Posted by: Coach C () on Mon Apr 28 12:35:48 2003

> > Three ways to swing a bat, you either push, you pull or you do neither. As youngster I literally pushed the handle from the back shoulder (not the knob) straight to the ball. This style was without question hand dominated, but served me O.K. through college, but I always lacked the power (clearly). After college I discovered that if I pushed the knob with both hands, extending the lead arm through the ball, it would give me more power with equal accuracy. Later I learned to pull the knob by starting my hands as far back as I could comfortably and just pulling straight to the ball. Lastly I learned to do nothing with my hands, just to hold on. Everyone of those swings is clearly going to activate different parts of the body at different times. The commonalities are this........balance, and a steady head. The pitchers job is to get the hitter off balance, to commit at the wrong time. Great hitters commit at the right time by maintaing their balance and a steady head, regardless of how they tranfer the energy to the barrel.
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> > All of my hitters look different for a multitude of reasons. Major Dan please answer this question........Do you feel power in the lower back and stomach during the swing? Answer this please.
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> > Respectfully,
> >
> > Coach C
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> "Do you feel power in the lower back and stomach during the swing"
> I power my swing primarily from posterior chain muscles - hamstrings, glutes, spinal erectors. The feeling of that translates to the middle of the body. So, yes, I do feel power in the lower back and stomach though I wouldn't use those words as the most descriptive ones, at least for me. I know exactly what you are talking about.
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I spent some time with a prominant rotary action expert (Nomar Garciaparra's personal trainer), and I specificaly asked him "What role do the feet play in rotary action as it relates the baseball, golf and tennis swing?" He told me their sole purpose is to provide body stabilization. Personally, I had discovered this for myself a year or two earlier, but I desperately needed some sort of expert validation. This doesn't mean I'm right, but this is what I felt needed to happen for me.

For me the best swing I can produce is one where the upperbody swings as hard as it can as the lowerbody fights to stay connected to the ground (the rear hip will pull the back heel off the ground just before contact), how a tranfer that energy to the barrel is something you and I will someday debate. This connection to the ground or stabilty produces balance and a steady head.

We may not agree on everything, but I'm confident we are more alike than you think. Maybe someday we could exchange film clips of our swings? You know like the "The Grand Finale'"

Respectfully,

Coach C