Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Mar 5 00:08:06 2003

>>> The closed stance may limit her hip rotation towards the pitcher and cause her to reach maximum bat speed early in the hitting zone and her shoulders may pass her hips in rotation before the ball arrives. As a result of reaching this point early in the hitting zone (potentially getting full extension of her arms too early, as well), your daughter will be forced by her body to roll her wrists during contact to aid in the movement of the bat. In addition to this her hips/belly button will be pointing to the 1st base side of the pitcher (if she is right handed). Many things can now happen at this point, none of which are good, unless she waits on the pitch to reach her.

In our data, if the hips are too closed, the hitters typically turns into an upper body hitter at the most important part of the swing (CONTACT). Unless your daughter patiently waits for the ball to get deep into the hitting zone treating it like an outside pitch (crossing the plate at contact) and takes the pitch the other way, she will roll her wrist through contact to try to keep the bat moving, and typically will either top the ball or miss it completely on a sinking pitch. She may get lucky on a rise ball and catch it square, but duplicating the result will be a challenge.

If she has good vision and is competing against subpar pitching, she can get away with peaking early. If she has poor timing, her favored stance could be beneficial to her as she will be decelerating at contact and may still hit the ball solidly on occassion. But against good pitching and good coaching, she'll see nothing but inside pitches because she will potentially end up behing in the count because the first two she swings at will likely be pulled foul or hit softly at the corner.

In the long term, physically, this closed stance (in a true closed stance) will cause repeated stress to her lower back and front hip or knee, increasing her risk of injury.

I would suggest a what Jack has found to be the ideal stance and ask her to be patient and wait for the ball to get to her. If she is unsuccessful it may have more to do with timing, than a closed stance.

I recently analyzed a MLB player who had just the opposite problem, his hips and shoulders caught up at about 95 degrees or rotation. I told him, he would have trouble hitting the outside pitch, and the manager and hitting coach of the team said in amazement, "that's why he struggles with the outside pitch." I instructed him on how to make the adjsutment and he immediately felt more balanced and more controlled in his swing.

I hope this is helpful to you and others who share this problem.

Thank you and have a positive day! <<<

Hi Zig

That was a good analysis of some of the problems with a closed stance. -- Would you expand on a couple of your points. You stated, “her shoulders may pass her hips in rotation before the ball arrives.” -- What do you think the optimum hip to shoulder relationship should be - at and just before contact?

“I recently analyzed a MLB player who had just the opposite problem, his hips and shoulders caught up at about 95 degrees or rotation. I told him, he would have trouble hitting the outside pitch,”. -- Would you advocate the same hip and shoulder displacement for inside and outside pitches?

Jack Mankin