Posted by: 55 () on Thu Mar 6 20:44:21 2003

First off let me say WOW what an awesome place to learn about the mechanics of the swing.The pro and con ideas here are debated by folks with much wisdom.

I too have watched countless hours of hitting film, however, it has been of the slow pitch swing.

While watching a tape of the great Wendell Rickard (slo mo) I noticed that on many of his bombs(shots over 450 ft) his back foot was completely off of the ground at the moment of impact.I (being the great scientist that I am) deducted that if his weight was completely off of his back foot than it must be completely on his front foot.At this moment I thought I had figured out finally what pivoting around one's front foot mean't.

So I tried it... I concentrated on shifting my weight from my back side(foot) to my front side(foot) and then swung the bat.WHAT AN UGLY MESS.

So I watched the tape again and again and finally noticed that his front side(foot) looked lite at impact.A light went off!!!.Wendall was using his bat as a third leg and the ball as the ground!!!If he hit's the ball squarely he looks balanced... if he uses that same swing but mistimes it and misses he looks off balance.

Which leads me to this question for all you scholars.Has their been any study that tried to determine pounds of pressure exerted against the ground by the front side and back side during the swing?I mean we talk about keeping balanced through the swing but I bet scales would prove batters are not really balanced at impact.
Their weight at that sweet spot in time has been directed to the end of their bat and scales would show a weight less than their own body weight.

Whether or not that is the case I think it is very easy for a novice hitter to try to stay "balanced" on his feet rather than balanced in "time and space" and this is where terms like "throwing you're hands at the ball" can help a batter understand "real ball balance"