Posted by: Coach C () on Sun Jun 13 18:23:34 2004

Coach C and Marcus,
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> > > Thanks for your reply, i went out to practice today and worked on initiating rotation simultaneously to my stride towards the pitcher. The result was a little dip in my consistency, but i hit the 3 farthest balls of the entire team BP. The power i felt upon contact was remarkable, and i also felt like my swing plane was better, perhaps this has to do with the earlier flex in my lower halfand consequent ability to adjust my upper half. Anyways, my point is that the weight shift deffinently helped my power, and i think the momentum does help your bat speed, just as long as you dont get carried away and lunge. Pujols is a great example, i would also site A-Rod as the other superstar who shows this technique the most.
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> > > Coach C, as for your point concerning the "trunk" i think that makes a lot of sense as whenever i try to swing with my legs i get a choppy snapping motion. I am a little confused about exactly what part of the body you are reffering to, i would assume you mean more the torso then the shoulders abs and chest but i could be wrong, could you clarify?
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> > > I too await what others think on this topic.
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> > > SRJ
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> > I am in a slowpitch softball league in which I use a similar technique as you guys describe above. My stance and setup is a cross between Ken Griffey Jr. and Don Mattingly. I start in a Griffey setup without my back elbow straight back with a slightly open stance.
> > Then I take a slight backward step back with my front foot and at the same time dip down slightly (like Mattingly). Then I shift my weight forward and go into the rotational move to the pitch. I have found that when I am on time I can hit the ball very hard and deep. My only draw back to this approach is that if I am to early to the ball, I lose power unless I release the top hand at contact. My key is in timing the pitch right and keeping both hands on the bat for the full rotation effect. For the most part I am a dead (lefty) pull hitter.
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> I think your swing is quite a bit like mine. I try not to force any rotation before the stride is complete, though. I use my front leg to stop forward movement on my front side as my back side continues forward, which has to rotate forward. This works well for me and doesn't require perfect timing from the stride as long as I don't allow the hips to rotate before the front foot steps down. Perhaps that's what requires your timing to be so good?
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> I think that's what I'm seeing as the difference in how the front leg is used (for me personally). Instead of using the leg to manually push the front hip open, I like to use it to stop the forward momentum of the front side (bringing the back side around in the process).
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> Marcus

You said........"I think that's what I'm seeing as the difference in how the front leg is used (for me personally). Instead of using the leg to manually push the front hip open, I like to use it to stop the forward momentum of the front side (bringing the back side around in the process)."

I agree!!

Coach C