Posted by: Rick Lingsch (rlingsch@eapps.com) on Sat Feb 15 13:20:15 2003

O'Really, you have a lot to say.
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> > > > I'd like to make a couple of objective observations on this particular clip. One point does not make a line, so I draw no conclusions about Mac's hitting before or after this clip.
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> > > > 1) I see Mac's back knee turn in toward the pitcher prior to any hip or torso rotation, as noted by Mr. Ziegler. It also appears to me that the hips are turning pretty much in conjunction with the torso. For my hitters, I would like to see the hips to turn earlier than what we see here in Mac's swing.
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> > > > 2) I see Mac's front toes come off the ground very high at the end of the swing. This looks unusual to me and I would not want to see this in my hitters.
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> > > > As Epstein says, the perfect swing is the swing you take to hit the pitch you get. I have no idea if McGuire hit like this all the time or if it represents what a superior athlete needed to do to hit a MLB pitcher's pitch in this specific instance. Nevertheless, I doubt very much if this particular swing is optimal from a human kinetics perspective. I also suspect that McGuire has had many swings that were better than this one.
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> > > I see at least two frames of hips opening before the torso turns. If you have quicktime you should be able to see it in frame by frame viewing.
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> > > > O'Really, can you identify yourself please?
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> > Yes, I have looked at it in QuickTime. I teach my hitters to open more. I would not use this clip as an example of how it is done.
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> How many frames of opening should there be?

You can't analyze the swing at that level of granularity using video. If you go to Mr. Ziegler's company's web site (www.skilltechnologies.com) and download the 3D viewer you can make some conclusions (based on limited data). Here is a rough sketch based on data from a pretty good swing:

The hips and torso are negative (i.e. rotated back) at the initiation of the swing. At about 12 hundredths of a second into the swing the hips go positive (i.e. begin turning toward the pitcher). The torso is about 15 degrees negative at this time. In another 5 hundredths the upper torso begins to go positive (hips are about 22 degrees positive at this time). In about another 8 hundredths the upper torso catches up to the hips (both about 55 degrees positive). In another 5 hundredths, contact is made, at which time the torso has passed the hips by about 10 degrees (80 to 70). This is based on one sample, and is not necessarily optimal. However, it is pretty close.