Posted by: rql () on Thu Sep 11 10:55:00 2008

I have been hearing some folks saying different opinions about shoulder turn vs no turn only tilt,also some who feel you push off the back foot vs no push and the lead foot block,how about pedroia throwing the barrel,or that hitters need to know more about how they hit th
an us because they are doing it so they must be describing it correctly.
I have been on this site with jack for about a decade now few others do I see hear from the originals as their kids move on so do many guys who were pretty good in how we discussed and perceived the swing.I find just recently that announcers are starting to use some buzz words that were coined here and a couple other sites over the years as they start to here them spoken amoung ml hitters and coaches,so some understanding of what has been being discovered here is being discussed though the announcers know just enough to confuse fathers that mess up kids in the details.

For the record I have been intrigued a little about the shoulder tilt idea [the tilt that goes back toward catcher].If I understand correctly some believe this happens as opposed to shoulder rotation.I have been trying it out some and as I have always believed the whole body does many moves some simultaneously to create the kinetic chain,My view is that more could be discussed here on this subject but my position is that I think that the tilt is working inconjunction or assisting in the process that is [tht] top hand torque,I feel that the backward tilt helps throw the bat back while the top hand pulls back powered by the rear elbow pulling down,all these help get the bat moving but from there I believe the shoulders do turn and bring the barrel around,the tilt seems to help in the running start but I would like to see footage that we could break down confirming or not the way we use to hash it out.
Since some are discussing knowledge of what pedroia does and thinks and thats great,I will say that during some talks on hitting with wade boggs and I think he was a pretty heads up hitter,he would say he did not push off his back foot rather try to ride the inside of his rear leg.My thought is that the rear leg is just pushing and the front leg is just blocking so that turning occurs is not what is happening,no a balance point is achieved at toe touch and as the lead hip rotates back and the rear hip rotates forward and speed can be enhanced with pressure against the ground,pushing off the rear side has been a cause for locking up the hips forever,some however may vision the swinging gate idea as reality.
As far as the comments about pedroia,he may have cues that with his long and violent big stride type of swing it may feel to him like he is throwing the barrel and how he perceives throwing could be different than how others think of throwing as 1 person referred to,I can remember many years ago I was considered a decent hitter and all I thought I was doing was opposite to what I was able to later see that I was doing through old espn videos once slo mo recorders were created so to always trust that hitters can describe what they do correctly really depends on how much they study video and discuss things like we do here.