Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Wed Nov 30 10:36:02 2005

Jack-

I would reiterate that the best source of undertsanding how weight shift works in the swing is available by making a careful translation from golf.

Certainly there are differences becasue the hitting swing must be quickened and made capable of on the fly adjustment,but the effect of weight shift on how the body coils and uncoils and how the orientation of the swing plane is effected and how acceleration within the swing plane is effected is the same and explained only in golf as far as I know.

The golf swing is longer/more spread out and feedback related to swing plane and clubhead trajectory is more obvious.This is the place to look for what is happening much more quickly and in addition to the on the fly adjustment of hitting,in my opinion.

The swing you demonstarte on the video where the rotational component of the swing is interrupted,forcing a compensatory arm swing is very similar to the slice in golf,and the correction is basically the same.

The "natural" tendency in both cases is to try to get even more active with the arms which only makes things work.

Instead as you point out,the solution is better CHP/Connection/transfer mechanics that permit not only ongoing harnessing of the rotational momentum of the body,but also prevent coiling from getting interrupted so that more momentum is available to be transferred.In NASCAR terms,you get a more powerful engine AND no slippage of the transmission.

The correction of this slice which reduces engine power and forces disconnected arm compensation requires among other things,well timed forward and up weight shift which shapes a swing plane that slices/cuts across the target line less and accelerates the club/bat by more pull from the front side so that the hands stay ahead of the bathead longer. This gives more momentum to power the swing and less chance of deceleration before contact.

In golf this means you do not want to see any "reverse pivot"/falling back onto the back foot before contact.

In hitting,the same is true.If coil of the body is not adequate and if transfer mechanics are inefficient,then the arms need to take over to torque the bat since the pendulum effect is interrupted.The body tends to let the weight fall back to do this,the swing plane cuts/slices more across the path of the ball and the bathead gets ahead of the hands and risks deceleration before contact.To support this compensatory arm swing,the hips "spin" and the weight falls back onto the rear foot too much prior to contact.

I believe these weight shift principles apply equally well in both sports and are better understood in golf. I know of no other source that gets at this issue.