He's slightly wrong in "The head must not move after heel plant": The head CAN move, but it only can move 1 to 2 inches forward or backward. Epstein is great to start out with, but there are other important things (Coil)
Mike Epstein "rotational hitting" is a reinvent of the wheel. Nothing more than a poor knock off repackage. ARod has said himself that he is of the Lau way of hitting. Tony LaRussa , who knew Lau very well from his White Sox days, acknowledges that Pujols is Lau style. Manny is Lau style. And so on.
@rickmiller33 Epstein never said he invented anything. He will be the first to admit that he's just explaining what great hitters do. A Rod may think he's a Lau hitter, but he's not. Lots of big-league hitters don't even know what they do because they are the 0.0001 percent of the population who can do it intuitively. McGwire, Mattingly, and Gwynn are three examples of coaches who teach hitting totally differently than they did it themselves. Look at what MLB hitters do, NOT what they say.
@rickmiller33 I read Charlie Lau's book "The art of hitting .300" while a HS varsity player. Now move ahead to 2008...I read about, research, then attend an Epstein hitting camp with my then 10 year old son. The two styles couldn't be any different. Lau is LINEAR - he stressed hitting off the front foot, and Epstein is ROTATIONAL - stressing rotating around a stationary axis. Look at video - REALLY look. Watch the front leg of each type of hitter on contact & you'll easily see the difference.
How come you don't teach turning the front knee in like Pujols as well as some other players? From what I could find is they say its like a rubber band thing to give more power. The you tube video I am referring to is the Albert Pujols Swing Analysis. Is this something new in the past couple years and if you dont recommend it why? Thanks Dave
How come you don't teach turning the front knee in like Pujols as well as some other players? From what I could find is they say its like a rubber band thing to give more power. The you tube video I am referring to is the Albert Pujols Swing Analysis. Is this something new in the past couple years and if you dont recommend it why? Thanks Dave
socra66- agreed. In my opinion both ARod and Ichiro are linear. Hitters get fooled all the time whether linear or rotational. Most if not all major leaguers are linear. The college hitter has a backside that is falling and has an upper cut. The speaker says some things that just are false. Hitters at the major league level try to swing with a firm front knee at contact most all the time. That stops them. To say they continue to move after heal plant just is not true unless they are fooled.
@AntPalm8 - this guy so wrong about so many things. When the hitter hits the ball solid and on time... The reason he can't find the video of guys from the passed that continue moving after "heel drop" is they "do not exist". And he can' measure either. Arod moves 12" at least at the hips. At hip drop his back knee drops below him as he turns his hips. The firm front knee stops his forward motions as it does for ALL hitters at that level.
@timliddledesign First off before you post learn english, passed? its past . Next what your saying is a total contradiction, who said anything about a hip drop and he can measure either, what are you trying to say? Are you a teenager who goes to some extreme hitting place?....Go swing down and hit grounders the the SS.
@abfive Nope, I wish I were a kid again but actually I'm a grown man in Florida watching my son in spring training. I assume you are an english professor. Not sure what "swing down" means either... The narrator said at 3:40 of this video "linear" hitters " of which he has "no video" move after heel drop up to two feet during the swing. All I am saying is I have never seen a "good hitter" hit that way. If i heard that wrong, sorry. My best wishes to your son.
@timliddledesign You've completely misunderstood the narration. Go back and listen to it again. And A-Rod is NOT linear! If you ever saw the linear hitters of the '70s and '80s, you would know A-Rod is a textbook rotational hitter.
@FastWalkToFresno I did watch a bit in the 70s and 80s. We can find video of Ty Cobb hitting on youtube. For what it's worth, I played baseball in college. My bro. is a coach presently for the Minnesota Twins and I have a son just beginning his career in pro ball. My problem with the narration is about movement after heel drop & at the end. Head & hips continue after heel drop. I have not seen that and can't find any MLB hitters that hit with a soft front side consistently. Not even Cobb did.
