I’ve subscribed to the MLB All Access service, and one of the things they have is video of Ted Williams when he was managing the Rangers.
Ted gives a small hitting clinic, and makes a point of mentioning that he doesn’t roll his wrists until he’s through the hitting zone. There is a shot from above as he makes contact to illustrate.
Now, I’m absolutely no one in the area of batting theory, but what I found at the cages was that I did best when using the arms for starting speed and guiding the bat to the ball “carefully” with the hands, rolling the wrists to make contact. If the bat is getting speed from two motions, shouldn’t it be moving faster and therefore impart more energy to the ball?
You can’t knock Ted’s success, but is he simply right, or is this something that workds for some and not for others? You notice quite a bit of difference in even very successful batters, but I didn’t think this would be one of them.
Not having seen the video, I can’t be certain what Williams actually meant. I have hit somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 baseballs in my life, (most of them in practices)and I don’t think I’ve ever hit a fair ball without breaking my wrists during the process.
Are you sure Williams’s “roll your wrists” term isn’t describing a different action than breaking the wrists?
“Rolling the wrists” is usually used to describe a follow-through action, after the ball has been hit. (or missed)
An excellent book on hitting was written by Charlie Lau, ex-major league catcher and batting coach. The title is something like “The Art Of Hitting”. That’s the best detailed instructional book on hitting that I’ve ever come across.
PS: If he’s throwin’ it too damn fast, it won’t matter what you do with the bat.
In “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell, isn’t Ted Williams’ description of his own batting technique shown to be completely unrelated to what actually happens?
Yeah I think I’d need to see it too to know what he means exactly… Generally speaking, you’re right about bat speed being most important, but the ability to get the bat through different parts of the zone quickly might be something Ted is referring to (not just “swinging hard”)… Allowing the hitter more time to watch the delivery, the oncoming pitch, etc, and I think he might mean that concentrating on a simpler swing (by not lunging/doing too many things at once) might make for a shorter/more compact swing, resulting in a quicker swing or having more control of the zone ---- whereas your batting cage swings, where you’re looking at consecutive pitches of the same speed, the same delivery, and probably all close to the middle of the plate might mean that your “specialized” swing results in more balls being hit consistently farther (but might not be as effective against an MLB pitcher…)
