One swing does not fit all
Chris Wright
mysportsguru.com
Unfortunately, we all can't swing like Junior.
Pssst! Hey you, with “The Art of Hitting .300” book in your hand. Step closer. Vernon Wells, who batted .337 during the 1999 season before earning a big league promotion, is about to divulge his secret to hitting.
Working title: “Different Strokes for Different Folks.’’
Disappointed? What do you expect? It works for him.
“Everybody has a different swing,” says the top prospect in the Blue Jays organization. “Everybody.”
Oh well, so much for that one-swing-fits-all theory that flourished in the late ’80s under renowned hitting coach Charlie Lau.
Ken Bolek, director of The Baseball Academy in Bradenton, Fla., watches the game’s best prospects take batting practice every day for the two months leading up to spring training. He learns their tendencies and weaknesses. Bolek has his own thoughts on what constitutes a fundamental swing and offers advice and tips based on the individual player’s strengths.
He understands that what works for Pat Burrell might not work for Wells. He likes to joke about the time a coach asked him whether he tried to teach every player who trained at the Academy the same swing. (Hint: If he did, there would be a lot more players tapping their toes in the dirt and adjusting every part of their uniform before each pitch, just like the Academy’s most famous alum, Nomar Garciaparra.)
“That’s absolutely what we do not do,” Bolek says, smiling.
The reason? "It doesn’t work. If it did, everybody would swing like Ken Griffey Jr.," says Orioles second baseman Jerry Hairston, who trains at the Academy.
“It’d be nice to hit the ball like Griffey, but I can’t. You look at other players and you model yourself after them, not necessarily their swing, but their approach.”
Hairston, a third-generation major-leaguer, said he has maintained the family’s basic hitting fundamentals, including their approach of staying back and driving the ball to the opposite field. But his actual swing isn’t a mirror image of his father’s.
In fact, teammates at the Academy say it reminds them more of Derek Jeter.
“I started thinking about it in high school,” Hairston says. “Before that, I just played. But in high school I started to get serious and had to learn how to incorporate my approach into the game.
“When you get to the big leagues, the hitting coach’s job is to see the type of style you have and take your approach and just tweak it. ‘Maybe when you were going well, your hands were a little higher. Now your hands are lower and you’re struggling.’ He’s able to pinpoint what’s wrong because at this level, no drastic changes should be necessary. You’re here for a reason. You just have to trust your swing.”
Because when it’s you in the batter’s box, Griffey’s swing won’t help.
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