Posted by: Chuck (Chuck10112@gmail.com) on Wed Sep 3 19:41:10 2008

> http://www.hittingillustrated.com/library/SwingReview.htm
>
> A swing review that actually matches the video shown.

I see a few incorrect interpretations.

The rear leg going down and in is caused by the hip sliding towards the pitcher not a push with the back leg. How can you even say he is pushing with the back leg when his back leg is bending? When someone pushes something with their legs, their legs will straighten out not bend. It's obviously the hips sliding forward. The rear leg bends down and in to keep the body balanced.

How can someone keeping their hands back stop weight from moving forward? I always thought weight distribution was dependant on the legs. And your analogy of holding a pole in my basement to holding my bat doesn't make sense. The pole in a basement is planted firmly into the ground, when I'm holding my bat there is no resistance (very little anyway) because the bat is free to move.

"When he decides to swing....to 'go'....he releases the 'hold' on the system by allowing the hands to turn the barrel rearward while at the same time 'laterally tilting' the shoulders and aggressively applying the final push of the rear leg and hip."

I'm guessing you've never seen the best hitter in baseball (Albert Pujols) swing the bat.
Pujols' bat is is practically at horizontal, or as you would say rearward, long before the pitch is even thrown. This is one of the reason's why Pujols is so consistent (has never hit under 300 and I'm willing to bet he never will). He is already extremely close to being in position to allow his body to rotate long before the pitch arrives (no exessive backswing).

Your description of the backswing and hip rotation make it seem as though the two must occur in sync which isn't the case. They're two separate movements and Pujols' swing shows that. As long as the backswing is complete or close to complete before rotation begins you'll be fine.

A hitter's lead shoulder doesn't go up because the hitter consciously makes it go up. It goes up as a reaction to the barrel of the bat going down behind him as he subconciously tries to match the plane of the pitched ball. On high pitches the bat won't go down as much so the shoulders will remain more level with the ground. On low pitches the shoulders will be more perpendicular to the ground. But this happens without concious thought. Once the batter matches the plane of the bat with the pitch he will begin the violent rotation of the hips (which I'm not going to explain again) which will create a stretch between the front arm and the rotating body which propels the bat through the zone.

I understand what you're saying I just don't agree with some of the interpretation and terminology. For instance you say "Both Bonds and Chipper thrust their rear hip 'up and through'"

Their not thrusting their hips up and through. their really thrusting their hips sideways (towards the pitcher) and then their front leg pushes the front hip back. If you were to draw the path the energy takes it would resemble a hyperoval. The energy would be directed straight out during the hip slide, then it would be slighty be directed to the bottom hand side during rotation, then it would come back towards the hitter. (How can the enegry come back you ask?) It can come back because it's not used up in the swing. (if it is then you'd be swinging a bat much to heavy). Watch most major league hitters during their follow through. You'll notice that they'll be sort of pushed back, this push back is their bodies absorbing extra energy. David Ortiz, Ken Griffey Junior, and Jim Thome are good examples of this.