Hitting the outside pitch?

No.

No,

You should only need to rotate less, extend the arms more and hit the ball deeper in the zone.

Sorry to disagree with SBK, but you dont' rotate less or extend your arms more. You swing the same. You do let the ball get slightly deeper to properly hit the other way. Hitters can't change their swing mechanics depending on pitch location and expect to be successful. Success in hitting comes in part from developing a successful swing and becoming very consistent with it. Successful players do need to make adjustments all the time, but you don't do it in 100th's of a second while a fastball is coming toward the hitting zone. Those adjustments don't involve changing your swing mechanics from pitch to pitch, either. They make those adjustments between plate appearances, and between pitches, not during the pitches.

I have heard coaches teach this. Replace heel to toe on the front foot when hitting the outside pitch. It just doesnt work that way. Especially when facing quality pitchers that have velocity. Recognizing the outside pitch and waiting for it to get deep in the zone is the answer. You have to be patient and be committed to hitting the ball the other way. Too many guys want to pull everything and are looking to jerk the ball regardless of where it is pitched. Alot of younger kids get away with this because they are strong for their age and the pitching is weak. When you get older and the pitchers can bring it you will have alot of failure with this approach. Let the ball get deep. In bp work on hitting the ball to all fields depending on where it is pitched. Tell the coach or whoever is pitching to you to work you away and down the middle. Try to hit the L with the pitches down the middle if you pull it even for a HR you should be disapointed. Hit the outside pitch to the right side if you pull a seed that is failure. Because that bp seed will be a pop up or a weak 6-3 in a game. Let the ball get deep and drive it backside. Do not step towards the pitch in bp because you wont in a game.

I agree with catcherdad

I'm not an expert, but I think the swing and stride are the same, it is simply a matter of letting the ball travel deeper.

In a proper stance, the bat will cover the entire plate, so there is no need to stride to the ball in order to hit an outside pitch (unless you want to swing at something way off the plate, which I would wonder about.)

Perhaps a couple of you guys are using or instructing a different hitting style than I do or there wouldn’t be much disagreement with my basic observations.

Let me try again to answer Hotcorner’s question. Pretty much without exception, the top professional hitters do not adjust their stride based on the location of the pitch if for no other reason, there is simply not enough time to do so even if they wanted to.

However, there are adjustments that are made such as less rotation, arms extending and allowing the ball to go deeper in the zone.

The less rotation should be pretty easily understood as it is a result of hitting the ball deeper in the zone. (Stand up and try it) Unless a hitter already has the bad habit of casting or barring their arms on all pitches, they will need to extend them to hit outside ones.

Here is a link to where this is explained much better by hitting guru Jack Mankin than I could post here. http://www.batspeed.com/tf02.html

For those who don’t want to take the time, here are a couple of excerpts from the article.

"But, if on the other hand, there is much less rotation, say the chest and bellybutton are more facing the second baseman, then the back arm will need to be extended further. Therefore, the only time the back arm of a great hitter will near full extension at contact is when he is fooled by the pitch and just waves at the ball or is swinging at a ball on outside part of the plate.
To reach outside pitches, the rotation of the shoulders must slow to allow the lead arm to cast out farther to get the meat of the bat on the ball. This will also cause the back arm to be more extended at contact. On pitches from the middle-in portion of the plate the back arm will NOT be even close to full extensions".

The good hitters wait on it an then drive it right field.

The bad hitters try to pull it

It also doesnt hurt to step a bit toward the opposite field as you swing--- then you are driving the pitch to the field you desire-- the opposite field

thanks for all of the input. i guess my question
is answered. a few variations but all say no to
stepping to the ball.

hot-

Some "theoretical speculation" :

With regard to swing mechanics,I would say first of all,is a power swing required or does the situation demand a placement swing ?

I like Epstein's overall approach myself for power hitting and for how to shorten up (still hit hard/don't change essence of swing mechanics) for more plate coverage/less power as for 2 strikes.

This is a little different from the options for the hitting outside situation.In any case you need a plan.

Hit and run may mean you have to poke the ball to right (assume righty hitter).In this case an "inside out" keep hands ahead of the bathead placement swing may be indicated.These are very different mechanics from power or shortened up/"2 strike" hitting.

If you want to hit for power,but improve the odds of hitting ball to oppo field or hitting a fly,then above all you have to "know yourself" and what the results are likely to be depending on what pitch you look for and how/where you are likely to hit it.Anticipate a pitch that you can do this with/"get a good pitch to hit".If you just want to be able to hit outside when you are looking there and don't care where it goes,that is a more basic mechanical adjustment/learning issue.

In general,the type of power "rotational" mechanics optimized for quickness (not a placement swing,not optimizing for max batspeed) is much like SBK describes.The body separates/coils some before committing to the swing.For outside.There is longer swing radius and probably more separation/coil before this triggering/commitment/point of no return happens.This means there is more "extension" of the bathead (while swing radius is longer than for inside,it still needs to be "SET" before the bathead "launches") than for inside.This more extended bathead means the body has to work more to accelerate a higher "load"/further out bathead.This means the hips turn open less to contact and more separation is created before the uncoiling that accelerates the bathead rapidly begins.

"Seeing" this is very subjective when trying to use the naked eye even supported by slowmo video.Motionanalysis (computer aided video using reflective markers on hip,shoulder,lead hand and bathead as per skilltechnologies.com,for example) may be of some help aggregating data here,although even this has lots of room for error/assumptions,etc.)Here is a link to a description of their data which supports less hip turn/more separation for outside.Hypothesizing the relation of the longer swing radius as an essential part of this comes from Mankin's theory at batspeed.com.See what you think.

http://www.batspeed.com/messageboard/10533.html

If you swung according to this quick rotational power theory,however,you might hit the outside ball more to power ally or up the middle WITHOUT degrading mechanics by "hitting around the ball",but that is another discussion which differs from Epstein's "theory" ("pinball"/let it get deep oversimplification).

Know yourself.Have a plan.If your skillset means your options are limited,focus practice on giving yourself more options/tools and knowing yourself better.

hot-

part 2 the age old step to the ball question.

In general if you use the quick rotational mechanics with hank aaron as a prime example,the front foot will come down more square and closed for outside and more open and even toward bucket for inside.

A player could even have this image in mind when envisioning the pitch/swing he is planning for/anticipating.

Bonds says among other things he rarely misses the same pitch twice when he looks for it because he knows where his body needs to be when.This foot position may be part of the overall image.

However,the foot position is a result or reaction of other things that have to take place well earlier,so you can't wait and see where the pitch is going and then consciously think about where to put the foot.As Williams,among others said,"It's impossible." The things that result in foot position must be committed to much earlier in the swing.

Here is a pretty good picture of Aaron inside/out to give an idea.He had such a short quick powerful stroke that the dynamics of his body motion created a substantial difference in front foot position as compared to a player with a longer stroke who might focus on getting the front foot down in the same place before coiling as some practice (lau type for example):

http://www.beabetterhitter.com/text/batspeed/coiling/coiling.htm

While the video demonstrates the different placement,I would not personally agree with the author's explanation/recommendation.

Again,see what you think.

"You should only need to rotate less, extend the arms more and hit the ball deeper in the zone"

SBK had it right......This is exactly what MLB hitters do.......

Just letting the ball get deeper is not enough.......

Are we selling (shilling) a program here ???--

Are you?????