Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Tue May 3 14:14:06 2005

Cues are always a double edged sword.Some interpretations encourage progress toward/accelerate learning,some don't.

Keeping the front foot closed is by no means a universal.At best it is an attempt to improve rotation as a cure by exagerration.If she is going well,do not mess her up by trying to get her to close the front foot.If anything,this will tend to decrease swing quickness in my opinion.

If anything,front foot open is a near universal sign for a quick rotational swing if you are just looking at rotational hitters,BUT it is also a sign of poor nonrotational mechanics,so it gets a bad name.Better to understand how it relates to good and bad swings.

The front foot closed is a popular cue,but I personally don't like it and I don't think it fits with Jack's "turn the foot/turn the bat" type cue.

Lau and Nyman like this cue.Nyman believes it encourages learning good rotation,but the results I have seen would argue otherwise.I am not sure why Lau likes it except for the fact that it tends to go along with a longer swing radius and longer overall swing with lots of body coil/separation.This long degree of separation is necessary to get the front foot down before the front foot starts to open.STill there can be a role for this type of exagerration in timing while learning as exemplified by the Lau approach of stride THEN swing.

In general,the quicker/shorter the swing,the more the front foot will open before it bears weight.See Hank Aaron hiting an inside pitch for example.

So one problem with the closed front foot is encouraging a longer swing.

Another problem with keeping the front foot closed is that it tends to encourage improper sequencing of body action and will usually discourage rather than encourage good rotation.

The closed front foot in hitting is typically tried as a way to avoid "flying open".Good twist/torquing/coiling of the body to power the swing does not require large amounts of separation (large angle between line of hips vs shoulders) but it does require a quick/powerful turn of the hips well timed with upper body action to optimize the coil and reversal of coil.This quick coil,in my opinion (confirmed by studying lots video of pitchers,hitters as well as golfers) shows that the front leg needs to turn open before the powerful opening of the hips so that the hip turn remains in sequence and so the knees can spread apart then support hip rotation with a wide base (especially wide as compared to golf where a longer swing is preferred).Hip turn "outrunning" the turning of the front leg is a well known out of sequence flaw in golf which can limit rotation or force the lead side (connection) to breakdown.Both of these tend to make the body turn too much in one piece which gives the look of the front shoulder flying open.

Closing the front foot or adopting a "closed stance" are suboptimal fixes which are tried in golf that are similar to the attempt to close the front foot in hitting to improve rotation/prevent "going over the top" (golf) or "flying open" (hitting).The assumption in golf is that this will encourage the desired inside to out to square swing plane where the club does not cross the target line before contact.This turns out to not be very effective in improving rotation/curing the "slice",however.

What is required is better/unencumbered hip turn (not limiting hip turn by closed front foot or other cues that might limit hip turn) along with the appropriate upper body action which Jack decsribes as CHP,BHT and THT which allow the hands to "stay back" as the bat turns back toward the catcher so the handpath can start out perpendicular to the line of flight of the ball as the shoulders turn and without any wrist bind.Jacks simultaneous upper and lower body cue gets at this well.This is also similar to Epstein's "Drop and tilt" cue.

Jack's approach works well,in my experience/opinion because of the dominant role the upper body plays in organizing a good swing.Trying to force good arm action (like BHT/THT) by primary focus on feet and hips is counterproductive.