Posted by: T Olson (timolson@home.net) on Thu Sep 7 19:57:45 2000

I'm a little confused about the stride.
>
> Does the knee and shoulders rotate inward first and THEN stride and bring the hands back, or is it all in one movement?

my theory (similar to Ferroli's) is

1. Initial cocking that includes a little turning-in (both shoulder and lead knee) and a front foot lift (either complete or partial--just the heel) that doesn't immediately start forward. This process puts a little more weight in back as well as establishing a basis for stretching the upper/lower body linkage when the hips start to open. It also gets the front foot a head start in executing the stride. I believe it starts just before the release point.

2. Next the stride finishes on a lead foot angled at about 45 degrees and at the same time the hips "start" to open. At the same time the hands adjust the bat to the intended swing plane, the rear elbow starts drifting down and forward, the lead arm starts to bar, and the hands may actually, or just appear to move back in relationship to the body.

Sometimes I see ML players that increase the shoulder inward-turn during the period just before the swing.

That's my theory today anyway.