Posted by: Pro_Hitter (andygreen29@hotmail.com) on Thu Oct 30 14:47:21 2003

Jane,

I was trying to give some time before I answered your question to see if anyone else would take a shot at it, but I guess they are waiting for me to throw my ideas out there to shoot 'em down :)

I assume you know what is meant when someone tells your son to load his hands. In simple speak, it means to get the hands back ready to hit. A scapula load is just a different type of load (different from what is normally taught although it is apparent in the majority of Major League power swings). For a right handed hitter, this is how it would look.

http://webpages.charter.net/nickkio/Guerrero01.mpg

This is a back angle of Vlad Guerrero's swing. As the bat head comes closer to perpindicular to the ground, Guerrero has pulled his back elbow back which contracts his scap. This is the ideal launch position and the essence of the scap load. Notice at the point of attack, the knob of his bat is pointing towards his "slightly behind" his back foot. This is a great check point in the swing. All great hitters get the bat to this point (where the knob points directly down to the back foot or JUST slightly behind it). I hope that defines scap load for you.

As for counterrotation, this is a dangerous topic in my opinion. I addressed this in a post to Tom. This is what I said

Tom

Very insightful stuff. I wish I had a swing beside each description so I wouldn't have to follow it in my mind's eye (which is not always as sharp as I'd like it to be). Anyway, let me say this, I'm fairly sure I don't understand the intricacies of a swing as well as you or Jack, but I can speak from a measure of experience towards a couple of your ideas (that I'm not so sure I understand/agree with).

You speak of implementing counterrotation into the swing, and although I must admit that there are big league swings that do do this, I do not feel it is a necessary or even innocuous way to teach the swing. If you look at a power swing, there is "sometimes" a MINIMAL amount of counterrotation before the swing; however, it never happens so much so as to move the head. If you were trying to inwardly rotate your shoulders (towards the catcher) prior to swinging, that "counterrotation" will oftentimes (and most times for that matter) cause the head to be pulled off of the target (the ball). Try it, put your head on your lead shoulder and then counterrotate, if you are like me...your head will come off the ball and that would happen before you even picked up your stride foot. The reason I address this is because I had to correct this problem of "overcoiling". The fix for me was a strong scap load absent of counterrotation. This scap load locked my hands into the right path so they could come along for the ride. However, I do agree that counterrotation will increase batspeed (but we must remember that batspeed is not the goal here...the goal is consistent hard contact at maximized bat speed..not necessarily maximized bat speed with occasional contact). In my mind's eye while I'm hitting, I lock my hands in with the scap load and then I forget about 'em. There is nothing else for them to do but react when they are called upon by the rest of the body.

I guess my main point is that I find counterrotation to be an extremely dangerous teaching tool. If it is done just ever so slightly, it is not a problem; however, how often do we as hitters do anything in moderation :) I know I don't. I believe that the overwhelming philosophy in a hitter's mind is (understand I'm not advocating this): "if something is working...do it more". Thus, a hitter naturally believes if counterrotation is causing batspeed to increase..well heckfire, I'm gonna do it even more. I guess I just want to remain practical. I haven't had any success counterrotating and I definitely haven't had success teaching it in my lessons. Success, I find is in the scap load and then just forgetting about em. Let the lower half lead ya!!!

Hope all that helps
Rom 5:8





Pro Hitter, or anyone else, could you please explain what a scapula load is? Also how does it differ from a counter-rotation?
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> .....(this is way over my head).
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> Thanks.
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> Jane
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> " Is he getting loaded properly? By that I mean, does he have a strong scapula load...this is not to be confused with a counter-rotation. Essentially, it is just cocking the back elbow back towards the third base dugout which will tighten the back right scap (for right handed hitters). "
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