Swing Street

Rotational hitting…What is it?

My simple answer is that it is plainly the big league swing. Prior to 2000, no one even knew what rotational hitting was. Now there are experts on each street corner. The facts are that Mike Epstein in his diligent study of the art of hitting isolated the core movements of the game’s greatest hitters and specified their baseball swing mechanics in a term he coined Rotational Hitting.

You may call it what you want. Call it the rotational swing. Call it a hybrid swing. Call it weight shift hitting. There are numerous “names” now that other persons have come up with, but I call it the huge league swing. After all, that’s what it is. Rotational hitting as Mike Epstein specified it encompasses and engulfs ALL of those other names that galore are calling it. It IS the big league swing and that’s what Mike Epstein Hitting teaches.

The bottom line is that there are genuinely only TWO methods of hitting. A hitter is either Linear or he/she is Rotational with their swing mechanics. Now both proficiencies have elements of the other in them. Linear has some rotational and Rotational has a lot of linear. The fact that each has elements of the other makes all of the other “techniques” or actually names that persons are calling baseball swing mechanics merely beside the point and fictitious.

So let’s define the Rotational Swing and the Linear Swing.

A rotational hitter establishes a stationary axis with the dropping of the front heal and with the front leg and they rotate around that stationary axis. This hitters “stays back” with their upper body. The head and chest do NOT come forward. They a very steady and do not lunge forward in the direction of the pitcher. You will at times see this take place when a hitter is altogether slanged by a pitch and they break through their axis lunging forward in an awkward undertake to make contact. So the rotational hitter rotates around a stationary axis and stays back.

The linear hitter does not establish a stationary axis and they do not stay back. The linear hitter proceeds moving forward allround their swing in a straight forward(linear) motion finishing their swing out over the top of their front foot or even somewhat forward of it. The linear hitter quintessentially swings in a downhill plane while the rotational hitter is distinctively taught to swing on the plane of the pitch because those swing planes match each technique. A linear hitter attempting to swing on the pitch plane is very awkward and doesn’t work well with all of the moving elements of this technique. Likewise, the rotational hitter swinging on a downhill plane is likewise an awkward unproductive swing. Staying back and swinging down do not match.

So to summarize the two basic baseball swing mechanics…The rotational hitter stays back and the linear hitter comes forward. See it’s not as perplexed as a great deal of desire to make it out to be. And remember, Rotational Swing Mechanics are plainly the Big League Swing.

Swing Street Pic

Swing Street Pic

Swing Street Pic

Swing Street Photo

Most helpful client reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Big Fun
By Tom Johnson
One of the most fiendishly clever conception albums ever. At original Swing Street seems like a collection of Fifties inspired tunes, but listen again. From the opening track to the last it tells a story. The title track sets the story of an individual who has had a bad day and closes his eyes and goes to Swing Street…where everything becomes hunky dory. “Big Fun” the second track has Barry beginning his reverie in fantasy land, my favored song on the album. The firstborn half of the album, the swingin’ half finally gives way to the slower second half with splendid covers of “Summertime” (dripping with Southern sweat) and “Stardust Memories” before Swing Street ultimately fades to morning and a totally awake Barry sings “One More Time” to a lover. There’s been a lot written when it comes to the techo jazz sound of this album, but the music utterly fits the mood. I recognise Barry has tried to get his musical “Harmony” on Broadway for years. I saw the primary at the La Jolla Playhouse. Barry, Swing Street would make a outstanding musical.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
ANOTHER CLASSIC GEM FROM BARRY
By RLGMHAYES@AOL.COM
I LOVE THIS RECORDING. HIS RENDITION OF ‘STARDUST’ IS ONE OF THE BEST THAT I’VE EVER HEARD. “BROOKLYN BLUES” IS A CLASSIC AND FUN TO SING ALONG TO.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Good music
By A
I am not a fan of Barry Manilow by any means whatsoever,but I throughly enjoyed each song on this disc!When it comes to swing and jazz music,he made an splendid sounding type of collaboration any artisan ought to be proud of

See all 17 client reviews…