Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Thu May 12 10:10:34 2005

>>> Jack and Tom:

LivoniaDave just posted a picture on Pujols that I thought was interesting.

http://www.baseball-photos.com/pujols19.jpg

It captures Pujols just prior to the left foot landing during the stride. Jack, I know that you can describe this better than I, but it appears to me that his toe is pointed down and inward, enabling the front hip to powerfully load for maximum rotation. Is this a common position for the front foot to be in at this point in the swing? <<<

Hi Mack

Good observation, that is the lead-foot position we teach in the instructional video. We want the batter to land with the foot closed (toe pointing toward the plate) with the heel elevated. Then the heel rotates about 45+ degrees back toward the catcher as it lowers to initiate hip, shoulder and bat-head rotation.

Below is a part of a post ( http://www.batspeed.com/messageboard/16021.html ) on this topic.

Jack Mankin
##

To be honest, I have had very few students whose major problem is with their lower body mechanics. I spend a lot of time teaching the batter how to prepare good Launch and Contact positions (all the points shown in your training booklet). I have the batter address the heavy bag with the correct contact position. Then I have them use their legs (mainly the lead-leg) to rotate back to a good launch position (lead-heel up pointing toward third base). Then rotate around a stationary axis back to the contact position. This rotation is activated by the rotation of the lead-heel rotating back toward the catcher as it lowers and the lead-leg begins to extend. Then they rotate back and forth from launch to contact. Once they are fluid with their movements, they can start incorporating their timing step.

I impress upon them that all swing mechanics (lower and upper-body) has one ultimate purpose – to accelerate the bat-head around the swing plane to contact. That is what they should concentrate on – not the legs or hips or accelerating the hands – Think, rotate the heel, rotate the bat-head. -- First in an arc back toward the catcher then around toward the bag. -- No tension, no explosion – loose, smooth, ever accelerating movements.

The student’s bat-head acceleration seem to sync with hip and shoulder rotation better when thinking of accelerating the bat-head rearward than when thinking “hips first” or similar leg type cues. At least this is true for my teaching. --- This is the same method (and thought process) I use to teach John the basics of rotational transfer mechanics he exhibits in the video. John’s main problem was (like many others) his muscles were so tight from years of relying on linear mechanics, it took a long time to loosen him up to swing freely.

Jack Mankin