Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Mon Apr 18 11:15:29 2005

That post of mine seems like its from a long long time ago in a universe far far away,but mechanically speaking,Not much has changed.

What has changed most is that more and more college kids are having success with the quick rotational power swing that jack describes.
One of the early baseball swing believers were U Washington and They have lots of good rotational power hitters and have been on TV quite a bit recently.See,for example,Rivera,Hyatt,Fiske and Minor.

More recently,I have also found it useful to organize video analysis around three basic patterns of swing (see Dixon reference,for example) that kids probably need to evolve through in order, analagous to a similar evolution for the overhand throw-arm throw then upper body and arm throw then total body throw.In hitting this can be described as 1-"pulling" which isn't of much use in either fastpitch or baseball,2-"Spinning" which is the typical (?hopefully more and more historical) "linear" fastpitch pattern and 3-"rotational" which is what Jack describes here.Some details to consider:

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Videoanalysis is a great facilitator of understanding.I have found the following a good way to organize video by basic pattern.

Jim Dixon (SECRETS OF THE EXCEPTIONAL PLAYER) describes the similarity of throwing and hitting and describes the 3 basic evolutionary patterns that players will go through.He has diagrams in his book that show foot and hip joint position to describe each pattern.He describes things primarily in throwing terms,but i would suggest the following largely after Dixon:

1-"puller".Steps in bucket,back hip socket ends up on target line.Both arms extend through ball.Shoulders keep turning.Wrist roll after contact.



2-"spinner".for this and the next pattern,the feet start out on/parallel to the target line,not much preference for stepping in bucket.The hip sockets end up straddling the target line.Body spins with little separation/little sequenced momentum transfer.At setpro."revolving door" is used as opposed to "closing gate" hip pattern desired for the rotational pattern.Dixon borrows the spinning name from golf (spin/reverse pivot/hit over top).The typical arm action is extension with wrist roll through contact and weight staying back,but you can get a funny pushing action at contact if you focus on keeping the handpath from extending (trying to keep circular handpath as with rotational,but rest of pattern still "linear").Shoulders stop before contact which necessitates arms taking over.



Most of the typical fastpitch coaching has been aimed at turning the "puller" into a "spinner".Emphasis is on extension and wrist roll powered by total body spin (without "kinetic chain" staging of momentum) and a grip that keeps the bat level when the wrists roll.What Jack calls the "rotational component" of the swing is interrupted/never fully developed forcing the arms to disconnect and compensate with excessive dependence on the "torque component" of the swing.The swing then has to be optimized by managing the serious problem that results from wrist roll through contact.Traditional fastpitch "linear" advice is keep shoulders level,swing down,grip bat so it doesn't wobble with wrist roll,extend handpath and roll wrists at contact.If weight stays back,it is very hard to avoid wrist roll wobble.You can't both keep weight back and swing and keep shoulders level,so stay away from incompatible advice/asking kids to do all this.



Many kids trying to go rotational are stuck here,victims of "hybrid" teaching of elements from both patterns.

3-"whipper" (perhaps a better term for throwing patterns).In Hitting, this "rotational" pattern is well described by Jack here.Setpro would say "rotate and stay connected".or "rotational whipping" or "rotate (coil and uncoil body/kinetic chain) and flail (no handpath extension from launch to contact)" might be better.Shoulders rotate to contact (one Mankin "absolute" for example).Stable axis of rotation/no forward weight shift after launch.Front hip joint on target line as axis of rotation launch to contact."CHP" no extension of handpath (which would interrupt rotational component) before contact.