Luis Ortiz Books and Videos

[BallCoach06]

Has anyone viewed the Natural Hitters book and videos by Luis Ortiz? Looks like he has quite a bit of stuff out there, but wasn't sure about the substance. Thanks.

[Jake Patterson]

Has anyone viewed the Natural Hitters book and videos by Luis Ortiz? Looks like he has quite a bit of stuff out there, but wasn't sure about the substance. Thanks.

No .........

[Ursa Major]

For someone who didn't go very far, he sure has turned himself into an industry with his books and videos. It's hard to find out anything about them; the book you referred to received only one customer review in Amazon. (By not very far, I mean that he had 145 at-bats in the big leagues, with a .228 BA, a .256 OBP, and 7 walks and 26 strikeouts.)

His book's description makes it sound as though it's pretty "old school", where it says, "reviews the basic fundamentals involved in hitting the ball effectively and sets forth the seven key parts of a hitter’s stride. Among the topics covered in the video are: the six keys of hitting, the seven swing phases, bat considerations, bat guidelines, grip guidelines, stance guidelines, the coil, the seven parts of the stride, stride guidelines and the launching position."

It's hard to criticize someone's approach sight unseen, but anyone who focuses so readily on "the seven key parts of a hitter’s stride" and "stride guidelines" seems to be, shall we say, misdirected? And, I'd worry about someone who uses this illustration on the cover of his book as a presumed demonstration of a good approach:
http://img.shopping.com/cctool/PrdImg/images/pr/177X150/00/77/72/aa/1e/2004003358.JPG

But, who knows, he may have all the answers. But, since it's hard to find out anything more about him (his web site doesn't even have an excerpt from the book), I wouldn't spend the money yet.

[Jake Patterson]

Of those 145 AB's 108 were in 1995 for the Rangers where he only hit .231. He finished his Major League career when he was only 26 so I am not sure what it is he has to say.

[Ursa Major]

Well, I don't want to be too snobbish about major league experience, since a certain guru never made it all the way there and Ortiz had more big league plate appearances than HG, and I've seen the video proof that both of them are knowledgeable and terrific communicators about hitting mechanics. Without that proof and the testimonials of others, I'd have been leary of listening to either of them either. My point was that Ortiz seems to have a bunch of books and videos out on the market without seeming to have established a market presence for the first one. You know, like, well... they had to make sure that they had quality product with the first Police Academy movie before ramping up nos. 2 through 5 in the series. ;)

[Jake Patterson]

Well, I don't want to be too snobbish about major league experience, since a certain guru never made it all the way there....

The ease in which we can now publish training materials makes it difficult to find materials that fit our individual need without testimonials and information previews.

Credentials also become more important as the proliferation continues. Although, looking at some of the better materials I have I find they are authored by college coaches and clinicians who never played the Majors....
So I guess we are loeft with ... do your homework - or take a chance.