Posted by: dougdinger () on Mon Jan 9 22:12:08 2006

> > I noticed recently that at contact position I'm slightly over-rotated. My hips are open more at abou 100 degrees and shoulders at about 115 degrees. I don't open up too early, I'm fairly balanced, it feels natural actually. But my head pulls off a bit. I'm wondering if a slight over-rotation will cause any problems besides head movement, and what I can do to lessen the rotation abit. I stride to a closed lead foot and rotate the front heeld backward, and my foot opens to 45 degrees as I drive the front knee. Anything wrong that I may be doing? Thanks.

Yes, I have noticed that the bathead is a tad bit further than what it should be, but not to the point where I would pull inside pitches foul.
But what I also noticed is that I don't just start rotation by pulling on the front-side and straightening the front knee, I also pull in and bend the back knee and twist my back foot around my toes to help get the back hip into the power of the hip's rotation as well. I still think I have a bit too much of a backside to my swing. Which brings me to another question. Is the rotational swing a front-side only swing? Is there any backside assistance? And Jack, do you know of any drills that I can alternate with the stationary axis drill that will prevent over-rotation? Thanks.
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> Doug, I do not know if this is your problem but sometimes over rotating can cause you to lose some power because your swing dynamics cause your wrist to rotate prematurely which decreases backspin. If this is the case, it might be a good idea to practic a release of your top hand after contact. This promotes good fundamentals in the weight transfer and hitting through the ball. In Charlie Lau Sr.'s original video he spoke of top hand downacy which is a over rotating or premature rolling of the wrists. When that is done it cancels out the top hand forces which promote a high finish.
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> In my opinion the over rotation can also cause a pulled hit that is hit foul thus a wasted swing. Ted Williams in his video "the Science of Hitting" he says that in order to combat this, the hitter should back away from the plate with his back foot and hit more out of a closed hitting position. This in turn allows the hitter to have more fair ball territory from which to hit in. This also allows the hitter extra time to time pitches.