Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sun Nov 6 14:14:45 2005

>>> Jack explains to stand with the shoulders in-line with the picther's mound. If you stand wiht an open or closed stance, you shoulders aren't in-line any more. Is there anything wrong with this? <<<

Hi Asab

The orientation of the shoulders in the stance can change during the inward-turn to the launch position. In your stance, your shoulders may be in-line with the pitcher’s mound, but as you prepare your launch position, the lead-shoulder should be orientated more toward the second baseman. – Below is an excerpt from a post I wrote on this topic.

Jack Mankin
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Each shoulder has 90+ degrees of movement independent of the spine or other shoulder. As the batter extends the hands back toward the back-shoulder to set up the launch position, the lead-shoulder rotates inward about 60 to 70 degrees from its straight away position. I have referred to this inward rotation as the “Shrugging of the lead-shoulder.”

As the rotational batter prepares to launch the swing, he can almost rub his chin on the shoulder. (In fact, Matt Williams does just that as he waits for the pitch.) It is very important that the “shrug” remain in the shoulder during initiation. If the batter fires the hands forward, the shrug will come out of the shoulder and the lead-arm will be forced away from the chest too soon resulting in a loss of linkage and disconnect to body rotation.

You will note as rql pointed out in his Post , it is the rotation of the shoulders (and the timely un-shrugging of the lead-shoulder – pulling back of the lead-arm) that powers the hand-path, creates the “hook” in the hand-path and generates Bottom-Hand-Torque. However, as I pointed out above, this can only take place if the hands remain back and allow shoulder rotation to accelerate them.