Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Thu Nov 29 08:14:10 2007

> http://www.hittingillustrated.com/images/Mussinaspine.gif

Thanks Richard !

So notice the pelvic/ middle "bow arch" of the pitcher.

In the pitcher's case, the shoulder tilt at this point retains its orientation to the ground, but the hips and legs can lengthen the torso, accentuated by stepping down off the mound, then later use weight shift to the front foot as base to support the further "forhand type" unloading where you whip the back hand/ball through.

This type of pelvic action (alos essential to hitting) is necessary for good sequential transfer of momentum with well timed acceleration/deceleration of links requires and it requires the coil/separation of the torso to be increasing AND resistance of the upper body to opening as the hips turn open. This creates the necessary "cusp" ending to torso coil/load/rubberbandwinding.

This resistance in the case of throwing is primarily by the back arm loading action/direction.

In the case of hitting, it is by torquing the handle (minimizing but not eliminating arm activity) as the back arm remains back/"slotting" then tilting the front shoulder as the weight shifts to the front foot as the bathead is fired out to demand transfer of momentum.

This hitting on flat ground with different timing of weight shift support causes the front shoulder to go UP a little (with respect to the ground) as the front side (torso muscles) stretch occurs with creation of last bit of quick coil/load ("x-factor stretch").

This type of efficient pelvic action producing efficient speed gains of each arc of the chain can not be produced by just turning the shoulders or "turning everything like heck" and hoping "inertia" does the trick. It requires handle torque, then shooulder tilt/"relative" shoulder "bypass" or there must be drag and inefficient "speed gains" transferred to the bathead. Weight shift must be well timed with the tilt.