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Introducing Something Old
Are you unable to visit the Pinkman Academy becuase you live in different parts of the country? Click Here to view detailed directions on how to send us a video clip of your throwing motion or swing. Email us your video and we will email you back an analysis. You are about to be introduced to something OLD. Our baseball family has come to rely on us for professional instruction that produces results. You look to us as teaching professionals to obtain the best information available, educate players, and improve their experience in the game. We spend a lot of money on technology, travel and our own advanced training for the sole purpose of bringing you the best training available. The bottom line is always about producing results.
We have been able to produce results because we study why one method works and another doesn't. We have and will continue to let conventional wisdom go by the wayside if scientific evidence provides a better solution. Often scientific research does not discover an astoundingly new breakthrough. Rather, laborious research hours are spent in biomechanical laboratories trying to define and understand known successes and provide rational processes to duplicate those actions in order to teach it to others. Having said that, we are introducing something OLD. In baseball there are two types of hitting – rotational and linear. You may not be aware of these terms. Linear is thought to be the most popular particularly in softball. The linear style teaches you to swing down on the ball. Rotational hitting teaches you to match the plane of the ball with the plane of the swinging bat. Rotational is a technique that was used by the greatest hitter ever, Ted Williams. It became less popular in the 70's due to slick AstroTurf infields that encouraged hitting the ball on the ground and the popularity of the extremely light weight aluminum bats which provided the trampoline power that the hitting technique couldn't. But -- when was the last time you played on an AstroTurf field? Bat specifications have dramatically changed as well. There is a reason why nowadays so many youth players struggle to perform on the 90' diamond, bad habits are formed with the lighter bats, then amplified on the larger field where a 200' shot is likely an out. 50 years ago wood bats were the only option, therefore less of a transition was needed to achieve similar results. You are now expected to transfer from ultra light -12 bat in little league to a -3 bat in high school.
As you watch professional hitters on TV with the new super slow motion replay cameras, please notice the path or plane of their swing – no matter where the ball is pitched. Better yet visit either of our academies and view our slow motion images of a variety of some of the best hitters in the game. From Home Run Derby winners, Bobby Abreu, Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Ryan Howard, Miguel Tejada, to in game clips of Alfonso Soriano, Ken Griffey Jr., Derek Lee, and Derek Jeter. See for yourself. Rotational hitting is about power, distance, and extra bases. It is the style of most professional hitters. They realized in order to get the results required to stay in the game they needed to go back to what worked for Williams, Mantle and now Bonds. For the last few years we have been studying the work of, and are now Certified by, former slugger Mike Epstein, a protégé and close friend of Ted Williams. Mike also played for Ted here in Washington. Mike's method is very simple - match the plane of the swing to the plane of the ball with maximum body power. As Tom House said at our Dulles Academy "a pitcher's worst nightmare is when a player's bat is on the same plane as the pitcher's ball." |
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