For Jake
Necessity truly is the mother of invention. In June of 2013, while coaching a 16U select team in Austin, Coach Long had a player named Jake, who was an excellent athlete. Jake was a talented athlete who could run, field, throw and even pitch. However, he struggled with hitting.
Jake’s main problem was disconnection. He was unable to “synch up” his body in a kinesthetic chain to achieve a faster bat speed and greater accuracy. Dr. Gary Long knew this was caused by the “slack” in Jake’s swing.
The Rope Bat™ Hitting System with Swing Trainer was born from Dr. Long’s idea that it was possible to correct, connect, and perfect any swing. At Jake’s next practice after learning the Rope Bat™ Hitting System and doing about ten swings with the Rope Bat™ Swing Trainer, he totally connected. He corrected the “slack” and now knew what a perfect swing should both look like and feel like. Better still, he could repeat it time and time again, easily moving from the Swing Trainer to his real bat.
Other players on the team began to use Dr. Long’s Rope Bat™ Hitting System with the unique Swing Trainer, and found they liked using it. It was not only fun, it soon became clear that it had several benefits. It helped make players keep their hands inside the ball; and to hit a ball well, or to “square it up”, players could not hitch, loop or cast.
Coach Thomas Buys 1st Rope Bat System
When R. J. Thomas, Head Baseball Coach at Southwestern University, saw players using the Rope Bat™ Hitting System to perfect their swing, he bought the System with four Rope Bat™ Swing Trainers for his players.
Jake’s Success
We have one last part to our early Rope Bat™ story. Jake, the inspiration for the Rope Bat™ Hitting System, attended college on a baseball scholarship. Coach Long and his parents are very proud to have been there to help make that happen.