Posted by: BHL (Knight1285@aol.com) on Tue Mar 8 07:45:18 2005

Hi Jack,

When a person drops the heel 45+ degrees, here is what Epstein instructs them to do, since the heel drop

Is not a timing mechanism; it is a de facto mechanical movement necessary to initiate proper hip rotation.

Here are his cues:

Try this. When you drop your front heel, lift your rear heel up at the same time (Do NOT “squish the bug”). Move your rear knee slightly down and in and then slightly turn your rear hip “around” the imaginary axis you’ve set up in your stride. Once you have done this a few times and feel comfortable, attempt it doing all the moves simultaneously.

When you drop your front heel, you should feel a “swiveling” of your hips from back to front. Sometimes, and this may very well be true in your case, you have to “help” it along at first. Once the body understands its role, it will take over from there.

If you remember in the past, I had trouble with good lower body mechanics. You responded by instructing me to work on my lower body mechanics before picking up a bat.

I did, and the advice stated above gave me optimum developmental mechanics.

Now, there are certain questions that I would like to ask.

What parts of Mike's advice do you agree with and why?

What parts of Mike's advice do you disagree with and why?

I await your response eagerly. In this thread, I will be more than happy to clarify any questions you might have about these developmental "cues."

I wish you nothing but the best of luck on the DVD that you plan on working on.

Sincerely,
BHL
Knight1285@aol.com

P.S. I can't wait for the baseball season to start!
Knight