Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Wed Oct 15 09:23:54 2003

I like to think about it more int erms of when the front toe needs to touch(as you get older in competition,this is spmething you will finalize in warmups or in the ondeck circle for you given abilities and a given pitcher for that situation).I am a big beliver in preswing rhythmic activity,cocking and uncocking the bat, and using a stride to begin with when learning to make these motions automatic.Once you learn good overall body action,then you can work on shortening the stride or going no-stride(see Rivera post below).The rule of thumb for baseball applies pretty well to fastpitch,that is as a starting point,the front foot touches when the ball is about halfway to the plate.You have to teach them to dance with the pitcher before this,which is more variable(analagous to baseball where you show the pitcher your backside when he shows you his-the start of what I think of as the "inward turn").Although reaction time is very short in fastpitch,the ball is going slower than in baseball,so except for very fast pitchers or very long swings,the foot may come down after halfway in many cases.One of the big problems you have to deal with from nonrotational teaching is kids with no rhythmic preswing activity,no bat cock/uncock who get on the front toe early.Just as in over-cloned by the numbers baseball pitching instruction,these kids are at risk of having the "athleticism" overcoached right out of their bodies until it's too late to ever recover the chance at reaching your potential.This really cramps motor learning.Most of the time kids(girls especially pay attention/believe what coach is saying at an early age,unlike boys who seem to me much more likely to just blow off bad advice) will force themselves to take a second later stride/heel lift and drop,but muscle sequence and upper lower body coordination/synchronization gets greatly interfered with limiting results.This kills tht and transfer mechanics.