Posted by: Dave (cdpaetkau@telus.net) on Thu Jan 19 10:29:18 2006

> I made an earlier post regarding my problem with over-rotating. I concluded that I tended to use my back-side more than front side, pushing my back hip forward and by pulling too hard with my front shoulder. Jack teaches that the hips rotate because of the front knee driving to straighten the leg, which pulls the hips around. Frankly, I'm having a hard time developing a moderate, but powerful amount of hip rotation. I either swing with the wrist and no hips, or drive the upper around too far. So Jack, I have some questions regarding the proper way to rotate the body around a stationary axis:
>
> A) Does it all result from simply straightening the front knee?
>
> B)Does the back leg play a role? Do you yourself oush the back knee and hip along with the straghtening of the front knee/pull of the front hip? Or does the back hip come around and back knee form an 'L' by itself from the pulling force of the front hip?
>
> C) A recent post made on another site regarding how the hips rotate....."The legs provide a stable base from which the hips rotate. It starts in your center....not in your legs. Your lead leg will stiffen. But, it is being stiffened by rotation......not the other way around. " Jack, can you agree with this? Does the front leg stiffen as a result of hip rotation or do the hips rotate as a result of the front leg stiffening?
>
> Thanks.

Hi

Sometimes this can be caused by over rotation of your lead shoulder backwards in your loading phase of the swing. You see this in young kids who turn their back to the pitcher and then swing and finish over rotated. I am not saying you are turning back that far but this can be a cause of over rotation after the swing.

Another casue can be that your hips are continuing to rotate after your back side drives through to the ball causing your hips to spin out instead of drive. A result of this can be seen if your back heel is pointing in the direction of the plate instead of directly up to the sky. Your back foot drag/drive should be on a straight line and not going towards the direction of the plate. If you draw a straight line from the front of your back foot towards the front of the batters box your foot should remain fairly close to this line on any foot drag and if it is going towards the plate you are continuing to rotate your hips during the drive phose of the swing and over rotating.

Hope this helps.

Dave