On path and On plane. Pretty simple

Give yourself five points if you have ever heard of William of Ockham, the English philosopher and theologian born in the 13th century.  Give yourself another 5 points if you know what “Ockham’s razor” (more often spelled Occam’s razor)  means.  Have any points yet?

Occam’s razor is a philosophical principle traced to William of Ockham that has been used in a variety of situations and industries.  There are several interpretations of Occam’s razor but most follow this principle –  “when faced with a problem, the simplest solution usually works out the best.”

Unfortunately, hitting coaches and instructors seem to avoid this basic principle more and more each year.  Go to a hitting clinic and you will hear all kinds of complicated jargon that usually does more to confuse the people in the audience than to solve their problems.

Hitting is not too complicated when you get right down to it.  Every hitter in the world will hit a baseball if they do the following two things with the barrel of their bat:

1. Match the path of the ball.
2. Match the plane of the ball.

Do those two things and you will hit the ball almost every time.  Add proper timing and you will hit it every single time.  Add aggressiveness & bat speed to proper timing and you will hit it very well. 

Every. Single. Time.

Matching the path of the ball means this …

Matching the plane of the ball means this …

 

Do both and you will hit.

Occam’s razor is philosophy.  It’s not rocket science.

Neither is hitting.

Monday’s video post:  How to know when the offensive team is stealing your pitches