@timliddledesign 'Head & hips continue after heel drop" Thats not what he said, on heal drop the head does not move and the body revolves around the head...The hips needs to move as they come through and pull the upper body. EX. For a pitcher to throw with velocity he needs to keep his upper body (ball) back as his lower half pulls the top half through as applies for golf, tennis, hockey and other sports as it applies to hitting, the strongest muscles (legs/hips) whip the weakest (arm)
@timliddledesign – what abfive said. As I already posted, you *completely* misunderstood Jake Epstein's narration. Your brother being a pro coach doesn't have anything to do with whether or not you misunderstood what was said in the video, which you clearly did based on your comments.
One more comment: If you read Lau's "The Art of Hitting .300," he acknowledges the hips as the hitter's primary power source. But he also suggests ( this is from memory; don't have the book at hand) that hitters with "quick hips ( by which I assume he means rotational hitters, though this is debatable)" tend to open their hips too soon. So Lau told his charges to concentrate on the weight shift, assuming that rotation would then take care of itself --
Both approaches are valid. And with most good hitters, there's considerable overlap between them. Virtually every weight-shift hitter (who doesn't concentrate on bunts and infield hits) rotates, and virtually every rotational hitter has some weight shift. Some hitters profit more from one approach than the other. It's largely a matter of degree.
I can tell you that even the linear swing is closer to the rotaional swing that most think. I go back to Charlie Lau who was very much a linear instructor. If you freeze a guy like George Brett at contact, he will look pretty much the same as the vid you have of A-rod. The diff to me is the length of the linear shift is longer. But any player who continues the linear shift after the heel touch is generally in big trouble and susceptible to change of speed.
Huh...? The hitter in this video has moved more than five or six inches pre-swing movement. I'd say the player moved forward about 12+ inches.
Take a look at the red dot on the belt buckle. From start to heal drop, the player has shifted forward so far, the red dot signifying the pre-swing starting point is behind the players back hip.
@socra66 Mark the front part of his foot (toes) with your mouse before the forward movement, note the foot is sideways. You will see by the end of the swing the pointer of your mouse would be at his heel. I'd say 6 inches is a good approximation.
wow its so obvious this is the right way to hit... my dad got me going on the epstein stuff and it really works... i mean every single good hitter ALL of them are "epsteining" (the word me and my dad use when we see someone swinging right) so if you look at mantle and my favorite is barry bonds they hit the way mike says to hit... i mean the hitters who are really crushing the ball... completely destroying it and unloading on it... those guys 100% of them "epstein"you cannot do it any other way!
Geez, how long is it gonna take before the rest of the world gets the message that pros do not swing down on the ball.
One thing though, is that all the pros look like they actually are swinging down on the ball and it's something I wish I could do cause everytime I swing, my coaches almost instantly notice that I dip my shoulder.
There are a lot of new "rotational hitting" gurus out there. As it says in the video, Mike Epstein coined the phrase "rotational hitting" decades ago after years of perfecting his own swing in the pros.
The Epstein method of TEACHING how to hit rotationally is unsurpassed. It's fairly easy to know a lot about a subject, but to teach it, is a far different matter.
If you are just starting to learn about the fundamental differences between linear and rotational hitting, look no further. Mike Epstein books and instructional program is second to none!!
He's slightly wrong in "The head must not move after heel plant": The head CAN move, but it only can move 1 to 2 inches forward or backward. Epstein is great to start out with, but there are other important things (Coil)
themetsfan861 6 months ago
Can you put a video of a softball(girl) player?
DiamondHeatSoftball3 9 months ago
Mike Epstein "rotational hitting" is a reinvent of the wheel. Nothing more than a poor knock off repackage. ARod has said himself that he is of the Lau way of hitting. Tony LaRussa , who knew Lau very well from his White Sox days, acknowledges that Pujols is Lau style. Manny is Lau style. And so on.
rickmiller33 1 year ago
@rickmiller33 Epstein never said he invented anything. He will be the first to admit that he's just explaining what great hitters do. A Rod may think he's a Lau hitter, but he's not. Lots of big-league hitters don't even know what they do because they are the 0.0001 percent of the population who can do it intuitively. McGwire, Mattingly, and Gwynn are three examples of coaches who teach hitting totally differently than they did it themselves. Look at what MLB hitters do, NOT what they say.
