Yes “exploding at the hips” (popular term used by coaches, not strength coaches) is correct to a certain extenet but I feel that the intial push/power has to come off of the back leg/heel. How would you train for this then coach this?
I’m thinking alot of single leg work but also one foot plyos?
IMO most power comes form the opening of the hips and what the back foot does is a result of the hips/torso turning open. if you look at a lot of piictures, hitters when hitting home runs have their back foot completely airborne. however, to think they are jumping off that back foot would be ludacris. i feel the best way to learn about baseball mechanics is setpro.com or their free formums on hitting-mechanics.org
I feel you but the back leg is activated first if that is weak the hitter is not going to be able to get the push necessary to open up the hips
Torque is the key to power and it is initiated with the dropping of the front heel. The back heel lift is a result of the torque created by the dissociation of the upper and lower body. The front heel is the trigger, not the rear foot.
You are correct in that if the back leg is weak the swing will suffer.
nap, it is interesting that you have mentioned that torque is initiated by contact of the left heel (implying RHB?). I’ve been coaching hitting for some time now and was pretty good at it myself, yet never considered that. I have always broken it down into “trigger, stride, swing”. Trigger is a slight motion back with the hands and loading of the weight onto the back leg, stride is striding and planting the front foot with the hands remaining back, and weight remaining loaded on the back foot but shifting slightly forward as a result of the front leg stride, and the swing is the initiation of torque, and following of the hands through the strike zone. Cool though that I learned a new distinction today!!
As far as the back foot goes, with our younger kids in clinics we describe this action as “squshing the bug”. It should be the same rotation on the ball of the foot. I’ve had several very good coaches compare hitting a ball to the throwing events, and there are some strong similarities. Rotation of and drive off the back foot, pop of the hips, blocking on the left leg (RHBatter), force transfer through the core, etc. I think the lifting of the back foot is more a result of too early a weight transfer and being a bit ahead of the ball as opposed to an intended technique. A spacial misjudgement may also be the culprit and the lifting may help to maintain mechanics while trying to get the “sweet spot” on the ball. Fortunately in hitting, the hands can compensate for such misjudgements and still get into great force producing position if caught on time, hence the term “sitting on an offspeed pitch”. This basically describes the lower body getting into position too quickly so the upper body waits to expend the stored energy in the torso for a split second longer. The power output is not optimal but can remain respectable.
Hi Boon,
The skill of hitting is probably the least defined movement in sports due to the complexity and esoteric nature of the sport. This is also compounded by the fact that professional hitters and television make hitting look so easy.
The history and evolution of the game have also played and integral part in the development of offensive techniques. Early equipment (baseball) was the size of a softball and hand wound, large (higher air resistance) and soft (absorb energy from bat), thus the need to push and place the ball, not to mention large ball fields, and underhand to slow overhand velocity pitching. Imagine playing slowpitch baseball in a major league ball park, not alot of extra base hits. The game becomes more organized and ideas and technology evolve. Overhand pitching, and tighter wound balls. Two schools of hitting evolved, Weight shift vs. Rotation. The desciples of both schools have had great success making the argument for both styles.
I myself have been in both schools and have recognized the superiority of the rotational school. Those people who try to negate the importance of the technical components of hitting, are still searching for the secret!
People can not understand why Southern California produces such outstanding hitters, or why these desciples are so sought after in college and professional baseball? It is because they are so well versed in the technical aspect of the ‘art of hitting.’
The reason for much of the confusion in instruction of hitting technique is the speed of which the key elements occure, even in slow motion we can be decieved.
Biomechanics are not about making things happen, but allowing and understanding why things happen!!!
When you begin to place hitters is good starting poisitions, proper sequences can be trigger and greater summation of forces can be reached. Combine technique with a powerfull athlete and you have dynamite!!
In baseball (hitting), time and perception are the problem, so what is the solution?
Giving hitters an image(clearer perception), and more time(the ability to stay back and see the ball longer). This is my argument for rotational hitting.
NapI have studied with for years on both sites,some of these ideas with Paul were from nearly a decade ago.Our ideas have been that the swing starts in the middle,meaning that initial trigger has to come from the large powerful hips that lead the swing and the heel drop is a result of the hip action just like the rear knee down and in is a result of the rear hip drive forward and the rear heel coming up as well.This idea We use to talk about it being a top down system that works from the ground up,and that can be thought of different ways but the feet are the platform against the ground to allow hips work against to create that torque,the 2 sites mentioned have been cutting edge in my opinion,many from the 2nd one are those who got tired of Pauls social skills.
bigpump23,there are different theories on this back leg front leg butif you focus on back side push too much you will get lungers with their head moving forward out of balance,lead hip initiation as a trigger with back hip drive creates balance50/50 .Balance is key in hitting ,weight transfer against the front side without allowing upperbody to shift forward allows for great rotation.
Hi rql,
Where are you from?
Do you train athletes now?
Your points were excellent, I think the most difficult problem with teaching the skill is communicating the action!! It is difficult to explain such a complicated task.
Many interesting ideas worth exploring, and not enough people willing to venture out of what they think they know as the ‘truth’.
It has been a while since this thread has been active, lets keep it going?
yes trying to get the picture you see in your mind as the task is often hard to get materialized in others.Many never will have the ability to see what we see.I cannot see the game of football open up as say a great quarterback,and others cannot see the swing as I have found it from so many years looking at it from different angles.I was watching a hs kid just smoking the ball in bp far more than all others and the coach said he sure has quick hands and I told him to watch the shoulder rotation compared to the others and the back shoulder drive thru last half of swing releasing barrel and he said what does that matter,go figure,I am just glad to see and here some buzz words starting to float around on ML hitters comments and commentators using torque and rotation now after I was preaching it on death ears 8 years ago.The problem with commentators is they have just heard words or phrases and use them out of context at times on TV.