Posted by: ray porco () on Sun Sep 7 06:15:48 2003

Rql,

Some things I think I think:

Loading is creating movement of the bat - getting it to a “weightless” state (overcoming gravitational pull [purely theoretical, because gravitational force exists everywhere in the known universe]) - readying it (reducing the resistance of the bat [to zero, theoretically] in order to change the bat’s direction and velocity. If one were to start the bat from a static state, one would also have to overcome the forces used to hold the bat in the static state.

“Pinch the marble” - what an old coach used to tell us as a pitching cue. He didn’t tell us to scapula load, but he did tell us to imagine a marble between our shoulder blades and at separation of the hands, to pinch it. But in hitting we only want to ADduct the rear scapula. And if we ABduct the front scapula, it has to be less than we ADduct the rear. If we abduct and adduct in equal amounts, then we are turning.

Chopping down a tree - forgive me for going back to that illustration, but to demonstrate a point. We hold an axe across our body, one hand at the handle and one at the axe blade with both arms extended down straight (most comfortable because of the weight). We draw it back (raising it), and if we’re co-ordinated enough - at just the right time, we slide our top hand down to the bottom hand. We have overcome/eliminated the forces needed to hold the axe in a static state.

In chopping we should never ever take our eyes from the point at which we wish to make contact.

What to do?

Hitch. But a hitch that’s under control (hands must load at the same point each swing). And a hitch that doesn’t turn our lead shoulder, and thus the head, from the pitch.

One of the taboo’s of hitting? Balderdash. McGwire’s is miniscule, Bond’s is macro, but both move the bat, and neither turn the head away.



ray porco