That was a great article (Williams, Mattingly and Boggs) thanks for the link. It just reinforces in my mind that many times, even the great hitters, don't truly know how they do it, they JUST do it.
I do know that there are plenty of coaches / academies out there teaching to SWING DOWN on the ball. And alot of 'em are getting big money to do it. It's frustrating as coach. Case in point:
I coached a kid a few years ago. The kid is a man-child. Towers above everyone his own age, cat like reflexes, speed, just a PURE natural athlete.
I worked with him using his body to generate power / bat speed and with his already over-abundance of natural ability, he was flat CRUSHING the ball. coaches regularly walked him a couple of times a game.
Fast forward..he's 12 now. He's STILL growing. Still an unbelieveable athlete. However he's playing for an Academy team. The coach there is a young guy who played some college ball and coached as an asst at a college.
He's a big believer in "hands to the ball"...
I saw the difference in this kid's swing (really the whole team)...we pitched him inside and he never managed more than a couple of hard ground balls. This guy is teaching him to extend his arms before contact, and use his HAND as the primary way to hit the baseball.
you get it out over the plate...he'll hurt it. You tie him up, he can't get the bat head on it.
We were playing his team, and I overheard the Coach, tell his pitchers to "tie us up inside" right before the game started.
We had several line shots into LF and LC that inning. All on inside fastballs.
My #4 guy came up. First pitch, inside FB..he hits it about 250ft foul to LF. Next pitch, same thing, except a bit further. The next pitch was inside, but down below the knees. He hit this one over the LF fence....
I heard the pitcher tell his Coach "All of 'em were inside Coach".
Long winded sure...
But the point is this...in my lowly opinion.
If a hitter has problems driving inside pitches HARD, then more than likely he's not using his core, keeping the back elbow close to the body, to generate power / bat speed.
I see it everyday. I see kids that are GOOD athletes, who are several years older and much bigger than some of my 12U guys, and the 12U guys will hit the ball harder and farther than the older guys.
It's not about size and strength. It's about using the core to generate the power / speed to hit the ball..meeting the ball on an upward plane, and hitting the ball in the air.
Again, just my 2 cents.