I on the right track here?

Hey, 105, welcome to our fun, tightknit little community, as much like family as the U.S. Olympic speedskating squad.

Right track for what? Looking at hitters to determine rotational principles to teach your son? How old is he? It's tough to pick up all the right cues from just watching MLB hitters. I think the first step would be to understand and internalize some basic concepts of rotational hitting:

Posture
Connection
Rotation

(I like to add a fourth element that is common to every successful swing -- intent to hit.)

Unfortunately, it's hard to find one good book, website or video that lays out the basic concepts in a way that you can easily jump into the discussions of hitting here and know what everyone is talking about. The FAQ's at bat-speed.com are as comprehensive as anything available for free, but there's some information on that site that may be counterproductive (i.e., "top hand torque"), so just take it as a general introduction for now. The forums at setpro.com have some basic information, though now almost everything of value is available only in the member (i.e., paid subscriber) forums.

Also why do left handed hitters seem to naturally scapular load more so than right handed hitters.

I haven't noticed that. One of the major scap loaders I know of is Vlad Guerrero, I righty. Maybe it's because middle infielders and catchers are predominantly righty and they're not usually striving for home run power. Those positions that lefties can play demand more power, so maybe they would scap load to get there. That's just a WAG. (=Wild A$$ Guess)