Posted by: () on Wed Oct 15 15:50:42 2003

I've noticed that the better hitters in baseball stand more straight up. Griffey, Ted Williams, Sheffield, Sosa(bent legs, but his back is fairly straight up, like he's sitting on a chair), Shawn Green, Roberto Alomar, Ivan Rodriguez, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, ARod, Frank Thomas, Giambi, Palmeiro, Manny Ramirez, Jeter, Nomar, Mag Ordonez, Piazza, Olerud, Paul Molitor, Ripkin(sometimes), Bret Boone, Garret Anderson, Helton, Thome, Ichiro, Edgar Martinez, Juan Gonzalez, Carl Everett, Renteria, Vidro, Jaun Pierre, Lofton, Jim Edmonds, Chip Jones, Andrew Jones, Guererro, Jeff Kent, and the list goes on...Jackie Robinson. Why is this? Does the stance affect your swing in any way?
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> > >>>look again. you'll see that any functioning hitter at any level has the hips kinked at about the same angle as the knees; kink-and-counterkink. without the right counterbend balance is shot so that leg action causes a veer either in the bucket or forward. to simply fight against such a veer is probably too stressful for a clean precise stroke.
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> > some will insist you only need to pass through your key checkpoints on the way to launch, which might be half-true because some pros make it consistently from a wildhaired stance through the key points and to clean productive strokes, but it doesn't mean i'd advise a kid to "take a comfortable stance" because the stance is the dead-Zero-Reference point of the swing. best to start balanced, to stay that way.
> > sammy's a nice guy but does pull away from outside bait every day, the target is nearly never inside, and he does sit down often. that he'll cream it inside so well is a product of the bucket balance that moves him at it. but why has he so much trouble sorting bad outside strikes from good outside bait; is there an associated perception problem involved in that veer?
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> Your vocabulary is a little wider than mine, but I kind of get what you're saying.
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> Oh who am I kidding, I have no clue what any of that means. Could you please paraphrase? Are you saying the better hitters stances have the same angle at the knees as the hips?

>>>you got it. there must be breaks at both the knees and the hips, about the same angles. from an erect posture just loosen up at the knees and hips and let your weight take you STRAIGHT DOWN at least until the weight is off your heels. this gives you balance in the stance and stride, and will naturally control stride direction, if you control those angles at least through swing-launch.

that notion about a vertical spine is a no-go. and will make you a flatfooted bucketfoot unless the knees are straight too, and straight knees is poison..