I am guessing some of the best all-time hitters Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Stan Musial, Honus Wagner worried more about the Results than a Mechanical Dissection of what it took for each of them to get those results.
Bruce Lee said, “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”
All three are adjectives, Nice, Linear, and Rotational, but I am sure you realize only one is describing the results. The other two are spending way too much time discussing what it takes to get the results versus what comes natural. Because a natural swing follows the natural laws of physics, making the swing easy to repeat.
It is my assertion we spend way too much time debating the mechanics of how [e.g., Linear versus Rotational] and very little time discussing things like pitch selection and what it takes to hit the baseball.
In fact, Rory Sutherland, advertising guru, stated we have actually become completely disconnected with what actually matters to people. In simpler times, [e.g., pre-digital video] they were focusing on hitting, where as now we are bombarded with videos designed to justify that Stan Musial was a Linear or Rotational hitter; An attempt to validate why their style, their approach to hitting, will make you a better hitter.
Yet the only natural result from watching big league hitters over and over is the painful time wasted viewing your own videos designed to point out what you are doing wrong. Instead of helping, we mechanically dissect and critique every movement. Mentally rehearsing over and over, in slow motion, forwards, backwards, all about what we are doing wrong.
The icing on the cake came when a parent called and asked, “Do you teach Linear or Rotational Hitting?” I just shook my head and said, “it’s is much simpler than that!”
Aesop’s fable “The Fox and the Cat,” comes to mind. When it comes to hitting, focus on the results, and most of all, Keep it Simple!
So when it comes to Hitting, are you the Cat or are you the Fox?
Until next blog be like Pete, Pete Rose that is. “See the ball; hit the ball.
Al McCormick