FastWalkToFresno 1 year ago
@rickmiller33 I read Charlie Lau's book "The art of hitting .300" while a HS varsity player. Now move ahead to 2008...I read about, research, then attend an Epstein hitting camp with my then 10 year old son. The two styles couldn't be any different. Lau is LINEAR - he stressed hitting off the front foot, and Epstein is ROTATIONAL - stressing rotating around a stationary axis. Look at video - REALLY look. Watch the front leg of each type of hitter on contact & you'll easily see the difference.
gummybearsgreen 11 months ago
hi uncle mike! how u doing!
Killeruk454 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
How come you don't teach turning the front knee in like Pujols as well as some other players? From what I could find is they say its like a rubber band thing to give more power. The you tube video I am referring to is the Albert Pujols Swing Analysis. Is this something new in the past couple years and if you dont recommend it why? Thanks Dave
Kouma2112 1 year ago
How come you don't teach turning the front knee in like Pujols as well as some other players? From what I could find is they say its like a rubber band thing to give more power. The you tube video I am referring to is the Albert Pujols Swing Analysis. Is this something new in the past couple years and if you dont recommend it why? Thanks Dave
Kouma2112 1 year ago
Comment removed
timliddledesign 1 year ago
socra66- agreed. In my opinion both ARod and Ichiro are linear. Hitters get fooled all the time whether linear or rotational. Most if not all major leaguers are linear. The college hitter has a backside that is falling and has an upper cut. The speaker says some things that just are false. Hitters at the major league level try to swing with a firm front knee at contact most all the time. That stops them. To say they continue to move after heal plant just is not true unless they are fooled.
timliddledesign 1 year ago
@timliddledesign You're just absolutely wrong...Ichiro is the only linear hitter I can think of and he is the exception not the rule.
AntPalm8 1 year ago
@AntPalm8 - this guy so wrong about so many things. When the hitter hits the ball solid and on time... The reason he can't find the video of guys from the passed that continue moving after "heel drop" is they "do not exist". And he can' measure either. Arod moves 12" at least at the hips. At hip drop his back knee drops below him as he turns his hips. The firm front knee stops his forward motions as it does for ALL hitters at that level.
timliddledesign 1 year ago
@timliddledesign I guess you didn't watch much baseball in the '70s and '80s, especially teams like the Royals and Cardinals.
FastWalkToFresno 1 year ago
@timliddledesign First off before you post learn english, passed? its past . Next what your saying is a total contradiction, who said anything about a hip drop and he can measure either, what are you trying to say? Are you a teenager who goes to some extreme hitting place?....Go swing down and hit grounders the the SS.
abfive 11 months ago
@abfive Nope, I wish I were a kid again but actually I'm a grown man in Florida watching my son in spring training. I assume you are an english professor. Not sure what "swing down" means either... The narrator said at 3:40 of this video "linear" hitters " of which he has "no video" move after heel drop up to two feet during the swing. All I am saying is I have never seen a "good hitter" hit that way. If i heard that wrong, sorry. My best wishes to your son.
timliddledesign 11 months ago
@timliddledesign You've completely misunderstood the narration. Go back and listen to it again. And A-Rod is NOT linear! If you ever saw the linear hitters of the '70s and '80s, you would know A-Rod is a textbook rotational hitter.
FastWalkToFresno 1 year ago
@FastWalkToFresno I did watch a bit in the 70s and 80s. We can find video of Ty Cobb hitting on youtube. For what it's worth, I played baseball in college. My bro. is a coach presently for the Minnesota Twins and I have a son just beginning his career in pro ball. My problem with the narration is about movement after heel drop & at the end. Head & hips continue after heel drop. I have not seen that and can't find any MLB hitters that hit with a soft front side consistently. Not even Cobb did.
timliddledesign 11 months ago
@timliddledesign 'Head & hips continue after heel drop" Thats not what he said, on heal drop the head does not move and the body revolves around the head...The hips needs to move as they come through and pull the upper body. EX. For a pitcher to throw with velocity he needs to keep his upper body (ball) back as his lower half pulls the top half through as applies for golf, tennis, hockey and other sports as it applies to hitting, the strongest muscles (legs/hips) whip the weakest (arm)
abfive 11 months ago
@timliddledesign – what abfive said. As I already posted, you *completely* misunderstood Jake Epstein's narration. Your brother being a pro coach doesn't have anything to do with whether or not you misunderstood what was said in the video, which you clearly did based on your comments.
