Posted by: BHL (Knight1285@aol.com) on Sun May 16 11:27:34 2004

Hi Tom,

I agree back heel rotation seems more of reactive than a proactive movement. In fact, this question is dealt with in a Mon Dec 1 15:18:13 2003 post, entitled "Re:Front Side Rotation":

>>> It's not natural to tell yourself to turn the front foot to rotate the front side, however it's easier for me to think rotate the whole lower front half of the body and use shoulder rotation from it to start the swing. I also think it's helpful to ignore the back side to help front side pull. When you stride and your front foot hits the ground on the toe and decide to swing does rotation need to start right then to maximize the batspeed? Also how did John Elliot get his back foot heel to lift off the ground like that? <<<

Hi Unknown

Welcome to the site. -- If thinking about rotating the front half produces the shoulder rotation you want then that is the cue you should stick to. Coaches should use cues that get the results they are looking for. I agree the back-side will perform properly without concentrating on it if the front-side does its work correctly.

I have also had good results with the “rotate the heel – rotate the bat-head” cue. One of the reasons I like this cue is that it stresses the point of keeping the heel up at foot-plant. It is difficult to lunge forward when concentrating on rotating the lead-heel back toward the catcher to initiate the swing. The batter is also less likely to thrust the hands forward when they are thinking about rotating the bat-head back toward the catcher as they rotate the heel.

Unless the batter’s axis of rotation is tilted to far back toward the catcher, the back-heel will almost always rotate off the ground as John’s does in the video.

Jack Mankin

I am sure that Jack will be able to offer more infomration on the topic.

Regards,
BHL