Until bat speed and strike contact area enters the htting result. Yet we see endless hitting theorems, microscopic exminations and philosophies.

Where are the discussions about (improving) the most primary skill of hitting? Prognostication, the art of "best guessing" judgments of the ultimate ball positioning in the contact zone.

Lack these skill sets, the swing matters little.

Which begs the question then how would you coach hitting? Although I noted that you state you are an umpire, these statements suggest that you have a theory of your own on coaching hitting. Hopefully not a hypothesis.

I do agree that when one teaches a swing, what seems simplistic, is in fact, very complicated.

Having noted the various posts you've participated in, would you also explain your thoughts on wheter muscles "stretch?"

quote:

Originally posted by CoachB25:
Which begs the question then how would you coach hitting? Although I noted that you state you are an umpire, these statements suggest that you have a theory of your own on coaching hitting. Hopefully not a hypothesis.

1) Maximize the athlete's ability to generate power thru a proper strength and high speed, lo weight training program. This prepares the body to learn the fundamentals of nueromuscular coordination to maximize force.

2) Evaluations in discussions with the athlete after times at bat to couple what you observe with what the athlete experiences.

3)Take these coupled evaluations to he hitting cage to work direclty on them.

4)Rinse, wash, repeat.

Eg. of 2) Athlete appears to make late decisions on fastballs at the top of the zone. Does the ball get "on him" more quickly than he anticipates? Did he simply "miss" hat pitch? Did he clearly see but was unable to react withproper bat positioning? Did he ball move unusually? Was it 2 or 4 seams and why did he not know?

Answer: learn to take this pitch <2 strikes and/or high speed ball machine at very short distances to "overspeed" and force quicker sight, prognostication, and decision making.

quote:

I do agree that when one teaches a swing, what seems simplistic, is in fact, very complicated.

All dynamic, high speed human motions are complicated. Breaking these down to components of low speed study and pracice will be successful only to enforce fundamentals. Soon, your coaching will have run out of coaching gas.

The athlete must learn by challenge, failure, compensation, retraining, success, challenge, failure......

quote:

Having noted the various posts you've participated in, would you also explain your thoughts on wheter muscles "stretch?"

The human tissues responsible for moving the body are a complex of tissues that begin and end with diferent tissue types. Some are muscles (fibers in various alignments)directly attach to bony surfaces (pectorals), others use muscles with tendons (biceps).

Both the fibers of the muscle and of the tendon lenghten (or allow lenghtening) of the tissue complex, this can be measured.

Muscle fibers slide over one another when engaged (contracted to perform movement) or resume a resting state (perhaps still resisting another set of muscles for coordination of movement).

http://health.howstuffworks.com/muscle2.htm

To your question. If stretching means increased range of motion around a joint, yes. If stretching means that muscles lenghten beyond their safe capacities, yes they do. If stretching means that the molecular structures of the muscles somehow can be tricked so that salt Na is further from salt Cl, nope.