FastWalkToFresno 11 months ago
One more comment: If you read Lau's "The Art of Hitting .300," he acknowledges the hips as the hitter's primary power source. But he also suggests ( this is from memory; don't have the book at hand) that hitters with "quick hips ( by which I assume he means rotational hitters, though this is debatable)" tend to open their hips too soon. So Lau told his charges to concentrate on the weight shift, assuming that rotation would then take care of itself --
stevevandien 1 year ago
Screw the "linear" or "rotational" hitting......"power V" is a negative movement in hitting.
kevwall44 1 year ago
Both approaches are valid. And with most good hitters, there's considerable overlap between them. Virtually every weight-shift hitter (who doesn't concentrate on bunts and infield hits) rotates, and virtually every rotational hitter has some weight shift. Some hitters profit more from one approach than the other. It's largely a matter of degree.
stevevandien 1 year ago
I can tell you that even the linear swing is closer to the rotaional swing that most think. I go back to Charlie Lau who was very much a linear instructor. If you freeze a guy like George Brett at contact, he will look pretty much the same as the vid you have of A-rod. The diff to me is the length of the linear shift is longer. But any player who continues the linear shift after the heel touch is generally in big trouble and susceptible to change of speed.
Shamrock3939 1 year ago
this is the best video i've looked at for understanding what rotational hitting really is. thank you.
chargersfan1463 1 year ago
No comments...?
Ichiro to me is a linear hitter the way he moves forward in his swing.
To me, Johny Damon hits with a linear style hitter as well.
socra66 1 year ago
Is Ichiro Suzuki a linear hitter?
Is Johny Damon a linear hitter?
socra66 1 year ago
Huh...? The hitter in this video has moved more than five or six inches pre-swing movement. I'd say the player moved forward about 12+ inches.
Take a look at the red dot on the belt buckle. From start to heal drop, the player has shifted forward so far, the red dot signifying the pre-swing starting point is behind the players back hip.
socra66 1 year ago
@socra66 Mark the front part of his foot (toes) with your mouse before the forward movement, note the foot is sideways. You will see by the end of the swing the pointer of your mouse would be at his heel. I'd say 6 inches is a good approximation.
zeninfinity 1 year ago
wow its so obvious this is the right way to hit... my dad got me going on the epstein stuff and it really works... i mean every single good hitter ALL of them are "epsteining" (the word me and my dad use when we see someone swinging right) so if you look at mantle and my favorite is barry bonds they hit the way mike says to hit... i mean the hitters who are really crushing the ball... completely destroying it and unloading on it... those guys 100% of them "epstein"you cannot do it any other way!
stopswingingdown 2 years ago 4
Geez, how long is it gonna take before the rest of the world gets the message that pros do not swing down on the ball.
One thing though, is that all the pros look like they actually are swinging down on the ball and it's something I wish I could do cause everytime I swing, my coaches almost instantly notice that I dip my shoulder.
Kamakazi242012 2 years ago 4
great video... FINALLY!, someone correctly analyzes A-rod's swing mechanics
LearnToTurn7 2 years ago
There are a lot of new "rotational hitting" gurus out there. As it says in the video, Mike Epstein coined the phrase "rotational hitting" decades ago after years of perfecting his own swing in the pros.
The Epstein method of TEACHING how to hit rotationally is unsurpassed. It's fairly easy to know a lot about a subject, but to teach it, is a far different matter.
Highly recommended!
These guys have it down to a science.
Keep the videos coming!
BaseballDadsGoneWild 2 years ago 8
If you are just starting to learn about the fundamental differences between linear and rotational hitting, look no further. Mike Epstein books and instructional program is second to none!!
Kalena499 2 years ago 12
Thank you for adding this video. Finally someone has described the fundamental differences between a rotational and linear swing.
Your website is great! Thanks again, you're the real deal!
zeninfinity 2 years ago 24
Comment removed
zeninfinity 2 years ago