[bambam]

Well, I was a switter with a tendency towards swinging (from playing baseball and hockey), but I had a lot of hit in my swing. Between my natural tendency towards a crossline hip slide and a problem with losing pp#4 too early, I was compensating with a simultaneous release and some hitter's, right-arm thrust through impact to make decent contact.

My main work has been focused on the 3 imparitives and 3 essentials, but I've been swinging while doing this. I mix in some hitting work because a) I want to learn to hit, b) working on both helps me identify and seperate the two distinct feels, and c) most importantly it forces me to really think about what I'm doing as I practice.

Swinging is coming around nicely; currently focusing on extensor action and tracing the plane line. The hardest things for me have been quieting my lower body, keeping #4 loaded deeper into the swing, and trusting CF and the later swinger's sequenced release.

As far as hitting, the areas I've had the most problems with are:

1) Ironically the crossline hip slide. It's natural for me, but I worked hard to get rid of it for swinging. My balance is improving though, and I was able to switch back and forth today.

2) Hitting the ball with pp#1 and the same issues you mentioned w/ reliance on pp#4.

couldn't hit at all until I experimented with starting from fix.

I've only tried the swingers start down move a few times, and while it can generate some serious power, I need to get a handle on the 3 barrel stroke first