Extension - Hitting in a big window

The most important component of extension is hitting in a big window. Mechanics are not the most difficult part of the swing; timing is the most difficult part. Therefore, one of the benefits of having good extension is keeping the bat in the hitting zone to maximize opportunities to intersect the baseball. Thus, hitters can afford slight timing errors and still make solid contact.

Those that are familiar with my teaching know that I am big into video analysis. Through my research of literally 1,000 big league swings on slo mo video, three stand out in my mind when I think of extension. I often ask this question to the kids I teach: What do Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, and Joe Mauer all have in common? The answer they start with is usually home run related. Though that answer is true, it's a by product of the answer that these guys hit with a high average every year. Those hitters will continue to do so because their bats are in the hitting zone as far or farther than any hitters that I've studied.

So what I jokingly tell hitters I'm working with that cut off extension is that for them to hit well, their timing has to be better than Albert Pujols' (which we know isn't going to happen) because their bat is hitting in a very small window. The bigger the window, the more of a chance for solid contact. The smaller the window, the likelihood of solid contact decreases unless the timing has to be nerarly perfect.