Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Tue Apr 10 08:12:36 2001

>>> jack...i made the following comments at tim olson's site and i would appreciate your comments as well........since the last bug squashing thread i have made some observations and have drawn some conclusions.....my observations started when i noticed on film that when my son was taking dry cuts his back foot was simply spinning & the back heel was hardly getting off the ground......however in his game swings he was not at all spinning on the back foot and in fact was somewhat "dragging" the "bug".......and what was the difference in his dry cuts and his game swings?....well, for some reason in his dry cuts he had a medium-width stance and was striding only about 3 inches....in his game swings he had a medium-width stance but was striding about 9 inches....my tentative conclusion was that how narrow or how wide you end up after the stride will be a facor in how much your back foot "spins" vs. how much your back foot drags ( and on film the back foot dragging a moderate amount "looks" much more correct than a back foot that is simply spinning)...............then i went back to my old video clips (most of which were downloaded from setpro).....i noticed that weightshift hitters and rotational hitters alike DO NOT SPIN ON THE BACK FOOT, THEY "DRAG THE BUG!!!......and i also noticed that at launch position their two feet are fairly wide......my conclusions (finally): (1) a hitter who ends up too narrow will spin on the back foot, which means that anti-bug squashers have a valid point, much more so than i had previously thought ...(2) it seems that almost all major leaguers (based on my non-scientific sampling) end up wide and do not squash the bug...THEY DRAG THE BUG!!!.......will yanyone agree or disagree with my conclusion that there is a connection between distance of the two feet (at launch position) and back -foot dragging vs. back -foot spinning?.......all comments, negative and positive would be greatly appreciated....respectfully, grc.... <<<
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> > Hi grc
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> > It might surprise you to know that I recommend “bug squashing,” for no-stride or soft-stride hitters. But with one major difference, the squashing is done with the lead-foot. --- After foot-plant, the batter should have the lead-heel off the ground with the knee at the plate or first base. Many of those batters using no-stride or soft-stride will use an inward tuck of the lead knee (along with an inward turn of the hips and shoulders) as a timing trigger. Hip rotation is initiated as the lead knee and foot rotates back around toward the pitcher the heel lowers. The lead knee will continue to turn and straighten until at contact the lead leg is fully extended. --- So I would have the lead toe squashing the bug.
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> > I have found that teaching this lead side mechanic causes the back-knee and leg to naturally form the proper “L” position at contact. It just seems to automatically happen. To rotate around a stationary axis (axis not fading back or forward) the batter only needs to have good weight balance (about 60 – 40) as the mechanic is initiated. The bat’s momentum during the follow-through will still cause the weight on the back-toe to become light. But normally the toe will not drag forward as much as seen in hitters with longer more aggressive strides.
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> > Jack Mankin
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> >i thank you and tom for your responses but now i have some more observations and comments.......after careful observation of players ranging from aaron to palmeiro, i have noticed that not only is there toe drag but also there is a FORWARD SHIFT OF THE BODY IN THE DIRECTION OF THE PITCHER (not much, perhaps 6inches or so )during the swing and while the hips are rotating.....whereas hitters (mostly ameteurs) who "spin" off the back foot do not have this forward body movement (anchoring the back foot into the ground restrains the forward body movement).....i point this out because one of the major tennents of your philosophy is that such a forward body movement (which is quite evident in many of my clips) is linear and therefore not compatible with rotational mechanics....i disagree that this forward body movement is incompatible with rotational mechanics............and i would like to point out that there are many ameteur coaches who teach rotating off the back foot (which is really spinning) as rotational mechanics (which it is not true rotational mechanics, it is poor mechanics)....comments please...grc....

grc-

some of the Aaron clips at setpro show more forward movement than most,however,even Hank gets his axis of rotation set from the time the bathead comes out of the arc of the handpath until contact.The long stride he used(?more so earlier in career)does tend to cause a very upright axis during the launch to contact time which translates to low trajectory.Hank was also known as a "wrist" hitter.I think this is because of the dramatic hook he used at the end of the handpath-LOTS of "bottom hand torque" with a stable axis at the contact portion of the swing.

Forward movement with the stride in the early part of the swing can work with rotational mechanics but is not necessary.If a player grows up and develops early hand-eye coordination based on getting the head forward(a Paul Nyman theory about Hank types)they may continue to need to get the head in that place to retain timing and spatial accuracy,but the axis needs to be stable later in the swing to efficiently get body energy into the bat.