Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Sat Nov 8 15:45:00 2003

Nick-

If I were you,I would consider trying to think of hitting in similar
terms to setpro/Nyman's model of the throw.Not letting the ball
get deep is analagous to "rushing"/getting out of sequence.If you
accentuate scap load,but don't focus on how the elbow then gets
slotted,you skip that part of the sequence and the loading is
interfered with and the hands drop away from the shoulder
interrupting load and going to the ball.

This seems similar to me to rushing by leaving out the
"stepover" part of the throw.Then the head goes forward
prematurely and you don't finish coiling/loading in preparation
for good torso rotation.

In both skills,the basic action of this phase is the same.The
head stays back.The back arm externally rotates,the lead leg
externally rotates,the lead arm internally rotates and the back
arches.The end of the back arching is the unloading and
uncocking of the hips.Back arch is easy to see in most
pitchers,but hard to see in hitting.Some of the hitters I see it well
in on occasion are Aaron,Tejada,and Guerrero.The torso just
doesn't usually rotate well/get driven by the hips well unless the
back arches in both skills(this accentuates twisting/coiling).You
can feel the arch in hitting as the back elbow starts down to the
slot(upper torso arches/loads horizontally as scap load,then
arch wrks from top down during the slotting).Keep the back scap
loaded and the back arm extended and feel the back arch as the
elbow starts down to the slot and this can give you something
positive to do that continues loading/coiling instead of "rushing"
the hands into action.This can help create a nice overall body
awareness/feel that lets you envision the swing as a mater of
how you are positioning your body in space.