SMALL BALL SUCCESS

The site for short players with a tall desire to be competitive–with a few Old School tweaks–on today’s diamond.

Technology always has unforeseen consequences. The metal bat saved school athletic departments bundles of dollars once spent on replacing shattered lumber; but the ability of the stick to develop a sledgehammer barrel, with just a short, skimpy handle directing its assault, utterly revolutionized hitting technique. For reasons that we discuss under Hitting, the stylistic shift left players of lesser stature… well, holding the short end of the stick.

Then there’s pitching, which has always been considered a tall guy’s gig. Short fellows have no business on the mound, we hear. A huge stride gives Long John a shorter distance to hurl, even if he has mediocre velocity; but the physical fact that the ball is farther from the center of rotation as he throws means that his velocity, most likely, is also pretty good, even with lousy technique. For this job, shorter candidates need not apply.

Or so the conventional wisdom has it. On this site, we beg to differ. Our focus is more on hitting, where numerous strategies have been suggested to us by researching the practices of Deadball Era batsmen (from the first two decades of the 1900’s). Yet we have one or two ideas (based entirely upon experience) for the mound, as well.

Other online coaches offer you the “one and only” way to swing a bat successively; we promote a low line-drive technique ideal for some hitters. The other coaches stress that everybody’s climbing aboard their Fantasmo Gamma Ray Hitting System; we to ask in our introductory video, “If everybody is getting the same headstart, then won’t all headstarts cancel out—and won’t the race once again go to the tall guy with the long legs?”

From Wee Willie Keller to Jose Altuve, shorter-than-average players have proved that they can post bigger-than-average numbers. Knowing one’s craft, however, is required. A Goliath can take out ten guys in the enemy battle line just by falling over: a David has to learn the fine art of the slingshot.

Our latest videos attempt 1) to explain some critical elements in the reconstruction of 1890s swing that carried into the new century, and 2) to demonstrate how those elements can combine to produce low line-drives off of 90+ mph fastballs. One recent video explores how Cobb, Clarke, Roush, and others might fairly have made the incredible claim that they stepped where they saw the pitch coming: The “Microload” That Allows Foot and Hands to Descend Together. Of the very latest videos, the first both reviews progress we have made in analyzing the Deadball Era and also outlines forthcoming experiments in using Tris Speaker’s techniques on today’s bullet-velocity fastball; the second and the third apply these techniques in a demonstration. Finally, check out the result of our latest experiments in pitching–an innovative approach to the forward leg’s pump before the thrust off the rubber: Shorter Pitchers: Find Good Velocity Throwing Sidearm (Part I) and a live demo in Shorter Pitchers: Find Good Velocity Throwing Sidearm (Part II). And see what you think of the controversial idea in Pitching From Multiple Arm Angles.

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Old-School Hitting from the Hands Down

Giant Pitching Success from a Short, Broad Frame