I was sent an email the other day by a coach that works with me, and he was asking about Jeter. Apparently, one of his parents considers Jeter a "linear" hitter and was asking what I thought about that comment. Well, let me tell you. I have studied Jeter's swing a great deal and as far as I am concerned there is nothing linear about his swing at all. Unless, of course, you consider weight transfer or the forward motion into heel drop a linear move - which I don't - therefore, nothing linear about it.
First of all , I define linear as a downward motion to the ball- knob leads the way- hands are thrown at the ball- and a slicing top spin type of hit is considered optimal. The problem, I think, is that just because the ball is hit on the ground a coach/parent or player assumes he is swinging down and using linear mechanics, that simply is not the case. What is the case, especially with Jeter, is that he doesn't use a top hand release and he ends up rolling through more pitches when his timing is just a bit off. The result is a hard grounder. When his timing is on he sends it over the fence. The top hand release and players that use the top hand release tend to keep the bat head in the pitch plane longer and will result in a different type of hit. With Jeter, and other players that don't use a top hand release, they simply have a shorter finish, and when your finish is short the odds of the bat changing planes and rolling through the ball will increase, along with your ground balls. Also, another obvious and less technical explanation of a grounder being hit is the simple fact that leveling was slightly off and the bat wasn't clean behind the ball. 
Take a closer look and see for yourself, Jeter has great weight transfer, hits off his front-side, he leads with the hips, levels (gets behind the ball and swing is moving upwards, Ideal Impact with Hitters Box Intact, and has a short finish. Nothing linear about his swing from my perspective.For More Information visit us at http://www.backbackback.com/
