Posted by: george stanley (saint_george13@yahoo.com) on Thu Dec 13 15:24:48 2007

> My sons high school coach teach the no stride batting stand.Can anyone tell me more on the no stride.

hi kim!

when you have no stride, you might as well be sitting on a barstool for all the energy you are getting from your legs & hips...the legs & hips are the STRONGER HALF OF YOUR BODY... TO NOT USE THEM IS TO DIMINISH YOUR BATSPEED TO THE POINT YOU GUARANTEE YOU NEVER RISE ABOVE A CERTAIN LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE SUCCESS. how would pitchers fare if they had no stride to the plate.. rather they just armed the ball up there without any forward motion from their lower body?? i'm guessing not so hot.
look at your arm... then look at your leg... which is bigger? which do you suppose is stronger? it is estimated your legs are AT LEAST about 3 or 4 times stronger than your arms.. SO USE THEM!! hitting is just like throwing.. the mechanics are pretty much the same. when you throw a pitch, you use the rubber to push off your power or back leg...imagine pitchers who just stood there with no forward stride & just slung the ball up there... shouldn't you do the same thing when you hit?.. yes! bend your knee & push off your back toe... DO NOT STAND FLATFOOTED! REMEMBER MASS X SPEED = ENERGY. so just like throwing a pitch, push off your back leg & get your body mass going forward.. the faster, the greater the energy you are generating toward the ball..to stand stock still with no forward motion means you are generating NO energy whatsoever!!! HELLO?!?!?!

a short base with your feet directly under your weight.. that is, shoulder width, allows you to transfer your weight quicker & with more speed than if you have a real wide base... a very wide base will also diminish your ability to torque your lower body, thus diminishing your batspeed. after you push off your back foot, raise your front foot, & take a short stride... keep the base short, so you can begin torqueing sooner & with more power.. keep your foot closed until after it has struck the ground.. to open up before the foot strikes the ground lessens the abillity to generate torque... let the lower back side initiate the torque, thus initiating your lower front side torque, which will in turn initiate your upper body torque. which will bring your shoulders & arms around, thus bringing the hands around, & FINALLY the bat head will be the beneficiary of all the torque or rotational forces you have been generating, & will accelerate through the contact zone.

no one is strong enough to ignore or not utilize the stronger half of their body, & use just their arms & shoulders to swing the bat... yet many do.. the guys who have wide, open stances, & take a small stride
& then generate all their power by dropping their hands, doing a little circle hitch with their hands, & then drawing back their arms & hands to the launch position AFTER THE PITCH IS RELEASED before starting forward (i call them "buggywhippers") guarantee they will be late on FAR too many pitches they should be driving... instead they are popping up, fouling off,or missing completely on pitches simply because they do not realize they do not have time to windup once the pitch is on its way... they are unknowingly sabotaging themselves with their drawback too long swing, which guarantees THEY WILL BE LATE LATE LATE LATE LATE!! these morons who are all arms & shoulders ala jim edmonds & jeff bagwell overcome their weakness with their athletic ability for only so long... up to a point in time when their age & injuries takes a toll & their strength & athletic ability can no longer overcome their stance & swing weaknesses.. then they are out of the league.. the sooner you learn to use your lower body strength (legs & hips) to generate torque to compliment & augment your upper body strength, the sooner you will begin to improve your batspeed.

the ultimate body torque sport is racquetball.. go watch or play.. when the best players have the time to set up for a kill shot, you never see them with their legs spead far apart, or their power arm extended.. rather their feet are just slightly wider than the shoulders, their hand is up high so they can be striking downward thus generating greater racquet head speed & their elbow is in tight to their side THROUGHOUT THE THE ENTIRE SWING.. that is the best way to generate racquet head speed.. to do otherwise is to delete yourself from the top echelon players. check it out.

don't let anyone let your forget the LAWS OF LOGIC & PHYSICS apply to every human being on this planet.. there is no exception clause for baseball players, though they are for the most part totally ignorant of them.. i have found that when you point out to them something they are doing is contrary to the laws of motion, for example, & will slow their batspeed, they refuse to acknowledge i might be right... instead they invoke the "well-vlad-is-doing-that-&-he-makes-$20 mill-&-he's-a-great-hitter-&-you-never-got-a-hit-in-MLB-so-who-the-hell-are-you-to-say-what-he's-doing-is-wrong??.. YOU'RE NUTS!!" incantation, which makes far more sense to them than trying to understand that when your bat is in constant motion before the pitch is released, your bat's launch position will vary from pitch to pitch, thus altering your ability to be on a pitch consistently... if your stance is consistent from pitch to pitch, & your hands are in the same spot when every pitch is released.. from there you will be able to launch the bat much more accurately to the ball than if your bat is in motion in a haphazard & constanly different direction from one pitch to the next... so position your bat in the same spot & be stock still when the pitch is released, so you can be on time & begin the ballet movement in harmony with the pitch.. you must not handicap yourself by being in motion when the pitch is released, as that will mean you have a different rhythm from one pitch to the next.. if the bat is a diffeerent position on every pitch, then you are constantly
in a state of adjustment from instant to instant... not good. hold the bat still... every time.. but many hitters will argue with me till sunset that it makes no difference, that the law of physic do not apply to hitting a baseball... yeah.

let me know how it goes!

george stanley