"This one simple little tool will correct and do more to make you a better hitter than any one piece of equipment on the market today."

--John Jaha, All-Star Designated Hitter for the Oakland A's

Insights from the Inventor

Believe it or not, being successful at hitting will depend on how good your form is in the lower body. Whenever I hear or watch a coach working with his batters, and talking to them about their hitting problems, it usually is about the form from the upper body. The eyes, hands, and elbows. But this does no good when the lower part of the body is not set and in the proper position. Most coaches fail to study the lower body, so they can't correct the problems.

When you look at great hitters such as Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Innovative Sport's own John Jaha, you will notice that the front foot is closed when they make contact with the ball. The toe is still turned in. This enables the shoulder and hips to remain closed, the hands are able to stay back in the power slot, the head and eyes stay level and focused, only exploding on the swinging of the bat.

Try it yourself. Get in your hitting stance, without taking a swing turn your front toe towards the pitcher. Notice what happened to your upper body? It turned open, the shoulder, hips, head. Now when you swing, the hands come late and cast away from the body. It didn't matter what the coach told you about your elbow, or keeping your eyes on the ball. You could not hit the ball because the lower body is out of form, causing your upper body to be out of form for the pitch.

Now get in your stance and take your timing step with the toe closed. See how your hip stays closed, shoulder stays closed, hands stay back in the power slot, and your head and eyes stay level. As you get older and start seeing breaking balls and off speed pitches, you will be able to keep in proper form to hit the pitch.

The other thing Perfect Stride accomplishes is that it forces you to place the foot right back down, this creates muscle memory, while teaching you not to step out on pitches or to take that long stride.

All of these things I have just talked about are achievable by using The Perfect Stride. The sooner you learn to perfect the lower body's form the sooner you will be successful at becoming a better and more consistent hitter.

Good Luck to all of you and enjoy good Baseball and Softball.