Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sat May 22 12:13:07 2004

Hi BHL

Basically, I would say your description is correct. I would amend the following description. – “Once in that position, the batter initiates the swing by thinking about squishing the bug on the front foot and spinning the back hand around the front hand simultaneously. (In actuality, the former will occur a split instant before the latter). Although the front foot is opened only 45 degrees to prevent the premature opening of the front shoulder, when the bug under the front foot is squished, it will have opened 90 degrees, and the batter will be initiating a swing from a powerful position.”

There is no absolute way a batter should plant the front foot. I teach batters to stride to a fairly closed foot. I point out that they should land on the ball of the foot with ample flex in the knee. As they initiate rotation, they should think “rotate the heel – rotate the bat-head.” In other words, as the heel lowers, they should also rotate the heel back toward the catcher opening the foot 45 or more degrees. The extension of the lead-knee aids in driving hip and shoulder rotation.

I stress the importance of “rotate the bat-head” as they initiate body rotation. Accelerating the bat-head around the swing plane is the ultimate objective of all swing mechanics. The reason they rotate their body is to rotate the bat-head (first, in an arc back toward the catcher). They should keep this foremost in their minds – not as an afterthought to generating hip rotation.

Note: I have yet to find a student who did not automatically rotate the hips 30+ degrees to facilitate rotating the bat-head back toward the catcher.

Jack Mankin