April 17, 2013
By Mike Esse, GoPSUSports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - If you don't know who the "Batting Stance Guy" is, I would go check out his impersonations on YouTube and see the multitude of stances he can impersonate.
To a smaller and more serious extent, Penn State sophomore outfielder Aaron Novak channeled his inner batting stance guy and made a change to his stance after he started off the season a bit slow offensively.
It was March 28, the day before a three-game series with Purdue series, and head coach Robbie Wine suggested Novak to tweak his stance. Novak had the whole weekend to work it, as he didn't record an at-bat in the series against the Boilermakers.
First, he needed to find something that would allow him to relax at the plate.
"I just found a stance that was more comfortable that allowed me to be more relaxed at the plate," said Novak. "It is helping me see pitches a lot better, recognize pitches a lot better and everything I am doing is just a lot more natural than it was."
Novak then played with his stance in the batting cage for a few days, looked at some major league stances including former Seattle Mariners outfielder Jay Buhner and went back to the cage and tried them out.
A few days later, he found something fixable within his stance. He decided to open it up, rather than being straight in line with the pitcher. The change was made because Novak realized he would start straight up and then finished closed, which caused him to reach at pitches and not have full power behind him.
"With this new stance, once I get into my stride toward the pitcher, I am straight up and not closed anymore so I find my hips to be open and free and I am more controlled at the plate," he said.
In return, Novak's new stance has paid dividends.
After not starting five consecutive games, Novak had time to reconstruct his stance and carried a six game hitting streak in the midweek tilt with Bucknell. He is hitting .381 with eight hits and three RBIs during that stretch.
Wine acknowledged Novak's hard work to fix his stance after Penn State's 3-2 win over Kent State, where Novak was in the beginning of his current offensive turnaround.
"He's been working at it and sticking with [his stance]," said Wine. "He's sticking with it and it's coming along. It's going to get better and there's more for him in there, too."
Now, hitting streak or no hitting streak, Novak just wants to continue to gain comfort with his new stance and continue to swing at better pitches.
With four games in the next five days for Penn State his mission at the plate is simple.
"I'm just taking it at-bat by at-bat and trying to get more comfortable with my new stance and my new swing," said Novak. "I'm just trying to have quality at-bats every time I get up there."
Novak doesn't plan on channeling his inner batting stance guy again any time soon, either.
--NITTANY LIONS--/center>